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FAUNA BOREALI-AMERICANA ;
OR THE
Ze OL O G Y.
oF THE
NORTHERN PARTS
OF
BRITISH AMERICA:
CONTAINING DESCRIPTIONS OF THE OBJECTS OF NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTED ON THE LATE NORTHERN LAND EXPEDITIONS, UNDER COMMAND OF CAPTAIN SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, R.N.
BY
CL JOHN RICHARDSON, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S.
MEMBER OF THE WERNERIAN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, AND FOREIGN MEMBER OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF PARIS,
more
SURGEON AND NATURALIST TO THE EXPEDITIONS,
AS SLSTED BY
t WILLIAM §WAINSON, Esq., F.R.S., F.LS., &.
AND
Tue Reverenp WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c.
>
es
ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS PLATES.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COLONIAL AFFAIRS.
LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
MDCCCXXIX, Pa
I
LONDON
PRINTED BY
WILLAM CLOWES, _STAMFORD-STREET.
Fe 2
FAUNA
BOREALI-AMERICANA.
PART FIRST,
CONTAINING
THE QUADRUPEDS.
BY
JOHN RICHARDSON,
M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., &e.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LORD VISCOUNT GODERICH,
THE FOLLOWING WORK,
UNDERTAKEN UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF HIS LORDSHIP, 1S, BY PERMISSION, INSCRIBED WITH THE UTMOST RESPECT,
BY
HIS MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT,
JOHN RICHARDSON.
INTRODUCTION. .
Tue objects of Natural History collected by the last Overland Expedition to the Polar Sea, under the command of Captain Sir John Franklin, to which I was attached as Surgeon and Naturalist, being too numerous for a detailed account of them to be comprised within the ordinary limits of an Appendix to the narrative of the proceedings of the journey, I was desirous of making them known to the world in a separate work. As it was necessary, however, in order to render such a publication useful, that many of the subjects, particularly in the Ornithological and Botanical parts, should be illus- trated by figures, the expense would have been an insurmountable difficulty, had not His Majesty’s Government, actuated by a most laudable desire of encouraging science, lent a liberal aid to the under- taking. On an application, which had the approval of the Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs, the Treasury granted one thousand pounds, to be applied solely towards defraying the expense of the engravings. A moiety of that sum has been allotted to the illustration of the Quadrupeds and Birds, and the remainder to the Fishes, Insects, and Plants; and care has been taken, by employing only the first artists, to render the plates worthy of the high patronage the work has received; while their number will demonstrate the rigid economy with which the funds for their execution have been distributed *.
* There are twenty-eight plates in this part ; and fifty admirable coloured ones, of birds, have also been executed. The botanical plates will likewise be numerous, and many of them are already finished.
b
4 INTRODUCTION.
Having neither leisure nor ability to do justice to the different departments of such a work, without assistance, I have gladly availed myself of the aid of several kind friends and able naturalists,—the First Part, relating to the Quaprupeps, being the only one for which I am solely accountable. William Swainson, Esq., the able illustrator of the Ornithology of the Brasils, undertook to arrange and make drawings of the Birps, elucidate the Synonyms, furnish Remarks on the natural groups, and, in fact, to charge himself with the principal part of the Ornithology. The Reverend Mr. Kirby agreed to arrange and describe the Insects; and Dr. Hooker, Professor of Botany at Glasgow, relieved me entirely from the charge of describing the Puiants. The number of specimens of these requiring that Dr. Hooker’s part should extend to about two volumes of letter-press, ‘it has been judged better to publish the Zoology and Botany in separate works,—the latter edited solely by Dr. Hooker, and as similar to the former in paper and type as possible*. The following introductory remarks are, therefore, drawn up principally with a view to the Zoological specimens.
First, with regard to the geographical limits of the country, whose ferine inhabitants are to be described.
The Expedition landed at New York, proceeded up the Hudson to Albany; from thence westward by the ridge-road to Niagara; then, after a short visit to the stupendous falls on that river, it crossed Lake Ontario to York, the capital of Upper Canada; and, passing by Lake Simcoe and the river Nattawasaga, it arrived at Penetanguishene, on the north-east arm of Lake Huron, in the beginning of April. Up to this place, owing to the early period of the year, and the mode of * travelling, which was, for the greater part of our route, in carriages at a rapid rate, our collections were small, consisting, in Zoology, only of a few insects and serpents, and in Botany, principally of lichens
_ * Dr. Hooker is far advanced with his work, which will come out in parts; and Mr, Drummond has already, under his inspection, published two volumes of dried American mosses, containing two hundred and eighty-six species, collected by the Expedition.
INTRODUCTION. XE
and mosses. With these slight exceptions, the specimens brought to England were entirely collected to the north of the Great Canada Lakes, beyond the settled parts of Upper Canada, and, in fact, in a widely extended territory, wherein the scattered trading posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company furnish the only vestiges of civilisation. The following work may, therefore, be termed a Fauna; or, more properly, Contributions to a Fauna of the British American Fur Countries ; or it may be considered, in a general view, as comprising what is known of the Zoology of that part of America, which lies to the north of the 49th parallel of latitude, and which, to the east. of the Rocky Moun- tains, at least, is exclusively British. I have, however; included in it descriptions of a few specimens obtained a degree or two to the south- ward of that latitude on Lake Huron and on the River Columbia, in both of which quarters there are several fur-posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company. After having travelled through the Fur Countries lying to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains, for seven summers, and passed five winters at widely distant posts, it will scarcely be thought that I arrogate too much in saying, that almost all the quadrupeds that are objects of chase or interest to the natives, and a very great proportion of the birds, either came within the scope of my own observation, or were mentioned in the many conversations I had with the white residents and native hunters, on the natural pro- ductions of the country. But, although my opportunities of ascer- taining the number of species actually inhabiting the northern parts of America were so great, I must confess, that a journey like ours, in which natural history was only a subordinate object, and at many periods of which the shortest delay beyond that absolutely necessary for refreshment and repose, was inadmissible, did not afford much opportunity for studying the manners and habits of the animals with the attention I could have wished to have devoted to that subject. The present work, therefore, though fuller than any preceding one, is to be considered only in the light of a sketch, in which many omis- sions remain to be supplied and inaccuracies to be corrected by future
observers. ‘To render the list as complete as possible, I have included pti
xii INTRODUCTION.
those animals mentioned by preceding writers, which did not come under the notice of the Expedition ; ; always carefully eee the source of my quotations.
Sir John Franklin’s narratives of his two journeys contain’ full information respecting the districts through which the Expedition travelled ; but, to save reference, and to enable the reader of this work the more readily to discover the particular habitats, and to trace the geographical distribution of the species described in it, I have thought it proper to give a summary account of our route, followed om some compendious epee notices. |
The First of the two Nortuern Lanp Expepitions disembarked in the month of August, 1819, at York Factory, in Hudson’s Bay, which is 90° of longitude east of the meridian of Greenwich. F rom thence, travelling between the 57th and 53d parallels of latitude, by Hayes’ River, Lake Winipeg, and the Saskatchewan, it proceeded to Cumberland-house, situated beyond the 102d meridian, where’ it arrived towards the end of October. Early in January, 1820, the Commanding Officer, accompanied by Mr. (now Captain) Back, set out, to travel on snow-shoes up the Saskatchewan, nearly west-south-west to Carlton-house, in the 106th degree of longitude; and from thence, on a northerly and somewhat westerly course, by Green Lake, the Beaver River, Isle & la Crosse, and Buffalo lakes, across the Methy portage, and Hee, the Elk River, to Fort Chepewyan, on the Atha- pescow or Athabascow Lake, or Lake of the Hills, as it is named by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. The other two officers of the Expedition (Lieutenant Hood and myself) stayed, during the remainder of the winter, at Cumberland-house; and after I had paid a visit in May to the plains of Carlton, and collected all the specimens of plants and animals I could procure at that season, set out in the month of June, to travel in canoe to Fort Chepewyan by the route of Beaver Lake, Missinippi or English River, Black-bear Island Lake, Isle’a la Crosse, Buffalo Lake and Elk River. Having rejoined our companions, ‘the whole party left Fort Chepewyan on the 18th of July, 18203 and,
INTRODUCTION. Xilk
descending the Slave River, crossed Great Slave Lake, and ascended the Yellow-knife River, to the banks of Winter Lake, situated in latitude 643°, and in the 113th degree of longitude, which it reached on the 19th day of August. A winter of nine months’ duration was spent at this place in a log building, which was named Fort Enter- prise; and in the beginning of June, 1821, while the snow was still lying on the ground, and the ice covering the river, the Expedition resumed its march. After the baggage and canoes had been dragged over ice and snow for one hundred and twenty miles to the north end of Point Lake, we embarked on the Coppermine River on the Ist of July, and on the 2Ist of the same month reached the Arctic Sea, when, turning to the eastward, we performed a coasting voyage of six hundred and twenty-six statute miles, to Point Turnagain, which is, owing to the deep indentations of the coast, only six degrees and a half of longitude to the eastward of the mouth of the Coppermine River. The rapid approach of winter now rendered it necessary to abandon the further pursuit of the enterprise; and on the 22d of August we retraced our course as far as Hood’s River, which we ascended for a short way, and then set out to travel overland to Point Lake, on our way back to Fort Enterprise. Winter, clothed with all the terrors of an arctic climate, overtook the party early in September: it suffered dreadfully from famine, no supplies were obtained at Fort Enterprise, the majority of the party perished, and the survivors were on the verge of the grave, when the Indians brought supplies of provision, and conducted them to Fort. Providence, the nearest of the Hudson Bay Company’s posts. The want of the means of carriage,.even at the most flattering periods of this disastrous journey, prevented us from attempting to preserve any bulky objects of natural history ; but all the plants gathered previous to our reaching the mouth of the Coppermine River were saved, having been given in charge to five of the party who were sent back from: thence. Those collected on the sea-coast, after having been carried for many days through the snow, were at length, on our strength being completely exhausted, reluctantly abandoned. ‘The
xiv’ LNTRODUCTION.:
winter of 1821-22 was passed at Fort Resolution, on the south side of Great Slave Lake ; and the summer of 1822 was consumed in returning by. the route we had before travelled to York Factory, where we embarked for England in the month of September. The most interesting of the quadrupeds and birds collected on this Expe- dition were described by Joseph Sabine, Esq., in the Appendix to Sir John Franklin’s narrative, and I pubhsheth a list of the plants in the same work.
. The Second or Last Norruern Lanp Exprpirion commenced, as far as regards the objects of natural history described in this work, at Pene- tanguishene, on St. George’s day, the 23d of April, 1825, and having performed a coasting voyage along the northern sides of Lakes Huron and Superior, arrived at Fort William, a post of the Hudson’s Bay Company, situated in Thunder Bay of the last-mentioned lake. From thence it ascended the Kamenistiguia to Dog Lake, and crossing a height of land of no great elevation at the source of the Dog River, and only between twenty and thirty miles from the shores of Lake Superior, it descended by a series of rocky rivers, interrupted by numerous cascades and portages, to Rainy Lake, the Lake of the Woods, and Lake Winipeg. On entering the Saskatchewan River, which falls into the last-mentioned lake, on its east side, the Second Expedition came upon the route of the first one already described, which it kept till its arrival at Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake. At Cumberland-house, Mr. Drummond, the Assistant Naturalist, was detached up the Saskatchewan to examine the plains of Carlton, and the eastern declivity of the Rocky Mountains, near the sources of the Peace River. ‘His labours will be more particularly mentioned. hereafter : at present I proceed to trace the progress of the Expedition, which, on its arrival at Fort Resolution, instead of directing its course across Great Slave Lake, as on the first journey, turned to the west- ward, along the south shore of the lake, and entered the Mackenzie, by far the largest of all the American rivers which fall into the Polar Sea, and which originating in the same elevated part of the Rocky.
