Thus: "The situation of Pigwacket is eminently beautiful, looking down the lovely valley of Mink River, a tributary of the Musquash.
Something about the girl was familiar, even in the distance, and as we came near I recognized the mink coat that I had seen many times lately.
She had evidently just come in from outdoors, for she wore an all mink coat and held a mink cap in her hand.
All the rest of that day and far into the night, Mink Woman told her parents and her people about the sky gods and the sky earth, and even then did not tell it all.
Not long after Mink Woman's return to the earth and her people, Thunder Man came to the camp.
They tried to soothe Mink Woman, but she would not be comforted; she kept crying and crying to be taken back to her father and mother.
Mink Woman, you people all, rest easy: Thunder Man will never again attempt to enter this camp.
More moons passed, and as each one came, Crow Man never failed to ask Mink Woman to marry him.
Mink Woman, looking up from where she sat, saw that it was her sky god husband.
Crow Man went to the two young women and got them to show him where they had last seen Mink Woman.
Thunder Man came home in the evening, and upon learning what had happened, his distress was as great as that of Mink Woman, whom he loved.
But soon after he left so suddenly, Crow Man returned from far wanderings and heard all the story of the god and Mink Woman.
Thunder Man was often away, and during his absence his people kept a good watch on Mink Woman, and did all they could to amuse her; to keep her interested in different things.
My daughter, Mink Woman, has disappeared,' he told the god.
Mink Woman looked closely at him, and her heart beat fast from fear.
Fisher-cat, marten and mink were numerous along the creek, but these were neither swift-hunting nor long-fanged.
The furred creatures like the mink and the ermine were safest, for during the warmer hunting days they were of the kind that cached meat.
In the days when minkwent begging at eighty cents, mink was not fashionable.
Some other fur will come into favor, and the little mink will have a chance to multiply as the ermine has multiplied.
To-day, mink is the fashion, and the little mink is pursued; but to-morrow fashion will veer with the caprices of the wind.
Mink is fashionable to-day; hence the absurd and fabulous prices.
In the winter he will snare some small game, while mink and otter and muskrat skins will provide him flour and clothes from the fur-trader.
The introduction of the fur seal, however, and the universal demand for this as well as otter fur, has somewhat thrown the mink into comparative shade, although extra fine skins will still command high prices.
Bait with a fish or bird, or fresh meat of any kind, and connect the various traps by a trail, as described for the mink and marten.
The fur of the mink is excellent in quality, and has for many years been one of the "fancy furs" of fashion, a good prime skin often bringing from ten to twelve dollars.
Otter andmink are sometimes taken in the same way.
The mink lives in burrows, in steep banks, or between rocks or the roots of trees, and the young, five or six in number, are brought forth in May.
It is also extensively used in the capture of the Mink and Muskrat, being set beneath the water, near the haunts of the animals and weighted by a large stone.
The fur somewhat resembles that of the mink in texture, although not as fine, and the color varies from dark brown above to grey beneath.
This is known in the trade as the MINK TRAP, and the jaws spread nearly five inches.
The beaten tracks of the mink may often be discovered, and a trap set in such a track and covered with leaves, dirt or the like, will often be successful.
Any mink which crosses this trail will follow it to the first trap, when he will, in all probability, be captured.
Some trappers set a number of traps along the stream at intervals of several rods, connecting them by a trail, see page 153, the minkbeing thus led directly and almost certainly to his destruction.
The fur of the mink is in its best condition in the late autumn, winter, and early spring, and the animal should be skinned as described for the fox.
The mink is an aquatic animal, inhabiting small rivers and streams, and living somewhat after the manner of the otter.
Thoughts of Brown Mink alone took his mind from his dream.
There was another piece of news of lesser importance: An Indian girl named Brown Mink was seriously ill.
Two warriors had left the lodge of Brown Mink and were crossing the pen.
If the mink met a muskrat or a rabbit in his travels, or came upon a grouse, or quail, or a farmer's henroost, he had the supper he was in quest of.
What had caused the mink to change his mind so suddenly?
The mink is very fond of muskrats, and trappers often use this flesh to bait their traps.
One day, along a little stream, I saw a mink track amid those of the muskrat; following it up, I presently came to blood and other marks of strife upon the snow beside a stone wall.
One summer day my dog Lark and I were sitting beside a small watercourse in the woods, when I saw a mink coming up the stream toward us.
I sat motionless till themink was within a few feet of us, when the dog saw him.
IX THE MINK In walking through the woods one day in early winter, we read upon the newly fallen snow the record of a mink's fright the night before.
The mink had got in the first blow or bite, and then effected his escape between my feet and the dog's, as if he had vanished in the air.
The mink had probably seen the fox stalking stealthily through the woods, and the sight had doubtless brought his heart into his mouth.
There was no hole; no depth of water; no hiding-place anywhere that I could discover or that the dog could discover, and yet the mink had disappeared.
The mink had been traveling through the woods post-haste, not along the watercourses where one sees them by day, but over ridges and across valleys.
The mink is only a larger weasel, and has much of the boldness and bloodthirstiness of that animal.
We were down here looking after some mink that use this bank," Frank continued.
