t it was
following on the same path which the other had taken. To his
astonishment he perceived that it was _trailing the mouse_! Whatever the
latter had doubled or made a _detour_, the ermine followed the track;
and where the mouse had given one of its long leaps, there the ermine
would stop, and, after beating about until it struck the trail again,
would resume its onward course at a gallop. Its manoeuvres were exactly
like those of a hound upon the fresh trail of a fox!

Lucien now looked abroad to discover the mouse. It was still in sight
far off upon the snow, and, as Lucien could see, busily gnawing at the
arbutus, quite unconscious that its _greatest_ enemy was so near. I say
greatest enemy, for the _Mus leucopus_ is the _natural_ prey of the
_Mustela erminea_.

The mouse was soon made aware of the dangerous proximity, but not until
the ermine had got within a few feet of it. When it perceived the latter
it shrunk, at first, among the leaves of the arbutus; but seeing there
would be no protection there--as the other was still springing forward
to seize it--it leaped up, and endeavoured to escape by flight. Its
flight appeared to be in alternate jumps and runs, but the chase was not
a long one. The ermine was as active as a cat, and, after a few skips,
its claws were struck into the mouse. There was a short, slender squeak,
and then a "crunch," like the cracking of a hazel-nut. This last sound
was produced by the teeth of the ermine breaking through the skull of
its victim.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THE ARCTIC FOX AND WHITE WOLF.

Lucien turned round to get hold of his rifle, intending to punish the
ermine, although the little creature, in doing what it did, had only
obeyed a law of nature. But the boy had also another design in killing
it: he wished to compare it with some ermines he had seen while
travelling upon Lake Winnipeg, which, as he thought, were much
larger--one that he had caught having measured more than a foot in
length, without including the tail. He wished, also, to make some
comparison between it and the common weasel; for in its _winter dress_,
in the snowy regions, the latter very much resembles the ermine; and,
indeed, the trappers make no distinction between them.

With these ideas Lucien had grasped his gun, and was raising himself to
creep a little nearer, when his eye was arrested by the motions of
another creature coming along the top of the wreath. This last was a
snow-white animal