INTRODUCTION. KV
Mountain chain with the Columbia, the Missouri, and the Saskatche- wan, or Nelson Rivers, flows under the names of Elk, Slave, or Mackenzie River, on a north-north-west general course, through fifteen degrees of latitude, until it discharges itself into the sea by a mouth extending from the 133d to the 137th degree of longitude. When the Expedition reached the 65th degree of latitude in its descent of the Mackenzie, it turned to the eastward for seventy miles up a river to Great Bear Lake, where a winter residence was erected, on which the appellation of Fort Franklin was bestowed. Excursions were made down the Mackenzie and along Bear Lake while the navigation continued open, but the whole party were assembled at their winter-quarters on the 5th of September. The extent of country examined this first season may be judged of by the length of the route of the Expedition, from its leaving Penetanguishene in the month of April till its assembling at Great Bear Lake in September, which, including Mr. Drummond's journey to the Rocky Mountains, Sir John Franklin’s voyage down the Mackenzie to the sea, and a voyage round Great Bear Lake by myself, exceeded six thousand miles. Towards the end of the month of June 1826, the Expedition left its winter-quarters, and proceeded down the Mackenzie to the sea ; and the Commanding Officer, turning to the westward, sailed along the coast until he attained the 705° of latitude, and nearly the 150th degree of longitude, when the lateness of the season prohibiting a further advance, he retraced his way to Great Bear Lake. In the mean time, a detachment under my charge had sailed from the mouth of the Mackenzie eastward, round Cape Bathurst, in latitude 71° 36 north, to the mouth of the Coppermine River, whence it travelled on foot to the north-east end of Great Bear Lake, and from thence, in a canoe, to Fort Franklin. The extent of sea-coast examined by the two branches of the Expedition exceeded twelve hundred miles, and the whole distance travelled by them from the time of their departure from Fort Franklin till their return to it again, was upwards of four thousand miles. <A collection of plants formed by Captain Back, who accompanied Sir John Franklin, is peculiarly
€
XV1 INTRODUCTION.
interesting, as having~ been made principally on a coast skirting the « northern termination of the Rocky Mountains. The Expedition returned to England the following summer; one division of it by way of Canada and New York, and the other by Hudson’s Bay. I passed the early part of the winter at Great Slave Lake, where I obtained specimens of all the fur-bearing animals of that quarter, and afterwards travelled on the snow to Carlton-house on the Saskatche- wan, where, with the assistance of Mr. Drummond, who joined me there, specimens of the greatest part of the birds frequenting that district were procured in the spring. I met Sir John Franklin at Cumberland-house in June, 1827, and accompanied him to Canada by the same route by which we came out, except that we went by the east side of Lake Winipeg, thus completing the circuit of that lake, and that instead of crossing Lake Ontario, on our way to New York, we gained the Uttawas from Lake Huron, by the route of the French River, and descended it to Montreal, whence we travelled to New York by way of Lake Champlain.
Having thus given in detail the routes of the other branches of the Expedition, it remains that I should mention the one pursued by Mr. Drummond, the Assistant Naturalist, to whose unrivalled skill in collecting, and indefatigable zeal, we are indebted for most of the insects, the greater part of the specimens of plants, and a considerable number of the quadrupeds and birds. This gentleman remained at Cumberiand-house in the year 1825, after the rest of the party had gone to the north, collecting plants during the month of July, and then ascended the Saskatchewan for six hundred and sixty miles, to Edmonton-house, performing much of the journey on foot, and amassing objects of natural history by the way. Leaving Edmonton- house on the 22d of September, he crossed a swampy and. thickly wooded country to Red Deer River, one of the branches of the Elk or Athapescow River, and along whose banks he travelled until he reached the Rocky Mountains, the ground being then covered with snow. Having explored the portage-road across the mountains to the Columbia River, for fifty miles, he hired an Indian hunter, with whom
INTRODUCTION, Xvi
he returned to the head of the Elk River, on which he passed the winter making collections, under privations which would have effectually quenched the zeal of a less hardy naturalist. In the month of April, 1826, he revisited the Columbia portage-road, and remained in that neighbourhood until the 10th of August, when he made a journey to the head waters of the Peace River, during which he suffered severely from famine. Nothing daunted, however, he hastened back as soon as he obtained a supply of provisions, to the Columbia portage, with the view of crossing to that river, and botanizing for a season on its banks, He had reached the west end of the portage, when he'was overtaken by letters from Sir John Franklin, acquainting him that it was necessary to be at York Factory in 1827. ‘This rendered it necessary for him speedily to commence his return, which he did with great regret, for the view of the Columbia, whose banks are rich in natural productions, had stimulated his desire to explore them, and he remarks,—*« The snow covered the ground too deeply to permit me to add much to my collections in this hasty trip over the mountains ; but it was impossible to avoid noticing the great superiority of the climate on the western side of that lofty range. From the instant the descent towards the Pacific commences, there is a visible improvement in the growth of timber, and the variety of forest trees greatly increases. The few mosses that I gleaned in the excursion were so fine, that I could not but deeply regret that I was unable to pass a season or two in that interesting region.” He now bade adieu to the mountains and returned to Edmonton-house, where he stayed some time, and then joined me at Carlton-house, as has been already mentioned. His collections on the mountains and plains of the Saskatchewan amounted to about “ fifteen hundred species of plants, one hundred and. fifty birds, fifty quadrupeds, and a considerable number of insects.” He remained for six weeks at Carlton-house after I left that place, and then. descended. to Cumberland-house, where he met Captain Back, whom he accompanied to York Factory; but he had previously the pleasure of seemg Mr. David Douglas, who, after collecting specimens c
XVill INTRODUCTION.
of plants for the Horticultural Society, for three years, on the banks of the Columbia and in North California, crossed the Rocky Mountains: at the head of the Elk River, by the same portage-road that Mr,, Drummond had previously travelled, and having spent a short time in visiting the Red River of Lake Winipeg, returned to England with that gentleman by way of Hudson’s Bay. Thus, a zone of at least two degrees of latitude in width, and reaching entirely across the con- tinent, from the mouth of the Columbia to that of the Nelson River of Hudson’s Bay, has been explored by two of the ablest and most; zealous collectors that England has ever sent forth; while a zone of similar width, extending at right angles with the other from Canada to the Polar Sea, has been more cursorily examined by the Expeditions. Through the liberality of the Horticultural Society, and the im- fluence of their learned Secretary, Joseph Sabine, Esq., ever readily exerted for the advancement of science, I have been permitted to examine and describe the specimens of quadrupeds collected by Mr. Douglas, and this gentleman,. with a readiness to communicate the information he has acquired, that does him great credit, has kindly furnished me with some valuable notices of the habits of the animals which have been incorporated in this work. I have also had an opportunity of inspecting the specimens of quadrupeds obtained on the American coast of Behring’s Straits, by Captain Beechey, on his late voyage in the Blossom; and the notes respecting them, made on the spot by Mr. Collie, Surgeon of that ship, by whom principally they were collected, have been submitted to my perusal. Previous to our setting out on the Second Expedition, Sir John Franklin addressed letters to many of the resident chief factors and traders of the Hud- son’s Bay Company, requesting their co-operation with our endeavours to procure specimens of Natural History, and their ready acquiescence with his desire was productive of much advantage to us. Not only were great facilities for the advancement of our pursuits afforded to us by Mr. John Haldane, Mr. James Leith, Mr. Alexander Stewart, Mr, John. Prudens, Mr. Robert M‘Vicar, and other gentlemen, whose posts lay on our line of route; but a collection of birds and quadrupeds,
INTRODUCTION: x1x
of much interest, made at Fort Nelson on the River of the Mountains, a branch of the Mackenzie, was forwarded to us by Mr. Macpherson, ‘together with some valuable specimens obtained in the same quarter ‘by Mr. Smith, chief factor of that district. Mr. Isbister also had the ‘kindness to prepare for us a copious collection of birds at Cumberland- -house. These were not, however, the only channels through which the Specimens described in the following pages were obtained. I have had ample opportunities for studying the specimens brought home by Sir ‘Edward Parry, on his several expeditions; and much information was ikewise derived from frequent visits to the museum of the Hudson’s ‘Bay Company, and from repeated examinations of the specimens im- ported by that Company from their posts on James’s Bay, on the ‘Columbia, and in New Caledonia, and eeeguies by them to the Zoological Society and British Museum.
After this brief exposition of the various sources from whence the specimens were derived, I proceed to give a concise general view of the nature of the different tracts of the country, whose ferine inhabitants form the subject of the following pages. The most remarkable phy- sical feature of the northern parts of America, is the great Mountain Ridge, which is continued under the appellation of the Rocky Mouwn- tains*, in a north-north-west direction from New Mexico, to the 70th degree of latitude, where it terminates within view of the Arctic Sea, to the westward of the mouth of the Mackenzie River. The course of this chain is tolerably straight, and its altitude, though various in different places, is everywhere far superior to that of any other moun- tains existing in the same parallel of the American continent. Like the Andes, of which they seem to be a prolongation, the Rocky Moun- tains lie much nearer to the Pacific coast than to the eastern shore of America, and they give rise to several very large rivers. Over an elevated portion of the chain, extending from the 40th to the 55th degree of latitude, are spread the upper branches and sources of the Columbia, which falls into the Pacific in the 46th parallel. If the principal arms of this river had not a very circuitous course, the nar-
* Pennant names them the “‘ Shining Mountains.”
xX INTRODUCTION.
rowness of the stripe of country which intervenes between the summit of the ridge and the coast would have caused it to be little better than a mountain torrent. As it is, its arms spread far and wide, and it carries a great body of water to the sea. The head waters of the Missouri interlock with those of the southern branches of the Columbia ; but that river, precipitating itself down the eastern decli- vity of the mountains, takes a devious course to the ‘south-east, receiving in its way several great tributaries, and joing the Missis- stppi, which rises at the west end of Lake Superior, in a comparatively low, but hilly country. Their united streams traverse the whole of Louisiana, and fall into the Gulf of Mexico, after a course of four thousand and five hundred miles, reckoned from the head of the Missouri. The Saskatchewan is the third great river which issues from the same elevated part of the mountains, its feeding streams spreading from the 47th to the 54th parallel of latitude, and the more southern ones being interposed betwixt the head waters of the two preceding rivers. The upper streams of the Saskatchewan, after descending from the mountains, form two principal arms, which flow through comparatively naked, sandy plains, under the names of the North and South Branches, and then unite a short way below Carlton- house. From thence the river, continuing its course through a well- wooded country, passes by Cumberland-house, where it receives a considerable tributary that originates on the immediate banks of the Missinippi, a parallel river, and afterwards, flowing through Lake Winipeg, changes its name to Nelson River, and falls into Hudson's Bay, near Cape Tatnam. ‘The whole course of the Saskatchewan or Nelson River, from the mountains to the sea, may be estimated, windings inclusive, at one thousand six hundred miles. Lake ‘Winipeg, besides other large streams, receives the River Winipeg, which rises on a ridge of land bordering closely on Lake Superior, and also the Red River, whose eastern branch has its sources on the same heights with the Mississippi, and whose western branch originates close to the banks of the Missouri, some distance above where that river begins to turn to the southward. By means of short portages, then, one may pass from the respective branches of the Nelson, by the
INTRODUCTION. Xxi
Columbia, to the Pacific; by the Missouri or Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico; by the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic, and also by the Elk or Mackenzie River, whose upper streams approach the north branches of the Saskatchewan to the Arctic Sea. The fourth great river which takes its rise from the same quarter of the Rocky Mountain range is the one just mentioned,—the Mackenzie, which is the third of the North American rivers in respect of size, being inferior only to the Missouri and St. Lawrence. The two principal arms of the Mackenzie are the Elk and Peace rivers. One of the main streams of the former, the Red Deer River, issues from the vicinity of the northern sources of the Columbia and Saskatchewan, whilst other feeders interlock with the head waters of the Beaver, Missinippi, or Churchill river. Having passed through the Athapescow Lake, the Elk River is joined by the Peace River, which, originating somewhat further north in the moun- tains within three hundred yards of the source of the Tacootchtessé or Frazer’s River, affords a canoe route to all parts of New Caledonia. It is a singular fact, that the Peace River actually rises on the west side of the Rocky Mountain ridge, and is a large stream navigable for boats at the place where it makes its way through a narrow gorge bounded. by lofty mountains, which are covered with eternal snows. Nearer the source of the river, and between it and the Tacootchtessé, the mountains are less lofty and more distant, and the country has there much of the character of elevated table-land. After its union with the Peace River the Elk River assumes the name of Slave River, which, on passing through Great Slave Lake, becomes the Mackenzie. At a considerable distance below the last-mentioned lake, and where the Mackenzie makes its first near approach to the Rocky Mountains, it is joined by a large stream, which rising a little to the northward of the Peace River, flows along the eastern base of the mountains. It obtained the name of the River of the Mountains from Sir Alexander Mackenzie; but its magnitude has since gained it the appellation of the South branch of the Mackenzie from the traders. The Mackenzie receives several other large streams on its way to the sea, and among others Great Bear Lake River, whose head-waters rise on the banks of
XxIl INTRODUCTION.
the Coppermine River and Peel’s River, which issues from the Rocky Mountains, in latitude 67°. Immediately after the junction of Peel’s River the Mackenzie separates into numerous branches, which flow to the sea through a great delta, composed of alluvial mud. Here from the richness of the soil, and from the river bursting its icy chains, comparatively very early in the season, and irrigating the low delta with the warmer waters brought from countries ten or twelve degrees further to the southward, trees flourish, and a more luxuriant vege-. tation exists than in any place in the same parallel on the American continent. In latitude 68° there are many groves of handsome white spruce firs, and in latitude 69°, on the shores of the sea, lofty and dense willow-thickets cover the flat islands ; while currants and gooseberries grow on the drier hummocks, accompanied by some showy epilobiums and perennial lupins. ‘The moose-deer, American hare, and beaver, accompany this display of vegetation to its limits. The whole course of the Mackenzie from the source of the Elk River to the sea, is about two thousand miles in length. These are the principal rivers of the fur countries, but there are three others of shorter course, upon which some part of the collections of specimens were obtained, viz. Hayes River, which rises near Lake Winipeg, and holding an almost parallel course to Nelson’s River, falls into the same part of Hudson’s Bay. York Factory, which will be often mentioned in the following pages, stands on the low alluvial point that separates the mouths of these two rivers. The next river which I have to mention is the Missenippi, or, as it is occasionally named, the English River, which falls into Hudson’s Bay at Churchill. Its upper stream, named the Beaver River, rises in a small ridge of hills, which separates the north branch of the Saskatchewan from a bend of the Elk River. The Coppermine is the last river which requires a particular notice. It has its origin not far from the east end of Great Slave Lake, and, taking a northerly course, flows through the Barren-grounds to the Arctic Sea. It is a stream of no great magnitude in comparison with some of the branches of the Mackenzie : there are few alluvial deposits'on its banks, and there is not, conse-
INTRODUCTION; Xxili
quently, that richness of vegetation, which on the Mackenzie attracts certain quadrupeds to very high latitudes.