A fierce old buck mink in that burrow had given him a nasty dig along his nose with his teeth or his claws.
What was it you were telling us, Frank, about the mink that live along the bank of the creek just below the cabin?
And perhaps I might get a good chance to take some of the tracks, so as to remember what sort of a print a mink makes," observed Will, tucking his camera under his arm.
Theze skins are colored and made into mink muffs, and sold for twenty-five dollars a head, tew thoze whoze early edukashun has bin neglekted.
The mink iz about fourth cuzzin tew the musk rat, and haz sum things in common with him; they both smell alike.
The mink haz 4 times the kunning that the musk rat haz, and iz bilt long and slim like a little girl's stocking.
I hav trapt a good deal for mink and hav kaught them mity little, for they are almost az hard tew ketch in a trap and keep thare as a ray ov light iz.
The twin pads of the mink were clearly defined upon the snow-covered ice which bordered the tumbling creek, and at times the tracks diverged in exploration of the recesses of some brush heap.
Little difference made it to the mink whether his prey were bird or woodmouse.
Surely," thought the child, "I could not have loved my own parents more than I do White Mink and Three Bears.
It did not save me from being captured, but it may yet bring good fortune, even as White Mink hoped.
Her mind was too busy with the story White Mink had told her that morning.
The Stone left the lodge and Timid Hare was left to change herself so that even White Minkwould not know her.
There will be time enough," White Mink had thought, "when the little fingers have grown bigger and the tender back is stronger.
With this beginning Timid Hare repeated the story as White Mink had told it to her.
Can it be," she would think, "that the story White Mink told me before I was taken from her, is true?
In spite of being alone on the snow-covered prairie, with two strangers, her first thought was of the little talisman White Mink had given into her keeping.
It was of White Mink--dear, kind White Mink who was perhaps at this very moment weeping over the loss of her little Swift Fawn.
West of this about ten miles, where we had killed some deer earlier, we made a A-shaped cabin and made dead falls many miles around to catch fishes, foxes, mink and raccoons.
Mink were scarce, and the beaver, living in the river bank, could not be got at till the ice went out in the spring.
Of late they had been somewhat troubled by a mink that had wandered up-stream to their quiet nook.
They peered down into the terrible darkness below, where the glint of two close-set eyes and a peculiar musty smell told them that a mink was the killer of their fool brother.
The hollow hickory was gone--in fact at this very moment its trunk, lying in the wood-yard, was harboring the mink they feared.
For the same reasons, the name of the minkis written by some European zoologists Lutreola vison and by American zoologists Mustela vison.
As for the soldier, Major Monkey, he climbed a tree and hung by his tail from a limb, where he swung backwards and forwards and made faces at Tommy Fox and Peter Mink until their rage was terrible to see.
And people began to feel rather foolish when they realized how near they had been to letting those two rascals--Peter Mink and Tommy Fox--deceive them.
And as soon as he heard it, Major Monkey threw his stick with great force and caught Peter Mink neatly in the back of his head.
VI Too Many Disputes On the whole, Mr. Crow's party would have been a great success if it hadn't been for Peter Mink and Tommy Fox.
Some of the generals objected, and said that they thought that Peter Mink ought to be looked after.
Major Monkey took a bite out of his apple while he looked closely at Peter Mink and Tommy Fox.
And before the army had stopped gasping, he marched it forward again, leaving Peter Mink stretched upon the ground.
He had started Peter Mink and Tommy Fox to quarreling.
He couldn't bear the thought of leaving even a rascal like Peter Mink wounded and alone.
Perhaps if somebody less tricky than Peter Mink and Tommy Fox had started these odd tales, the rest of the wild folk might have been quicker to believe them.
XI War in the Woods Although Major Monkey had ordered him out of the army, Peter Mink declared that he wasn't going till he was ready to leave.
With deadly aim he flung the apple at Peter Mink and Tommy Fox.
The mink is not so perfectly aquatic as the otter, but it also travels on land quite fast and far.
The mink is generally nocturnal, but I have often found it out on dark days.
In this county the mink has been so closely trapped that it is almost, if not quite, exterminated in some townships where it was formerly common.
Foxes, wolves, and even the mink and ermine died of these baits, but Baree came always so near--and no nearer.
It was not more than a third of a catch; the lynx was half-ruined, a mink was torn completely in two.
The mink crept along a prostrate log as though stiff in every joint, but when at the end of his short journey I whistled shrilly, with what animation it stood erect and stared in the direction of the sound!
Half concealed as I was, the mink saw nothing to rouse its suspicions; it was merely curious or puzzled; it was thinking.
You see, I knew all about the ways of mink and foxes, and also how they often gnaw a foot off in order to get free.
She wanted to buy a brown mink collar, just like one worn by a figure in green in the window.
Then, with careful fingers, she parted the crisp inner wrappings and unearthed a wilting, half-blown rose from its nest in the brown mink fur.
It was--it was indeed the girl with the white ostrich plume and the bouquet of violets in her brownmink fur.
At the same instant, she caught the scent of fresh-cut flowers and looked up into the eyes of a tall young girl in a white-plumed velvet hat, with a bunch of English violets in her brown mink fur.
