been copied by subsequent authors, almost without alteration. “ The glutton,”
says he, “ (Latinice gulo) is the most noted of all the animals which inhabit the
north of Sweden, for its insatiable appetite, whence it has obtained the appellation
o f jerf, in the language of that country, of wilfras, in German, and rosomalca, in
-Sclavonian.” “ It is wont, when it has found the carcase of some large beast, to
eat until its belly is distended like a drum, when it rids itself of its load by squeezing
its body betwixt two trees growing near together, and again returning to its
repast,soon requires to have recourse to the same means of relief*.” This bait
in its character, however, is treated as a fiction by the traveller Gmelin, who, in
journeying through Siberia, had an opportunity of acquiring a knowledge erf its
habits from the hunters. Buffon, on the authority of the reports of preceding
authors, describes it as a ferocious animal, which approaches man without fear, and
attacks the larger quadrupeds without hesitation ; but he states that its pace is so
slow that it can take its prey only by surprise, to accomplish which it employs an
extraordinary degree of cunning. He terms it the “ quadruped-vulture,’’ and
repeats the statement of Isbrand, that it is accustomed to ascend a tree and lie in
wait for the elks and rein-deer, dropping on their backs as they pass, and adhering
so firmly by its claws, that all their efforts to dislodge it are in vain, and they
speedily fall a prey to its voracity. It is even said to entice the rein-deer to come
beneath the tree in which it lies concealed, by throwing down the moss which that
animal is fond of, and that the arctic fox is its jackal or provider f. This
character seems to be entirely fictitious, and to have partly originated in the
name of “ glutton ” having been given occasionally to the lynxes and sloths. I
have, however, thought proper to recapitulate it here, previous to stating that it is
very dissimilar to the habits of the American Wolverene, which is by many able
naturalists considered to be the same species.
The Wolverene is first noticed by La Hontan, who says that it is very like a badger,
but is larger and fiercer. He calls it the carcajou, which is the appellation by
which it is still known to the French Canadian voyagers. Subsequent writers,
however, have occasionally, through mistake, given the same name to the
American Badger, and also to several species of felie, whence 'doubts have ’been
excited as to the animal actually meant by La Hontan. The European labourers
in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company term it Quickehatoh, which is
evidently derived from its Cree or Algonquin name of okee-coo-haw-gees, and
* OliDS Magnus, Gent. Septen, p. 138.
+ A similar account has been told of the foxes in Canada driving the moose deer to a spot where the karkajou,
described as having a long tail, is posted.—Voyage d'Amérique, vol. i. p. 272. An. 1723.
without being disposed to rely strongly on etymological inquiries, I am inclined
to refer the Carcajou, or, as it is sometimes pronounced Carcayou, of the:
Cowreurs der boisr to the: same source t (okee-coo-haw-gew). Many other
Knisteneaux or Cree terms have been adopted into the vernacular language of
the Canadian voyagers.
The Wolverene is a carnivorous animal, which feeds chiefly upon the carcases
ef beasts that have been killed by accident. It has great strength, and annoys
the natives by destroying their hoards of provision, and demolishing their marten
traps. It is so suspicious, that it will rarely enter a trap itself, but beginning
behind, pulls it to pieces, scatters the logs of which it is built, and then carries
off the bait. It feeds also on meadow mice, marmots, and other rodentia, and
occasionally on disabled quadrupeds of a larger size. I have seen one chasing
an American hare, which was at the same time harassed by a snowy owl. It
resembles the bear in its gait, and is not fleet; but it is very industrious, and
no doubt feeds well, as it is generally fat. It is much abroad in the winter, and
the track of its journey in a single night may be often traced for many miles.
From the shortness of its legs, it makes its way through loose snow with difficulty,
but when it falls upon the beaten track of a marten trapper, it will pursue it for
a long way. Mr. Graham observes that “ the Wolverenes are extremely mischievous,
and do more damage to the small-fur trade than all the other rapacious
animals conjointly. They will follow the marten hunter’s path round a line of traps
extending forty, fifty, or sixty miles, and render the whole unserviceable, merely to
come at the baits, which are generally the head of a partridge or a bit of dried
venison.. They are not fond of the martens themselves, but never fail of tearing
them in pieces or of burying them in the snow by the side of the path, at a considerable
distance from the trap. Drifts of snow often conceal the repositories
thus made of the martens from the huiiter, in which case they furnish a regale
to the hungry fox, whose- sagacious nostril guides him unerringly to the spot.
Two or three foxes are often seen following the Wolverene for this purpose
The Wolverene is said to be a great destroyer of beavers, but it must be only
in the summer, when those industrious animals are at work on land, that it can
surprise them. An attempt to break open their house in the winter, even supposing
it possible for the claws of a Wolverene to penetrate the thick mud walls
when frozen as hard as stone, would only have the effect of driving the beavers
into the water to seek for shelter in their vaults on the borders of the dam. The
* Graham’s MSS., p. 13.
G 2