taken except the silver
fox, white and soft as swan's-down, with a tail-tip like black onyx.
This difference in the fur of the animal explains the wide variety of
prices paid. Ermine not worth twenty-five cents in Wisconsin might be
worth ten times as much on the Saskatchewan.

[Illustration:

Fur press in use
at Fort Good
Hope, at the
extreme north
of Hudson's
Bay Company's
territory.

Old wedge press
in use at Fort
Resolution, of
the sub-Arctics.

Types of Fur Presses.]

So it is with the otter. All trapped between latitude thirty-five and
sixty is good fur; and the best is that taken toward the end of winter
when scarcely a russet hair should be found in the long over-fur of
nekik's coat.

III

_Wuchak the Fisher, or Pekan_

Wherever the waste of fish or deer is thrown, there will be found lines
of double tracks not so large as the wild-cat's, not so small as the
otter's, and without the same webbing as the mink's. This is wuchak the
fisher, or pekan, commonly called "the black cat"--who, in spite of his
fishy name, hates water as cats hate it. And the tracks are double
because pekan travel in pairs. He is found along the banks of streams
because he preys on fish and fisher, on mink and otter and musk-rat, on
frogs and birds and creatures that come to drink. He is, after all, a
very greedy fellow, not at all particular about his diet, and, like all
gluttons, easily snared. While mink and otter are about, the trapper
will waste no steel-traps on pekan. A deadfall will act just as
effectively; but there is one point requiring care. Pekan has a sharp
nose. It is his nose that brings him to all carrion just as surely as
hawks come to pick dead bones. But that same nose will tell him of man's
presence. So when the trapper has built his pen of logs so that the
front log or deadfall will crush down on the back of an intruder tugging
at the bait inside, he overlays all with leaves and brush to quiet the
pekan's suspicions. Besides, the pekan has many tricks akin to the
wolverine. He is an inveterate thief. There is a well-known instance of
Hudson's Bay trappers having a line of one hundred and fifty marten
traps stretching for fifty miles robbed of their bait by pekan. The men
shortened the line to thirty miles and for six times in succession did
pekan destroy the traps. Then the men set themselves to trap the robber.
He will rifle a deadfall from the slanting back roof where there