82 AT THE NORTH OF BEARCAMP WATER. 
creature appeared on the southern shore of the 
lake and ambled along the edge of the water. 
At first glance it looked like a black kitten, but 
a plainer view showed it to be twice the length 
of a kitten, although no larger round than a 
man’s wrist. Its progress at times was almost 
snake-like, so undulatofy was it. Its head and 
fore-quarters would be gliding down one side of 
a log before its black tail and hind feet had 
quite reached the log on the other side. The 
edge of the pond was lined with tadpoles cling¬ 
ing to logs and stones, with their heads towards 
the shore. The black creature seemed to be 
attempting to catch these fish-like batrachians, 
for every few yards he pounced at something, 
and, if successful, cantered out of sight, into 
the weeds and bushes, where he remained un¬ 
til, so I surmised, he had eaten his adolescent 
frog. Although the raft was only about a hun¬ 
dred feet from the western shore of the pond, 
the mink kept his course past me, apparently 
without a thought of anything beyond the wary 
polywogs. He went as far as the mouth of the 
muskrat hole and then turned and retraced his 
cantering until I lost sight of him on the farther 
southern shore. Several times, in his eagerness 
to catch a tadpole, he plunged wholly beneath 
the water and pursued his prey as though he 
had been a pickerel. 
