trapper finds that the wolverine has
been making as regular rounds of the traps as he has himself. It is then
a question whether the man or the wolverine is to hold the
hunting-ground. A case is on record at Moose Factory, on James Bay, of
an Indian hunter and his wife who were literally brought to the verge of
starvation by a wolverine that nightly destroyed their traps. The
contest ended by the starving Indians travelling a hundred miles from
the haunts of that "bad devil--oh--he--bad devil--carcajou!" Remembering
the curiosity and gluttony of his enemy, the man sets out his strongest
steel-traps. He takes some strong-smelling meat, bacon or fish, and
places it where the wolverine tracks run. Around this he sets a circle
of his traps, tying them securely to poles and saplings and stakes. In
all likelihood he has waited his chance for a snowfall which will cover
traces of the man-smell.

Night passes. In the morning the man comes to his traps. The meat has
been taken. All else is as before. Not a track marks the snow; but in
midwinter meat does not walk off by itself. The man warily feels for the
hidden traps. Then he notices that one of the stakes has been pulled up
and carried off. That is a sign. He prods the ground expectantly. It is
as he thought. One trap is gone. It had caught the wolverine; but the
cunning beast had pulled with all his strength, snapped the attached
sapling, and escaped. A fox or beaver would have gnawed the imprisoned
limb off. The wolverine picks the trap up in his teeth and hobbles as
hard as three legs will carry him to the hiding of a bush, or better
still, to the frozen surface of a river, hidden by high banks, with
glare ice which will not reveal a trail. But on the river the man finds
only a trap wrenched out of all semblance to its proper shape, with the
spring opened to release the imprisoned leg.

The wolverine had been caught, and had gone to the river to study out
the problem of unclinching the spring.

One more device remains to the man. It is a gun trick. The loaded weapon
is hidden full-cock under leaves or brush. Directly opposite the barrel
is the bait, attached by a concealed string to the trigger. The first
pull will blow the thief's head off.

The trap experience would have frightened any other animals a week's run
from man's tracks; but the wolverine grows bolder, and the trapper knows
he will find his snares robbed until carcajou has been killed.

Perhaps he has tri