The Rocky Mountains have been crossed in four several places, First, by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in the year 1793, at the head of the Peace River, between latitudes 55° and 56°. His route was followed, in 1806, by a party of the North-west Company, sent to make a settle- ment in New Caledonia, and is still occasionally used. by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Lewis and Clark, in the year 1805, crossed the Mountains in latitude 47°, at the head of the Missouri, in their way to the mouth of the Columbia River. For several years subsequent to that period, the North-west Company were in the habit of crossing in latitude 523°, at the head of the North branch of the Saskatchewan, between which and one of the feeding streams of the Columbia there is a short portage; but of late years, owing to the hostility of the Indians, that route has been deserted, and the Hudson’s Bay Company; who now have the whole of the Fur Trade of that country, use a portage of considerable length between the northern branch of the Columbia and the Red Deer River, one of the branches of the Elk or Mackenzie River. Some attempts have very recently been made to effect a passage in the 62nd parallel of latitude; but although several ridges of the mountains were crossed, it does not appear that any stream flowing towards the Pacific was reached.
. The whole of the country lying to the eastward of the Rocky Mountains, and north of the Missouri and Great Lakes, is settled, er more or less frequently visited by the Hudson Bay Company’s traders, and is well known to them, with the exception of the vicinity ef the Polar Sea, and a corner bounded to the westward by the Cop- permine River, Great Slave, Athapescow, Wollaston, and Deer Lakes, to the southward by the Churchill or Missinippi River, and to the northward and eastward by the sea. This north-eastern corner of the American continent is often mentioned in the following pages by the appellation of the Barren-grounds, which it has obtained from the traders on account of its being destitute of wood, except on the banks of some of the larger rivers that traverse it. The prevailing rocks in
XxXi1V INTRODUCTION.
the district are primitive, and in one or two places only do they rise:so as to deserve the name of a mountain-ridge, their general form being that of an assemblage of low hills with rounded summits, and more or less precipitous sides separated by narrow valleys. The soil of the latter is sometimes an imperfect peat earth, and in that case it nourishes a few stunted willows, glandular dwarf-birches, black sprice-trees, or larches ; but more generally the soil consists of the debris of the rocks, which is a dry coarse quartzose sand, unfit to support any thing but lichens. All the larger valleys have a lake of very transparent water, often of great depth in their centre, and occasionally these lakes are perfectly land-locked, though they all contain fish. More generally one lake discharges its waters into another, through a narrow gorge, by a rapid and turbulent stream, and most of the rivers which flow through the Barren-grounds are little more than a chain of narrow lakes con- nected in this manner. The small caribou or rein-deer, and the musk- ox, are the principal and characteristic inhabitants of these lands, and . the description by Linneeus, of the Lapland deserts frequented by the rein-deer, applies with perfect accuracy to this corner of America. “ Nullum vegetabile in tota Lapponia tanta in copia reperitur ac hee Lichenis species, (Cenomyce rangiferina) et quidem primario in sylvis, ubi campi steriles arenosi vel glareosi, paucis Pinis consiti; ibi enim non modo videbis campos per spatium unius hore, sed sape duorum triumve milliarium*, nivis instar albos, solo fere hocce lichene ob- ductos.” “ Hi Lichene obsiti campi, quos ¢erram damnatam diceret peregrinus, hi sunt Lapponum agri, hec prata eorum fertilissima, adeo ut felicem se preedicet possessor provinciz talis sterilissime, atque lichene obsite.” Being destitute of fur-bearing animals, no settle- ments have been formed within the Barren-grounds by the traders, and a few wretched families of Chepewyans, termed, from their mode of subsistence, “ Caribou eaters,’ are the only human beings who reside constantly upon them. Were any one to penetrate into their lands, they might address him with propriety in the words used by the
* The Swedish mile is 53 English miles.
INTRODUCTION, ' XKY
Lapland woman to Linneus, when he reached her hut, exhausted by hunger and the fatigue of travelling through interminable marshes. “ O thou poor man, what hard destiny can have brought thee hither, to a place never visited by any one before! This is the first time I ever beheld a stranger. Thou miserable creature! how didst thou come, and whither wilt thou go*?” Parties of Indians occasionally cross these wilds in going from the Athapescow to Fort Churchill, but they almost always experience great privations, and very often lose some of their number by famine. Hearne, in his first and second journeys, traversed them in two directions ; Sir John Franklin, in his first journey, travelled within their western limits; and Sir Edward Parry, in his second voyage, obtained specimens of the animals of Melville peninsula, which forms the North-east corner of the Barren- grounds. The Chepewyans, Copper Indians, Dog-ribs, Hare-Indians, and Esquimaux visit them annually for a short period of the summer Season, in quest of caribou.
The following quadrupeds are known to inhabit the Barren-grounds :
Ursus arctos 2? Americanus.
» Mmaritimus,
Gulo luscus. i More or less carnivorous Mustela (Putorius) erminea. or piscivorous. They
me hs wigan prey much on the ani- Lutra Canadensis. mals in the following Canis lupus, et varietates ejus variz. Secon
>> (Vulpes) lagopus. 45 ig » var. fuliginosa. 4 Fiber zibethicus. Arvicola xanthognathus. », Pennsylvanicus, >, borealis.
. 1 7 3» (Georychus) trimucronatus. herbivorous. » S Hudsonius, aa ee Greenlandicus. _
Arctomys (Spermophilus) Parryi.
* Lachesis Lapponica, p. 145,
XXV1 INTRODUCTION,
Lepus glacialis. Principal food the dwarf-birch. Cervus tarandus, var. arctica. telat or more commonly
Ovibos moschatus. lichenivorous.
A belt of low primitive rocks extends from the Barren-grounds to the northern shores of Lake Superior. It is about two hundred miles wide, and as it becomes more southerly, it recedes from the Rocky Mountains, and differs from the Barren-grounds, principally in being clothed with wood. It is bounded to the eastward by a narrow stripe of limestone, and beyond that there is a flat, swampy, partly alluvial district, which forms the western shores of Hudson’s Bay. As far as regards the distribution of animals, the whole tract, from the western border of the low primitive rocks to the coast of Hudson’s Bay, may be considered as one district, with the exception that the sea-bear seldom goes further inland than the swampy land which skirts the coast. The whole may be named the Eastern district, and the follow- ing animals inhabit it :—
Vespertiliones, species duo vel tres ignotee. Sorex palustris. - ; >, Forsteri. Scalops, species ignota. Ursus Americanus.
sey § (Doesjnot go further from the sea- 39 maritimus. \ shore than one hundred miles.) Meles ?
Gulo luscus. Mustela (Putorius) vulgaris. 5 af erminea, oS » vison: >> Martes, >, Canadensis. Mephitis Americana, var. Hudsonica. Lutra Canadensis. Canis lupus, varietates varie. », (Vulpes) lagopus. os ™ fulvus. ” ” by var. decussata, as x op », argentata, Felis Canadensis. haa
INTRODUCTION. . XXvii
Castor fiber, Americanus et ejus varietates. Fiber zibethicus et ejus varietates, Arvicola xanthognathus. », Pennsylvanicus. » (Georychus) Hudsonius. Mus leucopus. Meriones Labradorius. Arctomys empetra. Sciurus (Tamias) Lysteri. x» Hudsonius. Pteromys Sabrinus. Lepus Americanus. Cervus alces. ,», tarandus, var. sylvestris.
The district just mentioned is bounded to the westward by a very flat limestone deposit, and the line of junction of the two formations is marked by a remarkable chain of rivers and lakes, among which are the Lake of the Woods, Lake Winipeg, Beaver Lake, and the middle portion of the Churchill or Missinippi River, all to the southward of the Methy portage ; and the Elk River, Athapescow Lake, Slave River, Great Slave Lake, and Martin Lake, to the northward of it. The whole of this district is well wooded ; it yields the fur-bearing animals most abundantly ; and a variety of the bison, termed from the circum- stance the wood bison, comes within its western border, in the more northern quarter. This animal has even extended its range to a par- ticular corner, named Slave Point, on the north side of Great Slave Lake, which is also composed of limestone. The following animals may be found in the limestone tract :—
Vespertilio pruinosus. Sorex palustris. » Forsteri. Condylura longicaudata. (southern parts only.) Ursus Americanus. Gulo luscus. Mustela (Putorius) vulgaris. oe = erminea, Pe a vison.
d2
XXVili INTRODUCTION.
Mustela martes.
>», Canadensis. Mephitis Americana, Hudsonica. Lutra Canadensis, ; Canis lupus occidentalis, var. grisea.
D ” Pr atra,
” ” A nubila. ” ” ” Sticte. >», (Vulpes) fulyus.
» ” » var. decussata. ” ” » argentata.
Felis Canadensis. Castor fiber, Americanus et varietates ejus nigrae, varie, et albee. Fiber zibethicus, colore interdum varians. Arvicola xanthognathus.
,, Pennsylvanicus. Mus leucopus. Meriones Labradorius. Arctomys empetra.
99 (Spermophilus) Hoodii (in the south-western limits of the district.)
Sciurus (Tamias) Lysteri (in the southern part of the district.)
if oe quadrivittatus (middle parts of the district.) »» Hudsonius. 19 niger (southern border of the district.) Hystrix pilosus. Lepus Americanus. Cervus alces.
39 tarandus, sylvestris (only in a few spots.) Bos Americanus.
Between this limestone district and the foot of the Rocky Mountains, there is an extensive tract of what is termed Prairie land. It is in general level, the slight inequalities of surface being imper- ceptible when viewed from a distance, and the traveller in crossing it must direct his course by the compass or the heavenly bodies, in the same way as if he were journeying over the deserts of Arabia, The soil is mostly dry and sandy, but tolerably fertile, and it supports a pretty thick sward of grass, which furnishes food to immense herds of the bison. Plains of a similar character, but still more extensive, have been deseribed by the American writers as existing on the Arkansaw
»
INTRODUCTION. Xx,
and Missouri Rivers. They gradually become narrower to the north- ward, and in the southern part of the fur countries they occupy about fifteen degrees of longitude, extending from Maneetobaw or Maneeto- woopoo, and Winepegoos Lakes to the foot’ of the Rocky Mountains. They are partially intersected by some low ridges of hills, and also by several streams, the banks of which are wooded, and towards the outskirts of the plain there are many detached clumps of wood and picturesque pieces of water, disposed in so pleasing a manner as to give the country the appearance of a highly cultivated English park. In the central parts of the plains, however, there is so little wood that the hunters are under the necessity of taking fuel with them on their journeys, or in dry weather of making their fires of the dung of the bison. To the northward of the Saskatchewan, the country is more broken, and intersected by woody hills; and on the banks of the Peace River, the plains are of comparatively small extent, and are detached from each other by woody tracts; they terminate altogether in the angle between the River of the Mountains and Great Slave Lake. The abundance of pasture renders these plains the favourite resort of various ruminating animals. They are frequented throughout their whole extent by buffalo and wapiti. The prong-horned antilope is common on the Assinaboyn or Red River, and south branch of the Saskatchewan, and extends its range in the summer to the north branch of the latter river. *The black-tailed deer, the long-tailed deer, and the grisly bear, are also inhabitants of the plains, but do not wander further to the eastward.
