NOTES OF A FUR HUNTER. 655 
dark color and gray. In 1865, Red Fox skins were worth 
$4.50 to $5.00.. Last winter I paid $2.50 for them. I 
think they will be lower this year. 
Fisuer, or Fisner-cat (Mustela Pennantii Erxl.). 
The Fisher is much like the sable, but larger, weighing 
six times as much, say from eight to ten pounds, some 
more than this. They live on rabbits, partridges, squir- 
rels, and berries, especially berries of the mountain- 
ash; they are also very fond of porcupines, the skins 
often having quills stuck in them, which, however, do not 
enter far into them. They also eat beechnuts. The Fisher 
runs with a “lope” and a jump; I never saw one trot. 
He leaves but two tracks, one a little farther forward than 
the other, thus, *. °., as do also the mink and sable. 
Sometimes they leave more, but the habit is to leave two. 
The color is dark-brown or gray. He nests in hollow 
pine stumps and ledges, I think. They are not very plenty 
about here. I caught seven last fall, and one this fall. 
The trap was set with bear’s meat. I also caught a fox 
in the trap. 
SABLE (Mustela Americana Turton). The Sable is of 
about the size of the mink, a little larger, and with longer 
legs. Its color is red or yellowish. It lives on mice, 
squirrels, partridges, rabbits, beechnuts, and mountain- 
ash berries. It don’t like porcupine meat as well as the 
fisher. It will eat fresh fish, but I don’t think it catches 
fish. I catch them in a “dead-fall” trap, sometimes in a 
steel-trap. I catch them in the mountains north of here. 
They nest in hollow trees. I never saw a sable swim; I 
once thought I saw one swimming, but when I caught the 
animal, I found it to be a mink, with the sable’s color. 
They are never very plenty about here. Price of skins 
last winter, $2.25 to $2.50; year before last, $3.50 to 
. . 
