Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-02
THE DEVIL OF THE WOODS.
Regarded by Indians With Awe and
Dreaded by Hunters.

From the New York Sun.
The devil of the woods" or uua-aua-sut
is the highly appropriate name most fire.
quently applied by Canadian Indians to the
wolverine OF northern Canada and the Lab
rador peninsula. By both French and En-
glish-speaking Canadians this gulo vulgar
is of Cuvier, closely allied to the glutton of
Europe. is most frequently spoken of as the
carcaJtu. This name is also of Indian
origin, and of more remote date than qua
qua-sut, which latter has only been ap-
piled to the carcajou by the Montagnais
and Nascapees of Labrador, since they
have acquired from Christian missionaries
the idea of a personal devil. No other beast
that brcathes Is endowed with such devil
1sh ingenuity as the carcajou or enjoys
such well-merited notoriety for it's love of
mischievOus destruction and for systemat-
ically endeavoring to thwart the will of
others for the purpose of satisfying its
own. II Is the particular bette noir Of the
Canadian hunter. The damage which it
causes to a trapping road is very great.
Indeed If the animal cannot be caught or
killed, and this is always a most difficult
matter, the hunter may well abandon
his territory altogether, since otherwise the
carcajou will not only break the traps and
eat the bait or the animals caught in Them
but also, out of sheer malice, will carry
away the stakes and hide them. An old
stager Is a regular bugbear to the Indians.
Even when caught in a steel trap, the
wolverine has been known to release him
self by screwing off with his teeth the nuts
that conf1ne the spring. One Indian tells
that he once set a gun for a wolverine but
the beast first cut the cord attached to the
trigger, then broke the stock and ate the
bait
The Count de St. Ruyjalon, who has spent
many years in hunting on the Labrador
coast, describes the manner in which the
wolverine discovers and robs the hunters
traps under the snow, and his story at
tributes to the devil of the woods the pos
session of something much akin to mathe-
NAUTICAL science. The keen scent of the
beast having led him to the locality of the
baited trap, he is careful not to descend
through the snow Immediately upon it, but
aims to drop upon the chain that connects
the trap with the stake in the ground.
This he does by describing circle around
the trap and digging down along its entire
course. If he fails at first to find the chain
and is -hus apparently convinced that he
has misoalculated its length, he will shrewd-
ly describe other and cOncentric circles,
trap to him and robs 1t of its bait or other
contents Not satisfied with this measure
of mischief, he carries the trap away with
him and hides it in the deep snow. In
order that 1t may be more difficult for the
hunter to trace up and recover his prop
erty, he carries 1t as far possible through
the woods. then climbs large tree with it,
runs out along branch as far as he safe
ly may. and drops the trap into a bank of
snow. The Indians well say that while
there Is not an inhabitant of the Canadian
woods that is not victimized by him in
some shape or form, his favorite victim is
the hunter. He not only robs and breaks
his traps and drives him from his hunting
grounds. but he will break into and rob
his camp or cache. smash his guns. carry
off and hide his clothing or bedding and
destroy in the most offensive manner pos
sible. by covering with secretion, whatever