The following list will shew the peculiarity of the group of ferine animals which frequent the district :—
Ursus ferox. Canis latrans.
»» (Vulpes) cinereo-argentatus. Arctomys (Spermophilus ?) Ludovicianus. Richardsonii. Franklinii.
Hoodii.
PP) bP)
XXX
INTRODUCTION. -
Geomys? talpoides, Diplostoma ? Lepus Virginianus. Equus caballus. Cervus alces. 9, strongyloceros. 3» . macrotis. >, leucurus. Antilope furcifer. Bos Americanus.
The fur-bearing animals also exist in the belts of wood which skirt the rivers that flow through the plains; and the wolverene wanders over them as it does through every part of the northern extremity of America. The mephitis Americana Hudsonica breeds freely there ; and the raccoon is found on the banks of the Red River, which is its most northern limit.
The following animals are found on the Rocky Mountains :—
Vespertilio subulatus, Sorex palustris. Ursus Americanus. sg) METOKS Gulo luscus. Mustela (Putorius) erminea. en 35 vison. >» martes. > Canadensis. Mephitis P Lutra Canadensis. Canis lupus et ejus varietates, »> (Vulpes) fulvus et ejus varietates. Felis Canadensis. Castor fiber, Americanus. Fiber zibethicus. Arvicola riparius. nbs xanthognathus. »» | Novoboracensis. » (Georychus) helvolus. Neotoma Drummondii. Mus leucopus.
“_s
INTRODUCTION. XXXI
Arctomys empetra.
= > pruinosus.
‘as (Spermophilus) Parryi, var. erythrogluteia. a5 os a pheognatha. By Be guttatus ?
“3 > lateralis.
Sciurus (Tamias) quadrivitiatus. >> Hudsonius.
Pteromys Sabrinus, var. alpina. Hystrix pilosus. Lepus Americanus.
» glacialis. Lepus (Lagomys) princeps. Cervus alces.
f (Aflarge kind of caribou is saidjto frequent the moun- ” tarandus? tains, but I have seen no specimens either of the animal lor of its horns.)
<5) Mmacrotis. Capra Americana (on the highest ridges.) Ovis montana (on the eastern side of the ridge.) Bos Americanus (in particular passes only.)
The country lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific is in general more hilly than that to the eastward ; but there are some wide plains on the upper arms of the Columbia which have much of the character of the plains of the Missouri and Saskatchewan, and are inhabited by the same kind of animals. In particular the ursus ferox, canis latrans, canis cinereo-argentatus, the braro (perhaps meles Labra- doria), cervus macrotis var. . Columbiana, cervus leucurus, and aplodontia leporina, are enumerated by Lewis and Clark. Mr. Douglas also observed the condylura macroura, and several species of Felis and of Geomys and Diplostoma in that quarter. The sea-coast at the mouth of the Columbia is frequented by a species of fox very like the European one, or the red-fox of the Atlantic states of America. The Arctomys brachyurus and the Arctomys Douglasii also inhabit the banks of the Columbia; and the Arctomys Beecheyi, a species nearly allied to the latter, is found in the adjoining parts of California. The bison are supposed to have found their way across the mountains only very recently, and they are still comparatively few in numbers, and confined to certain spots. |
XXx1i INTRODUCTION.
The following brief description of New Caledonia, another district on the west of the Rocky Mountains, is extracted from Mr. Harmon’s journal :— 7
«¢ New Caledonia was first settled by the North-West Fur Com- pany in 1806, and may extend from north to south about five hundred miles, and from east to west, three hundred and fifty or four hundred. The post at Stuart’s Lake is nearly in the centre of it, and lies in 54> north latitude, and 125° west longitude, In this large extent of country, there are not more than five thousand Indians, including men, women, and children. It is mountainous, but between its elevated parts there are pretty extensive valleys, along which pass innumerable small rivers and brooks. It contains a great number of lakes, one of which, Stuart’s Lake, is about four hundred miles in circumference ; and another, Nateotain Lake, is nearly twice as large. I am of opinion that about one-sixth part of New Caledonia is covered with water. There are but two large rivers. One of these, Frazer's River, is sixty or seventy rods wide, rises in the Rocky Mountains within a short distance of the source of the Peace River, and is the river which Sir Alexander Mackenzie followed for a considerable distance when he went to the Pacific Ocean in 1793, and which he took to be the Columbia. The other large river of New Caledonia is Simpson’s River, which takes its origin in Webster’s or Bear Lake, and, after passing through several considerable lakes, falls into Observatory Inlet. The mountains of New Caledonia are not to be compared, in point of elevation, with those that skirt the Peace River between Vinlay’s Branch and the Rocky Mountain portage, though there are some which are pretty lofty, and on the summits of one in particular, which is visible from Stuart’s Lake, the snow lies during the whole year. me
“The weather is not severely cold, except for a few days in the winter, when the mercury is sometimes as low as 32° below zero of Fahrenheit’s thermometer. The remainder of the season is much milder than it is on the other side of the mountains in the same
INTRODUCTION. XXXill
latitude. ‘The summer is never very warm in the day-time ; and the nights are generally cool. In every month in the year, there are frosts. Snow generally falls about the 15th of November, and is all dissolved by the 15th of May. About M‘Leod’s Lake the snow is sometimes five feet deep, and I imagine that this is the reason that none of the large animals, except a few solitary ones, are to be met with.
«There are a few moose; and the natives occasionally kill a black bear. Caribou are also found at some seasons. Smaller animals like- wise occur, though they are not numerous. ‘They consist of beavers, otters, lynxes, fishers, martins, minks, wolverines, foxes of different kinds, badgers, polecats, hares, and a few wolves. The fowls are, swans, bustards (anas Canadensis), geese, cranes, ducks of several kinds, par- tridges, &c. All the lakes and rivers are well furnished with excellent fish. They are, sturgeon, white-fish, trout, sucker, and many of a smaller kind. Salmon also visit the streams in very considerable num- bers in autumn. The natives of New Caledonia we denominate Carriers ; but they call themselves Ta-cullies, which signifies people who go upon water.”
Captain Cook, in his third voyage, saw raccoons, foxes, martins, and squirrels, alive, on the coast of New Caledonia, and obtained skins of the following animals :—
Black-bear, brown-bear, glutton, grey wolf, arctic or stone fox, black fox. foxes of a yellow colour with a black tip to the tail, foxes of a deep reddish yellow intermixed with black, raccoon, land-otter, sea-otter, ermine, martins of three kinds: the common one, the pine-martin, and a larger one with coarser hair (mustela Canadensis ?), lynx, spotted marmot, hares, and skin of an animal named wanshee by the natives. In addition to this list, Meares mentions moose-deer skins, and the skin of a very small species of deer, as among the articles of trade in possession of the natives at Nootka Sound.
To the north of New Caledonia there is a large projecting corner,
which belongs to Russia, and has been traversed by the servants of the e
XXXIV INTRODUCTION.
Fur Company of that nation; but of which no account has-been given to the world, except of the coast, respecting which some information may be obtained from the narratives of Captain Cook, Kotzebue, and other voyagers. The few Indians of Mackenzie River, who have crossed the Rocky Mountains, report that, on their western side, there is a tract of barren grounds frequented by caribou and musk oxen; and the furs procured by the Russian Company indicate that woody regions, similar to those to the eastward of the mountains, also exist there.
Langsdorff gives the following list of skins contained in the principal magazine of the Russian Fur Company, on the island of Kodiak, most of them collected on the peninsula of Alaska, Cook’s River, and other parts of thecontinent. |
Brown and red bears, black bears, foxes black and silver-gray, (the stone fox, canis lagopus, is not found to the southward of Oonalaska), glutton, sea, river, and marsh otters, lynx, beaver, zizel marmot, com- mon marmot, hairy hedge-hog (erinaceus ecaudatus), rein-deer, American wool-bearing animal.
The quadrupeds which inhabit the shores of the Polar Sea, are the same that are comprised in the list of the animals of the Barren Grounds. On the remote North Georgian Islands, in latitude 75°, there are nine different species of mammiferous animals, of which five are carnivorous, and four herbivorous. The following is Captain Sabine’s list of them :—
Ursus maritimus. Gulo luscus. Mustela erminea. Canis lupus.
Canis lagopus. Lemmus Hudsonius, Lepus glacialis,
Bos moschatus They arrive on Melville Island towards the
middle of May, and quit it on their return
These two animals are only summer visitors. to the South in the end of September.
Cervus Tarandus IT have not enumerated the seals, moose, or whales, in any of the
lists; nor have I attempted to give a description of any of them in the text, because my opportunities of examining them were too limited te
INTRODUCTION. _ XXXV
enable me to record any new facts ; neither had I the means of cor- gectly ascertaining the species. - TI have, in the text, described the different species of animals, from nature, as correctly as I could; and I have chosen rather to subject myself to the charge of proxility than to become obscure by aiming at too great conciseness, because, in the course of my researches, I have felt the difficulty of ascertaining the species, from the brief characters assigned to them by the old writers. I have for the same reason in many instances repeated some of the generic characters in the account of a species, particularly in cases where any doubt respecting the genus or sub-division of the genus existed. In the account of the manners of the animals, I have borrowed freely from preceding writers; and from none more frequently or more copiously than from Captain Lyons, whose “Private Journal” contains a great fund of information respect- ing the northern animals. I wish it to be understood, however, that in all cases, unless where a doubt is actually expressed, or where I state that I have had no opportunity of personal observation, the remarks I have quoted are sanctioned by the information I collected on the spot. The nomenclature of colours, made use of in the description, is a modification of Werner's, contained in Mr. Syme’s useful little work*. Before closing this introductory chapter, I have to discharge the agreeable duty of expressing my obligations to many gentlemen who have fostered the progress of the work. To the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Goderich my gratitude is especially due. To _ his attachment to the sciences I am indebted for that patronage and aid, which his high situation in his Majesty’s Government enabled him to bestow, and without which this work could not have appeared. To the Right Honourable Thomas Frankland Lewis, also, I am under great obligations for the interest he has shewn in the advancement of the work, and for his kindness in forwarding my views. My gratitude is not less owing to the present Treasury Board, for the readiness with which they made the grant of money available; and to the late and
* Werner's Nomenclature of Colours, with Additions. By Patrick Symz, Flower Painter.
Edinburgh, 1821. eZ
XXXVi INTRODUCTION,
present Secretaries of State for Colonial Affairs, for their kindness in forwarding my applications through their department. I have next to express my best thanks to the Governor and Committee of the Hud- son’s Bay Company, for granting me free access to their museum, and to the manuscript accounts of the Fur Countries, in their possession, and for the strong recommendations they transmitted to the resident Chief Factors and Chief Traders, to forward the views of the Expedi- tion, with respect to Natural History. To Mr. Garry, the Deputy Governor of that Company, I have to offer my thanks in an especial manner, not only for his general kindness and good offices, but for the free use of his valuable library, particularly rich in the works of the early travellersin America. I have also to mention my deep sense of the kindness of the Council of the Horticultural Society, and of Joseph Sabine, Esq., Secretary to that Institution, for the opportunity of examining and describing Mr. Douglas’s specimens. To Charles Koenig, Esq., of the British Museum, I am under much obligation, for the facility he afforded me of examining the specimens in that collec- tion; and Lam equally indebted to N. A. Vigors, Esq., of the Zoological Society, for his aid in the consultation of the museum under his charge. I have, lastly, to express my gratitude to Sir John Franklin, and to the Officers associated with me under his command. ‘To the former, for the kindness with which he embraced every opportunity during the pro- gress of the Expedition, of forwarding my views with respect to that branch of its objects, which was more particularly intrusted to me; and to Captain Back, Lieutenant Kendall, and Mr. Dease, for their active assistance in the collection of specimens. Indeed, I may, with propriety, embrace this opportunity of saying, that I had the happi- ness of being placed under an Officer, who was endowed with the rare union of devoted attention to the duties of his profession, and of the most sincere attachment to the interests of general science,—and that, in him, and in the Officers under his command, I met with kind friends, whose agreeable society beguiled the tedium of a lengthened residence in the Arctic wilds.
EXPLANATION
OF THE
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Bewicx
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BuFFON CARTWRIGHT CARVER .
CATESBY’. .o.
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XXXVIil EXPLANATION OF THE
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JEREMIE. 2 «-+ « WOSELVN: ©. <o.6 SODER — on. 0T oc, «
WAPI rm oe 6, .°
REFERENCES TO AUTHORS. XxXxix
American Natural History, by John D. Godman, M.D. .3 vols. 8yo, Philadel- phia, 1826. Vide Horcuins.
