rnished, from
their being likely to produce disagreeable wounds. He forgets, perhaps,
that the rubbish he has scraped out will betray his abode to the
hunter--which it assuredly does. The Indian, on discovering this
indubitable sign of Mooin's abode, takes steps to arouse him and plant a
bullet in his head, or to batter out his brains with his axe. Mooin,
however, in spite of his usual sagacity, ignorant that his abode may be
discovered, perhaps already overcome with a strange desire to sleep,
crawls in for his winter's snooze. He is frequently accompanied by a
partner, who will add to his warmth and comfort. He there lies down
with his fore-paws curled round his head and nose, which he pokes
underneath his chest. Here he remains asleep till the warm sun of March
or April tempts him to crawl out in search of food to replenish his
empty stomach and strengthen his weakened frame. Madam Mooin is
generally, at this time, employed in the pleasing office of increasing
her family. Her young cubs, when born, are curiously small, helpless
little beings, not larger than rats. Generally there are two of them,
and they are born about the middle of February. She manages to nourish
them without taking any food herself till March or April, when she also,
like her better half, sallies forth in search of provender. The young
creatures grow but slowly, and do not attain their full size till they
are about four years old. Even when about a couple of months old, the
little cubs are not much larger than a retriever puppy of the same age.

The musquaw finds great difficulty at first in satisfying the cravings
of his appetite. He searches for the cranberries in the open bogs, and
is driven even to eat the rank marshy grass. As the snow disappears, he
seeks for wood-lice and other creatures in rotten trunks. Hungry as he
is, he labours very patiently for his food. The prehensile form of his
lips enables him to pick up with wonderful dexterity even the smallest
insect or berry. As the ice breaks up in the lakes, he proceeds thither
to fish for smelts and other small fish, which he catches with wonderful
dexterity with his paws, throwing them out rapidly behind him. When,
however, pressed by hunger, and unable to obtain the smaller creatures
for food, he will attack young deer if he can take them by surprise; but
as he can seldom do this, he is often tempted into the neighbourhood of
settlements. Here he lies in wait for the ca