rather my back--just as really fine music always does; and to tell the
truth, I enjoyed it more than many a human concert I have heard.

HUNTING THE LYNX

It was cool next morning and cloudy and threatening snow. Five rabbits
had been caught during the night, and after breakfast we turned to
setting lynx snares. The steel trap is set for the lynx much in the
same way as it is for the fox; but for the lynx, a snare is preferable.
It is set with or without a tossing-pole, at the entrance of a
brush-lodge, the base of which is about five feet wide. The bait used
is made by rubbing beaver castorum on a bit of rabbit skin placed in a
split stick set vertically in the centre of the lodge. A surer way,
however, is to also set a steel trap in front of the lodge door, so
that if the lynx does not enter, he may be caught while looking in.
The Indians often hunt them with dogs, for, when pursued, the lynx soon
takes to a tree and then is easily shot. But the most proficient
hunters like to hunt them by calling. They imitate its screech and
also its whistle, for the lynx whistles somewhat like a jack-rabbit,
though the sound is coarser and louder. Some Indians are very
successful in this mode of hunting.

Besides being able to whistle, the lynx far surpasses the domestic cat
in the range and volume of his evening song; and during the rutting
season, at sunrise and sunset, he has a peculiar habit of beating or
drumming with his forepaws on the hard snow or earth. No doubt it is a
form of challenge, used much in the same way as the drumming of
cock-grouse; martens and rabbits do the same. The lynx is a wonderful
swimmer and is dangerous to tackle in the water, for he can turn with
remarkable agility, and board a canoe in a moment. Of all northern
animals he is perhaps the most silent walker, for in the night a band
of five or six lynxes may pass close beside one's tent and never be
heard, though a single rabbit, passing at the same distance, may make
enough noise to awaken a sound sleeper. Though he often behaves like a
coward, hunters approach him with care when he is caught in a steel
trap, as he can make a great spring and when he chooses, can fight
desperately. While in summer he is a poor runner, in winter he is
greatly aided by his big feet, which act as snowshoes and help him over
the soft snow and the deep drifts. Few animals succeed in killing him,
for what with his unusual speed in water and the fact that