History of Kamskatcha, translated from the Russian of Krascheninikoff, by James Grieve, M.D. Gloucester, 1764. ere.
The Animal Kingdom, by Baron Cuvier, translated by Edward Griffith, and Others. 8vo. London, An. 1827 et seq.
Novi Commentarii Petropolitani, 1749—1775. 20 vols.
Vide Sir. ;
Fauna Americana, being a Description of the Mammiferous Animals inhabiting
North America, by Richard Harlan, M.D. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1825.
A Journal of Voyages and Travels in the Interior of North America, between the 47th and 58th Degrees of Latitude, by Daniel William Harmon, a Partner in the North West Company. Andover, 1820.
Journey to the Northern Ocean, by Samuel Hearne, in the Years 1769, 1770, 1771, and 1772. London, 1807. here
Nouvelle Decouverte d'un Tres grand Pays situé dans USSETOE. | par R. P. Louis de Hennepin. Amsterdam, 1698.
Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, by Alexander Henry, in the Years 1760—1776. New York, 1809.
Travels through Canada, by George Heriot, Esq. London, 1807.
Rerum Medicarum Nove Hispaniz Thesaurus Francisci Hernandez, Reccho Editore. Roma, 1651.
Histoire de l!Amerique Septentrionale. Tom. 2,12mo. Amsterdam, 1723.
Vide LAHONTAN.
_MS. Account of Hudson’s Bay, written about the year 1780. Mr, Hutchins
furnished much inteiligence to Pennant respecting the Zoology of Hudson's Bay. In a few first sheets of this work Mr. Graham is through mistake quoted as the author of these manuscript notices.
The dangerous Voyage of Captain Thomas James, for the Discovery of a North- West Passage. London, 1633, reprinted 1740.
Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, under the Command of Major Long, by Edwin James. 3vols. London, 1823. The American edition is also quoted oc- casionally.
Transactions of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh, vol. iii. p.306. Account of the Rocky Mountain Sheep, by Professor Jameson.
Voyage au Nord. (Quoted from Pennant.)
New England. (Quoted from Pennant.)
Voyage to Mexico, by Mr. Joutel, translated from the French. London, 1719.
Peter Kalm’s Travels in North America, translated by J.R. Foster. The abridge- ment in Pinkerton’s collection of voyages is also quoted. .
Ix
IGEN sus aie’ ia gin aie KRASHENINIKOFF .
LAHONTAN LANGSDORFF
Lawson
Leach ...
” ” ” LEsson
Lewis and CLARKE
LICHTENSTEIN .
Linn. .
” ” ” Linn. GMELIN . Lone’s JoURNEY .
Lyon
Mc GILuivRay .
EXPLANATION OF THE
Isaac Theodore Klein, Quadrupedum Dispositio, 4to. Lipsie, 1751. ; Vide GRIEVE.
Voyages dans l'‘Amerique de M. La Baron de la Hontan, Vol. 2 en12mo. Ala Haye, 1703.
Voyages and Travels to various Parts of the World, in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, and 1807, by G. H. von Langsdorff. 2 vols. London, 1813.
History of Carolina. (Quoted from Pennant.)
Leach, W. Elford. Zoological Miscellany.
Appendix to Ross's Voyage to Baffin's Bay. 1819.
Manuel de Mammalogie, par Réne Primeverre Lesson. 12mo. Paris, 1827.
Travels to the Pacific Ocean in 1804, 1805, and 1806, by Captains Lewis and Clarke. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1807.
Voyage a Boukhara, par M. Le Baron Georges de Meyendorff, en 1820. Paris, 1826. Description, par M. Lichtenstein des Animaux Recueilles dans le Voyage, par M. Eversman.
Systema Natures, Carolo a Linné. Ed. xii. 1766.
1746.
Systema Nature Linnei. Ed. xiii, Cura Gmelini, Leipsig, 1788.
Vide James.
Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon during a Voyage of Discovery under Captain Parry. 8vo. London, 1824.
Fauna Suecica. 8vo.
New York Medical Repository, vol. vi. p. 238. Account of the Mountain Ram, by William Me Gillivray. 1803.
Macxenziz (Sir ALEX.) Travels to the Polar Sea and to the Pacific Ocean, in the Years 1789—1791, by
Alexander Mackenzie. London.
Mackenzis (SirGrorGE) Travels in Iceland.
Marten .
Mears
MEYENDORFF Mircwinh .... ,
Monts, De .
Orv .
”
PaLisor DE BEAUVAIS.
PALLAs
Voyage to Spitzbergen and Greenland, by F. Marten. 8vo. London, 1711.
Voyages to the North-West Coast of America in 1788 and 1789, by John Meares, Esq. 4to. London, 1790.
Vide LicHTENSTEIN. Medical Repository of New York. An. 1821. (Quoted from M. Say.)
Nova Francia. The three last voyages of Monsieur de Monts, of M. Pontgrave, and of M. De Poutrincourt, into La Cadia. London.
Guthrie's Geography, American Edition. Philadelphia. (Quoted from Harlan.) . Journal ‘of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia. Vol. iv. p. 305.
Bulletin des Sciences par la Société Philomatique depuis, 1791. Paris.
Novae Species Quadrupedum e Glirium Ordine. Erlang. In 4to.
Spicelegia’ Zoologica. Berolini, 1767—1780.
Voyage dans Plusieurs Provinces de lEmpire de Russie, 8 vols. in 8vo. Paris.
BRATZ seo
RAFINESQUE, or Rahinesque-SMALtz.
RUAN ot %., ts: ae RICHARDSON. . . 4 ” . . . *
SaBINE, (JOSEPH). .
” ” . .
REFERENCES TO AUTHORS. xii
Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage, performed in the. Years 1819, 1820, in His Majesty's Ships the Hecla and Griper, by William Edward Parry, R.N., F.R.S. 4to. London, 1821.
Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage in the Years 1821, _ 1822, 1823, in the Fury and Hecla, by Captain Mig Adwaagh Palys RN. F.R.S. London, 1824,
. History of Quadrupeds. 3d Edition. 2 vols. 4to. London, 1793. . Arctic Zoology. 2 vols. 4to. 1784.
. Travels on the Missouri and Arkansaw, by Lieutenant Pike, in 1805 and 1806. Edited by T. Rees, Esq. London, 1811.
. Voyage de Louisiana. (Quoted from Pennant.) | Annals of Nature. (Quoted from Desmarest.)
American Monthly Magazine, (Ditto).
Precis, les Decouvertes Somiologiques. En18mo. Palerme, 1814. Raii Synopsis Methodica Animalium. 8yo, Londini, 1693. Appendix to Captain Parry’s Second Voyage. London, 1824.
. Zoological Journal. 1828, 1829. London.
. Franklin's First Journey. Zool. Appendix. London, 1822.
.
. Linnean Transactions, vol. xiii.
Sasine, (Capt. Epwarp) Supplement to the Appendix of Captain Parry's First Voyage in 1819, 20.
SAGARD-THEODAT , SAUBR ok eo 1 «amos
Same «2s
SCHOOLCRAFT « « + SCHREBER ....
SEEAW ye gs a!
Situ, (CAPTAIN) +
Situ, (C.H.). . .
STELIER s 2 4s _¢
TEMMINCK « « « ¢
London, 1824.
Vide Tazopat.
Vide BiLuinGs.
His Zoological Notices, in the Notes to Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, are quoted. Vide JAMEs.
Travels to the Sources of the Mississippi River, by H. R. Schoolcraft. Albany, 1821.
. Histoire des Mammiféres. In 4to. Erlangen, 1775, et suiv.
General Zoology, by George Shaw, M.D., F.R.S. 16 vols. 8vo. London, 1800—1812.
Voyage by Hudson's Straights, in the California, by Captain Francis Smith; by the Clerk of the California, in 1746 and 1747. (The Clerk’s name was Drage. Ellis, the Agent for the Proprietors in the Dobbs, the consort of the California, gives another account of the voyage, but less full on points of Natural History.) Vide Ellis,
His papers in the Linnean Transactions, and in oo s Translation of Cuvier, are quoted.
Acta Petropolitana.
+ Monographies de Mammalogie et Tableau Methodique des Mammiféres. 4to.
Paris, 1827,
xlii EXPLANATION OF THE REFERENCES TO AUTHORS.
THEODAT. - . « « « Histoire du Canada, par le F. Gabriel Sagard-Theodat. “12mo. Paris, 1636. TRAILL . . . . . + Woyage toGreenland, by J. Scoresby. Appendix.
UMFREVILLE .. . - Present State of Hudson’s Bay, by Edward Umfreville. London, 1790. 8vo. UtutoA . «© = ~ « « Voyage. (Quoted from Pennant.)
Warpen. . .. «+ . Account of the United States of North America. Edinburgh, 1819.
VoyacE DE L'AMERIQUE Voyage de l'Amerique dans le Vaisseau Pelican. En 1697. Amsterdam, 1723.
SYSTEMATIC LIST OF THE SPECIES.
1. VEsPERTILIO PRUINosUS. The Hoary Bat
rs 3 SUBULATUS. Say’s Bat
3. Sorex PALustRis. The American Marsh-Shrew .
4, ,, Forsterr. Forster’s Shrew-Mouse
5. 5, Parvus. The Small Shrew-Mouse —
6. Scarops Canapensts. The Shrew-Mole
7. ConpyLuRA Lonercaupata. The Long-tailed Star-nose 8. Ursus Amertcanus. The American Black Bear
9. ,, arcros ? Americanus. The Barren-ground Bear 10. ,, FERox. The Grisly Bear
10%: ,, maritimus. The Polar or Sea Bear
5B MACROURA .
1]. Procyon totor. The Raccoon 12. Mees Lapraporta. The American Badger 13. Guto Luscus. The Wolverene
14. Muste1a (Purorius) vutearis. The Common Weasel
15. PS bs ERMINEA. The Ermine, or Stoat 16. ae Bs vison. The Vison-Weasel
Ty. ee MARTES. The Pine-Marten .
18. 5 CanapEnsis. The Pekan or Fisher
3 var. alba. White Pekan
19. Mzputris Americana, Hupsontca. Hudson’s Bay Skunk .
20. Lurra CaNApeEnsiIs. The Canada Otter
21. 4, (Enuypra) Marina. The Sea Otter
£2
xliv SYSTEMATIC LIST OF THE SPECIES.
22. Canis Lupus, occipeNTALIsS, The American Wolf : » ’ 60 var, A. Lupus eriseus. The Common Gray Wolf : ° . 66
B. ,, atsus. The White Wolf . : , : 68
C, ,, Sricre. The Pied Wolf z , . .
D. ,, Nusitus. The Dusky Wolf . : . . 69
E. ,, aver. The Black American Wolf ? : . ap
23, Canis Latrans. The Prairie Wolf : : A , 73 24, 4, ¥FAMILIARIS. The Domestic Dog i . i gia cate var. A. BorEALIs. The Esquimaux Dug . . . . 75
B. tacopus. The Hare-Indian Dog ; . . —-
C. Canapensts. The North American Deg , : ; 80
; D. Nova Cateponim. The Carrier Indian Dog ; : . >. Se 25, Canis (VutPes) tacopus. The Arctic Fox ;' ; . . 83 var. 8. FuLGINosA. The Sooty Fox . : 2 ee
26. Canis (VuLPEs) rutvus. The American Fox : e : 91 var. 8. DECUSSATA. The American Cross Fox : : ; 93
y. ARGENTATA. The Black or Silver Fox 5 : ; 94
7. Canis (Vutpes) Vireinianus. The Gray Fox . - . . 96 28. ,, (VuLrEs vutearis) vuLpes? The Fox . Par - oF 29. Cants (Vurprs) cINEREO-ARGENTATUS. The Kit Fox : A . 8 30, Fetis Canapensts. The Canada Lynx : , . ; 101 31. ,, Rura. The Bay Lynx 103 32. ,, wascrata. The Banded Lynx ‘ : . ‘ 104 33. CAasToR FIBER, Aue ricanus. The American Beaver ‘ ; . 105 var. B. ,, wniera. The Black Beaver . ; é 3 113
C. ,, varia. The Spotted Beaver : ; ; . 14
D. ,,. atBa. The White Beaver . ‘ ; . 114
34, Freer zisetuicus. The Musquash . ; é : - 115 var. B, ,, nigra. The Black Musquash ; : aa 119
C. 1, MACULOSA. The Pied Musquash . 5 ‘ . LY
| D. ,, ata, The White Musquash : : . 119 35. ARVICOLA RIPARIUS. The Bank Meadow-Mouse F . 120
36. a3 XANTHOGNATHUS. The Yellow-cheeked bred tat tity: ‘ 122
SYSTEMATIC LIST OF THE SPECIES.
