THE WINTER OF THE FISHER

The fisher (a relative of the marten), a businesslike trapper-hunter, and an old Indian create a triangle of interdependent tension in this very good Northern woodlands nature story. The Indian, weary of civilization's wars (in one of which he lost his son) has withdrawn to the woods and with a gentle respect for untainted life, quietly lives out his days. It is natural to him to rescue the fisher, seriously wounded in a forest fire. And it is natural to the animal eventually to accept food, shelter and the instinct that tells him the Indian will not harm him. But to the trapper, the trap-robbing fisher is a highly desirable prey. The Indian's final rescue of the fisher is a violent confrontation -- actually an incursion upon the trapper's rights -- but patience and friendliness win over the trapper, more difficult perhaps than the fisher. At the close men and animal, with a distinct and dignified knowledge of each other's boundaries, settle for primal peace. Quietly understated, informational and without a tiresome repetition of animal movements and bloody kills.