SWIMMERS 



have made the closest possible study of the 

 habits of minks. Since then, however, I have 

 kept my eyes open for any hint that might have 

 the slightest bearing on the subject, and to my 

 surprise have found many things that would 

 seem to point to the correctness of the old 

 hunter's theory. To begin with, he said that 

 late in the winter he had repeatedly known 

 female minks to make their appearance from 

 beneath snow that had lain undisturbed for days 

 or even weeks, the tracks apparently beginning 

 where he first observed them, the difference in 

 size between the two sexes being sufficient to 

 make it easy to distinguish between their tracks 

 at a glance; and, moreover, since he first began 

 trapping he had noticed that while the sexes were 

 about equally abundant in the autumn, the 

 females always became very scarce at the ap- 

 proach of winter, and remained so until spring, 

 when they suddenly increased in numbers, and 

 became much the more abundant of the two. 



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