37. ARVICOLA PENNSYLVANICUS. Wilson’s Meadow-Mouse
38. $ Novoporacensis. The Sharp-nosed Meadow-Mouse
39. 4, Boreatts. The Northern Meadow-Mouse °
40. a (GEORYCHUS) HELVOLUS. The Tawny Lemming . Al, aS oS TRIMUCRONATUS. Back’s Lemming
A2, 5 Pe ’ Hupsonius. The Hudson’s Bay Lemming 43. oe sc Grantanpicus. The Greenland Lemming
44, Neoroma Drummonpit, The Rocky Mountain Neotoma Tt Mus rattus. The Black Rat :
j- » DeEcuMaNus. The Brown Rat 7: »» MuscuLtus. The Common Mouse 45. ,, Leucopus. The American Field-Mouse
46. Mertones Lasrapvorius. The Labrador Jumping-Mouse
47, ARCTOMYS EMPETRA. ‘The Quebec Marmot
48. > ? pruinosus. The Whistler 20 a BRACHYuRUS. The Short-tailed Marmot . 2% _ monax. The Wood-Chuck , ae “ (Spermopuitus ?) Lupovicranus. The Wistonwish . 50. - i Parry. Parry’s Marmot
Var. 6. ERYTHROGLUTEIA +> Y- PHEOGNATHA
51. Arcromys (SPERMOPHILUS) guTTATUS? ‘The American Souslik
57a = a Ricuarpsoni, The Tawny Marmot 53. “3 9 Frankunir. Franklin’s Marmot re re oh Brercueyi. Beechey’s Marmot 54. ifs ? » 2 Dovetasu. Douglas's Marmot 55. 95 ae LATERALIS. Say’s Marmot 56. » os Hoop. The Leopard Marmot , 57. Sciurus (Tamras) Lysrerr. The Hackee , : 58. 3 7 QuAprRivittatus. The Four-banded Pouched-Squirrel 59. > Hupsontus. The Chickaree : ;
53 Var. @. The Columbian Pine-Squirrel CO"). NIGER. The Black Squirrel
xlvi SYSTEMATIC LIST OF THE SPECIES.
PAGE
61. Preromys Sasrinus. The Severn River Flying Squirrel : f 193 Var. 8. aLpina. The Rocky-Mountain Flying-Squirrel ‘ - 195 Geomys. Generic characters i ‘ ° i ; 197
62. . Dovetasit. The Columbia Sand-Rat . . 200 {- ss umMBRINuUs. Leadbeater’s Sand-Rat z ‘ d 202 63. » ? BuRSARIUS. The Canada Pouched-Rat : : . 203 64, »; ? TaLporpes. The Mole-shaped Sand-Rat A 4 : 204 65. DipLostoma BuLBivoruM. The Camas-Rat : - ; . 206 ApLopontia. Generic characters : ‘ : 210
66. APLopONTIA LEPORINA. The Sewellel . ' - 5 211 67. Hystrix pttosus. The Canada Porcupine A é P 214 68, Lepus Americanus. The American Hare 217 69. ,, o@Laciatis. The Polar Hare : : 2 221 70. ,, Vireintanus. The Prairie Hare A : - .. Cee 71. ,, (Lacomys) princers. The Little-Chief Hare ‘ é 227 7. Lipura Hupsonra. The Menllese Marmot 4 - ; . 230 72. Equus capatLus, The Horse . , Z 231 73. Cervus aces. The Moose-Deer - 3 : 232 74, », TARANDUS. The Caribon 5 : A , 238 Var. a. ARCTICA . 241
» f. SYLVESTRIS : 250
79. ». STRONGYLOCEROs. The Wapiti : : - 2ol 76. » MacRoris. The Black-tailed Deer A - i 254 Var. 8. CoLUMBIANA i é A : 257
Ti. » tEucurus. The Long-tailed Deer ° : . 208 78. ANTILOPE FURCIFER. The Prong-Horned Antilope : . 261 79. Capra Americana. The Rocky Mountain Goat : : : 268 80. Ovis montana. The Rocky Mountain Sheep ° : . 271 81. Ovisos moscuatus. The Musk-Ox P 2 . . 275 82. Bos Americanus. The American Bison ; - A . 2
NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
fit
ow
NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
PART I.
MAMMALIA.
[1.] 1. Vespertitio Prurosvs. (Say.) Hoary Bat.
Genus. Vespertilio. Linn. Sub-genus. Vespertilio, GEorFRoy.
VY. Pruinosus. Say. Long’s Exped., vol. i. p. 167. American edition. (vol.i. p. 331, Engl. ed.) Harzian. Fauna Amer. p. 21.
Hoary Bat. Gopman. Wat. Hist. vol.i. p. 68, and fig. t. No. 3.
This species of Bat was first noticed by Mr. Nuttall, at Council Bluffs, on the Missouri; and Mr. Say, in Long’s Expedition, describes an individual captured in the same neighbourhood. Dr. Godman states, that it has been taken near Philadelphia. The specimen I have described below was caught at Cumberland- house on the Saskatchewan, in latitude 54°, and presented to me by Mr. Isbister, resident clerk at that post. This individual is larger than Mr. Say’s, but there seems to be no other difference. Godman’s figure does not represent the tail forming a small obtuse point to the interfemoral membrane, such as it exists in my specimen. After a minute examination, I could find no traces of more than two incisors in the upper jaw. Mr. Say found the same number; but it is pos- sible, that some cutting-teeth may have dropped out in both specimens. The number of teeth would bring this species of Bat into the genus Nycticezus of Rafinesque ; but the whole habit of the animal shews that it is properly classed in Geoffroy’s genus Vesperttlio, a subdivision of the great Linnean genus.
DESCRIPTION.
Dental formula, incisors 2, canines j=}, grinders = = 34,
The superior incisors are conical and sharp pointed, separated from each other by a wide
naked space, and closely adjoining to the canine tooth on their respective sides. They are : B
NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
slightly dilated exteriorly at their bases, but can scarcely be termed tuberculated. In height, they equal the molar teeth. The inferior incisors are arranged in contact with each other in a convex line, and are very short. They have obtuse, slightly two-lobed crowns, which expand laterally beyond their roots. The upper canine teeth are conical, obscurely three-sided and sharp pointed. They stand twice as high as the molar teeth. The inferior canine teeth are of the same size with the superior ones, and have each a minute and rather obtuse lobe at the base on the inner side. The molar teeth have high, sharp, pyramidal points.
The nostrils are two lines apart, turned a little outwards, and have a raised obtuse, naked margin. There is a depression between the nostrils superiorly, but no furrow on the margin of the lip, which is hoary within and without. The eyes are surrounded by fur, but situated clear of the ear and its tragus, The ears are shorter than the head, nearly circular, entirely covered with fur behind, except a small lobe, which projects anteriorly, and is overlapped by the tragus. On the inside there are some detached patches of hair. The margins are entire, and the folds around the auditory opening have a resemblance to those of the human ear. The ¢ragus is scalene-triangular, fixed by one of its angles, and is well characterised by Mr. Say as very obtuse at the tip, and arquated. It is thinly hairy exteriorly. The margin of the mouth and the chin are black and hairy; and the crown of the head and throat are yellowish-brown. The occiput, and the rest of the superior parts, are covered with a long and very fine fur, which is blackish-brown at the base, then shining yellowish-brown, followed by very dark umber-brown, and, lastly, tipped with white, producing a hoary and almost silvery colour on the back. The fur of the under parts is also hoary, but has less lustre. The interfemoral membrane is triangular, and at its apex there is a very slight smooth projection of the tail. It is hairy above ; its fur, towards the middle, being coloured like that of the back; but, near its margins, and particularly towards the apex, a reddish-brown tint prevails. The wing-membrane presents some small hairy patches above the elbow-joint, and at the roots of the metacarpal-bones. Underneath, it has a close coat of yellowish-brown fur on each side of the humerus; also a hairy patch beneath the brachial- bone, and others beneath the metacarpal-bones at their origin. The first finger has one joint; the second, three; and the others, two each. The thumb has one phalanx, which is much longer than its metacarpal-bone, and is armed with a short but strong, curved, black claw. The hind-feet are covered with hoary fur above, and have short, curved claws, which are excavated underneath.
DIMENSIONS. Inches. Lines. Inches. ~ Lines. Length of the head and body A 0 Space betwixt the upper canine teeth ’ 0 32 AD tail ; Pont 7 2 0 as lower canine teeth . 0 2h Spread of the wings ‘ . ’ . 15 0 x ears . . . 0 7 Length of head . 0 1 1 Length of thumb and claw anea\e 0 6 Space betwixt the nostrils nearly 0 2 0 6
Diameter of the ear, (every way,) about .
MAMMALIA. 3
f2.] 2. VEsPERTILIO SuBuLaTus. (Say.) Say’s Bat.
Vespertilio Subulatus. Say. Long’s Exped. vol. ii, p. 65. (or vol. ii. p. 253, Eng. ed.) Subulate Bat. Gopman. Nat. Hist. vol.i. p. 71.
DESCRIPTION.
Dental formula, incisors “>, canines (>, grinders 3 = 38.
The upper incisors are short, and are arranged in two distant pairs, each pair being close to the canine tooth of the same side. Each tooth has a small interior pointed lobe. The lower incisors are very short, and have two obtuse lobes. The canine teeth are a little longer than the grinders, nearly straight, subulate, and sharp pointed*. The two anterior grinders on each side, both above and below, are small, short, conical, and sharp pointed. The one adjoining to them, also simply conical, is higher than the three pos- terior grinders of each side, which, in the lower jaw, have a double row of acute points; and, in the upper jaw, a triple row ; the inner row of the latter being much lower than the outer ones.
The head is short, broad, and flat: the nose blunt, with a small, flat, naked muzzle. The nostrils, situated. at the two anterior corners of the muzzle, are small, roundish, naked, and scarcely one line apart. The tip of the lower jaw is rounded, and naked. Hyes concealed by the fur, and situated near the ears, but not covered by them. ars about the length of the head, or a little longer, thin, membranous, ovate, obtuse; slightly undulated, but not notched posteriorly, and curving forwards at the base; slightly ventricose anteriorly, without folds. The ear is hairy at the base behind, and there are a very few scattered hairs on its inner surface. The tragus is thin, broadly subulate below, tapering to a point upwards, and ending in a small obtuse tip ; it is attached by one corner at the base, is about two-thirds of the height of the ear, and is not curved or falciform,
The back has a shining yellowish-brown colour ; the belly a yellowish-gray. The fur, soft and fine, is longest on the back (three lines), and both above and below is blackish at the roots. With the exception of the small naked space behind the nostrils, the head is covered with fur, but a little shorter than that on the back; towards the mouth it assumes a blackish colour ; it is rather coarser on the lips, and there are a few longer hairs or whiskers, but they are not stiff nor very conspicuous.
The interfemoral membrane is broad, and tapers to a point along the tail, which it envelopes. It is thinly clothed at the base with fur similar to that on the back in colour, but shorter. It is also fringed with a few scattered hairs on its posterior, free margin, which is not undulated.
* The bifid point of one of the canine teeth in Mr. Say’s specimen seems to have been an accidental circumstance.
B 2
A NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
The tail projects about a line beyond the membrane. The toes of the hind-feet are rather long, and have white, slender claws, not greatly curved, with a few long hairs projecting over them. The wing-membrane is naked, and the joints of the fingers correspond with those of the vespertilio pruinosus, and the rest of the genus, as restricted by Geoffroy. The thumb is about two lines and a half long, laces its slender claw, which rather exceeds half a line.
Height of ear . Breadth of ditto near the middle It is broader at the base.
DIMENSIONS. Inches. _ Lines, Inches, Limes. Length of body and head 2 . " 1 10 Height of the tragus . ° . 0 4} 39 tail : ; : 1 6 Spread of wings from tip of the middle 55 head . ° 5 ° 0 finger of the right wing to the tip of 0 0
9 8 the corresponding finger of the left 4 wing . ° > . 10 0
This Bat is the most common species near the eastern base of the Rocky Moun- tains on the upper branches of the Saskatchewan and Peace Rivers. Mr. Say’s specimen was obtained near the head of the Arkansas, within sight of the moun- tains ; and the description he gives of it corresponds so nearly with my specimens, that I have no hesitation in considering them to be the same. Say’s Bat has a general resemblance to the Vespertilio pipistrellus of the British isles; but the latter has one grinder of a side fewer, weaker canine teeth, a smaller ear, and a shorter thumb and claw. Its fur is likewise shorter, and its back and belly do not exhibit such distinct shades of colour. It seems to approach near to the Vespertilio emarginatus of Geoffroy, as Mr. Say has remarked; but I have not been able to obtain a specimen of the latter with which I might compare it. The Carolina Bat differs in the shape of the tragus, which is semi-cordiform, but resembles this one nearly in the colour of the fur and in general form.
> «
MAMMALIA. 5
[3.] 1. Sorex Patustris. (Richardson.) American Marsh-Shrew.
Genvs. Sorex. Linn, Sorex palustris, RicHarpDson. Zoological Journal, No. xii. April, 1828. S. (palustris ) caudé corpus longitudine excedenti, auriculis subvestitis vellere latentibus, corpore cinerascenti-nigro ;
subter cinereo. Shrew, with the tail longer than the body, short hairy ears concealed by the fur, back somewhat hoary-black, belly
ash-gray.
DESCRIPTION.
The dimensions of this animal are nearly the same with those of the Musaraigne de Daubenton, or Water Shrew of Pennant, and are considerably greater than those of the S. constrictus, with which it seems to have some relations.
Dental formula ; intermediary incisors 2, lateral incisors $=} grinders = = 30.
‘The two posterior lateral incisors are smaller than the two anterior ones on the same side, and the latter are a little longer than the posterior lobes of the intermediary incisors. All the lateral incisors have small lobes on their inner sides. The tips of the teeth have a shining chestnut-brown colour,
Form.—The muzzle is shorter in proportion and broader than that of the Sorex parvus. The whole upper lip is bordered with whiskers, and the tips of the posterior ones, which are the longest, reach behind the ears. The extremity of the muzzle is naked and two-lobed. The eyes are visible. The ear is shorter than the fur ; its inferior margin is folded in; there is a heart-shaped lobe covering the auditory opening, and a transverse fold above it. The ears, particularly the superior margins, are clothed with thick tufts of fur, like that on the rest of the head. The tail appears to be rounded, or slightly four-sided from its base, to near the tip, where it is compressed and terminated by a small pencil of hairs. It is covered by a close coat of short hair. The feet are clothed with rather coarse, short, adpressed hairs, those on the sides of the toes being arranged somewhat in a parallel manner, but not very distinctly.
The fur resembles that of the mole in softness, closeness, and lustre. On the superior or dorsal aspect it is black, with a slightly hoary appearance when turned to the light. On the ventral aspect it is ash-coloured. At the roots it is bluish-gray. The outside of the thighs and upper surface of the tail correspond in colour with the back, the under surface of the tail and inside of the thighs with the belly, The feet are paler than the back and a little hoary. The nails are whitish,
DIMENSIONS. Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines. Length from nose to origin of tail 5 3 6 Length of nose, from upper incisors, scarcely 0 2 =» of tail 2 7 Height of ear c . . » » 0 3 >» Of head , & ry, ee 1 2 Length of hind-foot from heel to end of the >» fromnosetoeye . A : 0 7 nails 4 , ; ~..0 9
6 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
This animal agrees with the S. constrictus in having two lateral incisors more in the upper jaw than some other species of the genus, but the Sorex brevicaudus of Say is described by Dr. Harlan as having five lateral incisors (‘ minute false molars ”’) on each side, and the same thing occurs in the following species. When compared with a specimen of the water-shrew in the British Museum, the colour of its fur appeared different, the points of the teeth darker, the ears smaller, and the tail longer than in the water-shrew. Several specimens of this animal were obtained, but the descriptions were drawn up from the prepared skins, and some uncertainty consequently exists as to the true shape of the tail. The S. palustris most probably lives in the summer on similar food with the water- shrew ; but I am at a loss to imagine how it procures a subsistence during the six months of the year in which the countries it inhabits are covered with snow. It frequents borders of lakes, and Hearne tells us that it often takes up its abode in beaver houses.
[4.] 2. Sorex Forsreri. (Richardson.) Forster's Shrew-Mouse.
Shrew, No. 20. Forster. Phil. Trans, vol. lxii, p. 381.
Sorex Forsteri. Ricuarpson. Zool. Journ. No. 12, April, 1828.
Sorex (Forsteri,) cauda tetragona longitudine corporis, auriculis brevibus vestitis, dorso xerampelino, ventre murino.
Forster’s Shrew-mouse, with a square tail as long as the body, short furry ears, back of a clove-brown colour, belly pale yellowish-brown.
This little animal is common throughout the whole of the fur countries to the 67th degree of latitude, and its minute foot-prints are seen every where in the winter, when the snow is sufficiently fine to retain the impression. I have often traced its pathway to a stalk of grass, by which it appears to descend from the surface of the snow, but a search for its habitation by removing the snow was invariably fruitless. I was unable to procure a recent specimen, and the following description is drawn up from one prepared by Mr. Drummond. It is the smallest quadruped the Indians are acquainted with, and they preserve skins of it in their conjuring bags. The power of generating heat must be very great in this diminutive creature to preserve its slender limbs from freezing when
MAMMALIA, 7
the temperature sinks 40 or 50 degrees below zero. The Sorex Forsteri ap- proaches the S. tetragonurus of Desmarest in dimensions, and agrees with it in some other points.
DESCRIPTION.
Dental formula, interm. incisors , lateral incisors =, grinders =, = 32.
The teeth are white, brightly tinged with chestnut brown on the points, The upper intermediary incisors have each a posterior obtuse lobe. The lateral incisors of the upper jaw are crowded and somewhat tiled ; the four anterior ones of a side are broad and obtusely conical, the fifth is flattish on the crown. The first grinder is smaller than either of the two which succeed it; and the fourth is the smallest of all. In the lower jaw the intermediary incisors have two distinct obtuse posterior lobes, and a slight undulation producing the rudi- ment of a lobe towards their points: the lateral incisors, have a central mammillary point ; and the anterior grinder isa little larger than the other two. The muzzle is very slender, and has a naked and a deeply lobed tip. The whiskers reach to the occiput, and are composed of a few white hairs, intermixed with many black ones. The car is as long as the fur of the head, and is clothed within and without, but particularly on its margins, and folds, with hairs of the same colour and length of those on the crown of the head. It is rounded, but from a small fold of its upper margin appears pointed. Its circumference is ample for the size of the animal. There is a semicircular lobe projecting from the inferior margin of the ear, and covering the auditory opening, and above it there isa _transverse fold. The ear is not perceptible until the fur is blown aside. The fur forms a fine, short, close coat, which on the dorsal aspect of the animal has a grayish-brown or clove- brown colour, and on the ventral aspect a dull yellowish-brown. The tail is four-sided and tapers gradually from the root to its extremity, which is terminated by a pencil of hairs. It is covered with dark-brown hair above, and pale, yellowish-brown hair beneath, The feet are five-toed, and are clothed with short, adpressed, pale yellowish-brown hairs. The nails are slender and white.
DIMENSIONS. Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines, Length of head and body . - 2 3 Length from upper incisors to nostrils. 0 2 a3) Of tail, U2 5 4 C 1 3 Height of the ear : é 2 3 0 2
> of head 2 ° ’ . « 0 9%
> 8 . NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
[5.] 3. Sorex Parvus. (Say?) Small Shrew-Mouse.
Sorex parvus. Say. Long’s Expedition, vol.i, p. 163 ? Sorex, No. 89. Museum ov tHe ZooLoGicaL Sociery.
There is a specimen of a shrew-mouse in the Museum of the Zoological Society, - ‘which answers nearly to the description of the Sorex parvus by Say, except that its tail is considerably longer. Not to add unnecessarily to the number of specific names, I have adopted Mr. Say’s, until a comparison of authentic specimens shall determine whether it belongs to the same or a different species. Forster, in the Philosophical Transactions, mentions the Sorex aranews as an inhabitant of Hudson’s Bay. The large naked ears of that species would distinguish it at once from the S. parvus.
Duscriprion of the specimen in the Zoological Museum.
Form.—Ears very short, and indicated only by a brownish tuft of hair, deotiet than the rest of the fur. Muzzle more slender than that of S. palustris, but not so much so as that of 8. For- steri. The tail is apparently cylindrical the greater part of its length, pointed and perhaps slightly compressed at the tip. The fur, from its root to near the tip, has a dark blackish-gray colour, but from its closeness only the tips are seen, and on the back they have a brownish- black colour, on the head and sides brownish-gray, and on the belly ash-gray. The feet have a brownish tinge. ‘The pestis of the teeth are dark reddish-brown.
DIMENSIONS, Inches. Lines. Length of head and body , 5 ‘ 2 9 On tail . ‘ ‘ a ‘ i 1 9 Bn from nostrils to incisors : ve 0 1k
Mr. Collie, surgeon of his Majesty’s ship Blossom, caught a Shrew-mouse on the shores of Behring’s Straits, which he describes as having a dark brownish-: gray colour above, and a gray tint beneath. It measured, from the tip of the snout to the root of the tail, two inches and four lines, and its tail was one inch long. This specimen agrees still more nearly with Mr. Say’s description than the one in the Zoological Museum does, and if it is allowed to be of the same species, it gives to the Sorex parvus a range of twenty-three degrees of latitude.
MAMMALIA. 9]
[6.] 1. Scatops Canapensis. (Cuvier.) Shrew-Mole.*
Genus. Scalops. Cuvier.
Brown Mole. PenNNaNnT. Arctic Zool., vol.i. p. 141.
Sorex aquaticus. Lin. Syst.
Musaraigne-taupe. Cuvier. Tab. Elém.
Scalope de Canada. Cuvier. Régne An., vol.i. p. 134. Shrew-Mole. Gopman. Nai. Hist. vol. i. p. 84, t. v. fig. 3. Mole. Lewis anDCLarKE. Journey, &c., vol. iii. p. 42.
DESCRIPTION. Dental formula, incisors 2, grinders 5 = 44.
The two wpper incisors have an exact resemblance, in shape and position, to the two middle incisors of man. ‘They occupy the end of the jaw, and are twice as broad, and somewhat higher than the grinders which immediately follow. The four first grinders of a side are conical, and obscurely three-sided. The fifth is a little compressed, and has a minute pro- jection at its base posteriorly. The sixth is still more compressed, and has a larger posterior projection. These six anterior grinders (termed conical teeth or false grinders by some authors) are nearly equal to each other in height, and occupy the whole jaw between the incisors and posterior higher grinders. ‘They stand at equal but small distances from each other, and from the incisors, not exceeding the quarter of the breadth of a single tooth. The four posterior grinders are larger, and rather exceed the incisors in height. The first of them, or seventh grinder, does not differ much from the preceding one; it is compressed, has an acute lobe posteriorly, and a minute one on the inside anteriorly. The two next grinders are composed of two exterior triangular folds of enamel, and one interior one, producing, besides some subordinate points, three conspicuous sharp ones, of which the interior one is lower than the other two. The tenth or last grinder is smaller than the two which precede it. In the lower jaw, there are two incisors, shaped like the upper ones, but much smaller and lower than the closely adjoining grinders. They are succeeded on each side by seven small conical but rather obtuse grinders, which are flat on the inside. These teeth are close to each other, but do not touch, and they have their points gently inclined forwards. They increase gradually but slightly in height, in proportion as they are situated further from the incisors ; and the three which are farthest back have a minute projection at their bases posteriorly. The foremost of these conical teeth on each side, which is almost in contact with the incisors, closely resembles the two which follow it; but it is by many considered as an incisor, and when one or both lower ‘incisors have dropped out, it does indeed approach to its fellow, and then becomes more opposed to the upper incisors. They stand, like the other grinders,
* The English trivial name of Shrew-mole is a translation of Pennant’s epithet Sorex talpeformis, or of Cuvier’s Musaraigne-taupe, and is adopted from Dr, Godman. Cc
10 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
in the plane of the limbs of the jaw, or nearly at a right angle with the planes of the incisors. The three posterior lower grinders of each side resemble the upper ones reversed, but have no lobe corresponding to the interior one of the upper teeth. They rise more above the sockets than the upper grinders do, and they have, as Dr. Godman has observed, a considerable resemblance to the grinders of a Bat. In old individuals, all the teeth are worn down and have rounded crowns.
The Shrew-mole has a thick cylindrical body, like that of the Common Mole, without any distinct neck. Its limbs are very short, being concealed by the skin of the body nearly down to the wrist and ankle-joints, The fore-extremities are situated nearly under the auditory opening. The moveable snout is almost linear, and projects about four lines and a half beyond the incisors. It is naked towards its extremity, particularly above ; below, it is thinly clothed with hairs for about two-thirds of its length next the incisors. There is a conspicuous furrow, extending nearly its whole length, on the upper surface ; and, beneath, there is also a furrow, reaching half its length from the incisors. Beyond the latter, the snout is transversely wrinkled beneath; and its small, flat, or truncated extremity is smooth and callous. The small oblong nostrils open in an inclined space, immediately above this circular callous end. The eyes are concealed by the fur, and scarcely to be found in the dried specimen*. The auditory openings are covered by the fur, and there is no external ear. The tai is thickest about one-third from its root, and tapers from thence to its tip, which is acute. It is whitish, and is sparingly clothed with short hairs. Its vertebrae are equally four-sided. The fore- arm, rather slender, and projecting only about three lines from the body, is, consequently, concealed by the far. The five fingers, extremely short, and united to the roots of the nails, form, with the wrist, a large, nearly circular palm. The nails of all the fingers are large, white, and have a semi-lanceolate form, with narrow, but rather obtuse points. They are nearly straight, convex above, and slightly hollowed beneath. The middle one is the largest, the others gradually diminish on each side of it, and the exterior one is the smaliest of ail. The palms are turned outwards and backwards, and the whole fore-foot bears a close resem- blance to that of the Common Mole. The hind-feet are more slender than the fore ones, and the nails are one-half shorter, much more compressed, and sharper, and, in fact, nearly subu- late. They have a slight curvature laterally corresponding with the direction of the toes inwards, and are somewhat arched, but cannot be said to be in any manner hooked. They are excavated underneath. The fore and hind feet are thinly clothed above with adpressed, pale hairs. The palms and soles are naked, but are bordered posteriorly with white hairs, which curve a little over them. .
The fur has the same velvety appearance with that which clothes the Common Mole, It has considerable lustre on the surface; and, in most lights, exhibits a brownish-black tint. When blown aside, it shews a greyish-black colour, from the roots to near the tips. It has the same colour over the whole body, but there is a slight tinge of chestnut-brown on the forehead and about the base of the snout, and on the throat it is shorter and paler. .
® Dr. Godman informs us, that the aperture in the skin is just big enough to admit an ordinary sized human hair,
MAMMALIA. TE
DIMENSIONS. Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines. Length of head and body 7 8 Length from wrist joint to tip of the middle nail 1 0 re tail c 1 6 3 heel to end of middle claw 0 10 oe fore-palm 0 6 Greatest breadth of the hind-foot . 0 3 Breadth of fore-palm é 0 7 Distance from auditory opening to the end Length of middle fore-nail 0 6 of the snout 2 ; z 1 1
The animal described above inhabits the banks of the Columbia and the adjoin- ing coasts of the Pacific in considerable numbers, and is, doubtless, the mole mentioned by Lewis and Clarke as resembling, in all respects, the mole of the United States. Sir Alexander Mackenzie saw many animals, which he terms *<moles,”’ on the banks of a small stream near the sources of the Columbia; but as we are led to infer, from the way in which he speaks of them, that they were in numbers above ground, I am inclined to think that they were sewellels, belonging to the genus aplodentia, and not Shrew-moles*. I did not obtain recent speci- mens of the Shrew-mole on the late expedition, and am unable to say what are the exact limits of its range to the northward. I do not think, however, that it ean exist, at least on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, beyond the fiftieth degree of latitude, because the earth-worm on which the Scalops, like the Com- mon Mole, principally feeds, is unknown in the Hudson’s Bay countries. On the milder Pacific shore, it may, perhaps, reach a somewhat higher latitude. ‘There are two specimens of the Shrew-mole from the Columbia preserved in the Museum of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Mr. David Douglas has kindly furnished me with others which he obtained in the same quarter. The Columbia animal seems to be of larger dimensions, and has a longer tail than the Shrew-moles of the United States; but I have not detected any other peculiarities by which it might be characterised as a distinct species. Authors, probably from their specimens being’ of different ages, have varied considerably in their descriptions of the dentition of the Scalops, and several of them have mentioned edentate spaces between the incisors and grinders. In the adult animal, from which my descrip- tion was taken, no such spaces exist. In a large and apparently very old individual, the incisors, and all the small grinders, are so worn and rounded, as to appear like a row of small pearls set in the jaw. Baron Cuvier informs us, that the animals of the genus Scalops unite to the teeth of the Desmans (mygale) ; and the simply pointed muzzle of the Shrews, large hands, armed with strong nails, fitted for digging into the earth, and entirely similar to those of the Moles. It is evident, from my description of the teeth of the Columbia Shrew-mole, that
* Mackenzie's Voyage to the Pacific, &c. p. 314. C2
12 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
they approach closely to those of the Desmans, there being merely some not very important variations in the shape, particularly of the upper incisors *.
The Shrew-mole resembles the Common European Mole in its habits, in leading a subterranean life, forming galleries, throwing up little mounds of earth, and in feeding principally on earth-worms and grubs. Dr. Godman has given a detailed and interesting account of their manners, particularly of one which was domesticated by Mr. Titian Peale. He mentions that they are most active early in the morn- ing, at mid-day, and in the evening, and that they are well known in the country to have the remarkable custom of coming daily to the surface exactly at noon. They may then be taken alive by thrusting a spade beneath them and throwing them on the surface, but can scarcely be caught at any other period of the day. They burrow in a variety of soils, and in wet seasons are observed to retreat to the higher grounds. The captive one in possession of Mr. Peale ate considerable quantities of fresh meat, either cooked or raw, drank freely, and was remarkably lively and playful, following the hand of its feeder by the scent,—burrowing, for a short distance, in the loose earth, and, after making a small circle, returning for more food. When engaged in eating, he employed his flexible snout in a singular manner to thrust the food into his mouth, doubling it so as to force it directly backwards.
From the great resemblance of the Shrew-mole to the common one, they might be readily mistaken for each other by a casual observer; and Bartram and others, who have asserted the existence of a species of the genus talpa in America, are, on this account, supposed, by later writers, to have been mistaken. There are, however, several true moles in the Museum of the Zoological Society which were brought from America, and which differ from the ordinary European species in being of a smaller size, and in having a shorter and thicker snout. Their fur is brownish-black. -I could not learn what district of America they came from.
* Thave termed “first grinders” the teeth named “inferior lateral incisors” by Cuvier, because they have an exact resemblance to the other small grinders in form and size. ie
- MAMMALIA. 13
[7.] 1. Conpyturs Loneicaupata. Cllliger.) Long-tailed Star-nose.
Long-tailed Mole. Pennant. Hist. Quadr., vol. ii. p. 232. 2.90. f.2. Arctic Zool., vol. i. p. 140. Talpa longicaudata. ErxLEBEIN. Syst., tom.i. p. 118.
Condylure 4 longue queue. Desmarest. Mamm., tom.i. p. 158.
Condylura longicaudata. Haran. Faun., p. 38.
Naspass-kasic. CHippEWways, and SauLTEUR InpD1aANs.
_ The Zoological Society recently obtained several specimens of a Star-nose from Moose Factory, Hudson’s Bay, which agree so closely with Pennant’s description of his Long-tailed Mole, that I have had no hesitation in referring it to that species. They were not accompanied by any account of their habits, or notice of the exact locality where they were killed ; but as the most southern fur posts depending upon Moose Factory are situated upon the borders of Lake Superior, it is probable that they came from that quarter. Pennant’s specimen was received from New York. Ti is remarkable that M. Desmarest, who derives all his knowledge of this animal from Pennant, should make “point des crétes nasales” part of its essential cha- racter. In the History of Quadrupeds, it is termed the ‘ Long-tailed Mole with a radiated nose; ”’ and in Arctic Zoology, it is said to have ‘“‘the nose long, the end radiated with short tendrils.” Perhaps M. Desmarest was misled by the miserable figure in the History of Quadrupeds.
DESCRIPTION. The Long-tailed Star-nose has a thick body, with a long head, tapering towards the end of the nose, which is furnished with a cartilaginous fringe, having eighteen rays in the circum- ference, and two shorter bifid ones attached beneath the nostrils. The body is covered with a soft, short, velvety coat of fur of a brownish-black colour on the surface, and a bluish-black hue towards the roots. The nose is of the same colour with the body. ‘The tail, slender and tapering, is covered with short hair, and is about one-third shorter than the body. Its vertebrze are equally four-sided. ‘The extremities are short, and bear a resemblance to those of the Common Mole. The palms are not so broad as those of the Mole, but have a similar form. They are naked ; and the back of the hand is covered with scales, with a few intermixed hairs. The claws are large, white, convex, linear, and obtuse. The hind extremities are longer than the fore ones. The legs, short and slender, are thinly covered with hair. The feet are longer and narrower than the hands, covered above as far as the ankle-joint with scales. The hind- claws are white, narrow, and sharp-pointed
DIMENSIONS. Inches. Lines. Length of head and body é . . . 4 9 a tail . . F . : : 2 9 a head a ¢ ; 5 b 1 3
14 NORTHERN ZOOLCGY.
[8.] 1. Ursus Americanus. (Pallas.) American Black-Bear.
Black Bear. PENNANT. Arct. Zool., vol.i. p. 57, and Introduction, p. cxx. Hist. Quad., vol. ii, p. 11. WarveENn. United States, vol. i. p. 195. Gopman. Nat. Hist., vol. i. p. 194.
Ursus Americanus. Patxas. Spicel. Zool. vol. xiv. p. 6—26. Harian. Fauna, p.5l.
Sass. CHEPEWYAN INDIANS.
Musquaw (pl. musquawuck). Cree InpD1ans, or, when reference is made to the black colour of the fur, it is termed cuskeeteh musquaw. ‘The cinnamon-coloured variety is named oosaw-wusquaw, the first letter of the proper name being altered euphonie causa.
Mucquaw. Axtconauins. Maconsh (a young bear.) IDEM.
The different species of Bears resemble each other so strongly in form ; and colour, when described by general and frequently indefined terms, affords so un- certain a mark of discrimination, that much doubt has arisen as to what are species and what merely varieties. These doubts can be removed only by a rigid com- parison of the skeletons of the different kinds, combined with careful observation of the habits of the animals in their native retreats, and a more attentive consider- ation of their geographical distribution than has hitherto been given. Buffon, classing the American and European Bears together, distinguishes two species of land Bear differing from each in colour and manners*. Naturalists of the present day are generally of opinion that there are two or more species of Bear in the northern parts of the New World, differmg specifically from those of the old continent. The Polar Bear is perhaps the only species which is common to both continents, but it may with justice be considered as a sea animal, inhabiting the ice floating between them.
The Black Bear of America was first described as a distinct species by Pallas, and with reason, although some late writers continue to confound it with the Black Bear of Europe f. It has a milder disposition, and lives more on vegetable
* “Tl faut distinguer,” dit-il, ‘¢ deux espéces dans les ours terrestres, Jes bruns et les noirs, lesquels n’ayant pas les mémes appetits naturels, ne peuvent pas étre considérés comme deux espéces distinctes et séparées. De plus, U’ours blanc terrestre n’est qu’une variété de l’une ou de l’autre de ces espéces. Nous comprenons ici sous la dénomination d’ours bruns, ceux qui sont bruns, fauves, roux, rougeatres, et par celle d’ours noirs ceux qui sont noiratres aussi bien que tout @ fait noirs.”—Burron, Hist. Nat., vol. viii. p, 248.
+ Baron Cuvier, in his elaborate work Sur les Ossemens Fossiles, distinguishes the ursus niger Europeus from the European Brown Bear, or ursus arctos of authors. The ursus niger has the frontal bone of its cranium flattened, especially transversely, and separated from the temporal depressions by well marked ridges, which unite behind at an acute angle to form an elevated sagittal crest. Its fur is blackish, rough, and more or less woolly. The well marked depressions and ridges of the cranium giving lodgment and origin to the strong muscles of the lower jaw, shew that
the Black Bear of Europe is more decidedly a beast of prey than the Brown one, in which respect they differ from the bears of corresponding colours which inhabit the New World.
MAMMALIA, BS
substances than the latter, and there are corresponding differences in the form of its cranium, which is shorter, with less convex zygomatic arches, and consequently a smaller space for lodging the crotaphite muscle. Its forehead is not flat like that of the Black Bear of Europe, but arched, although not so much so as the forehead of the Brown Bear. Its temporal ridges, however, are well marked, and unite to form a sagittal crest. Its nose is continued nearly on the same line with the forehead, and is rather arched, which produces the most striking peculiarity in the physio- enomy of this species. Its ears are high, oval, rounded at the tips, and far apart. The palms and soles of the feet are short in comparison with those of the Brown Bear. The fur on the body is long, straight, shining and black, and the mesial line of the nose is also black or very deep brown, but there is a large pale yellowish-brown patch on each side of the muzzle. The naked extremity of the nose is a little oblique, not being so directly truncated as that of the Brown Bear. The hair of the feet projects beyond the claws, which are black.
The Cinnamon Bear of the Fur Traders is considered by the Indians to be an accidental variety of this species, and they are borne out in this opinion by the quality of the fur, which is equally fine with that of the Black Bear. The Yellow Bear of Carolina is also referred by Cuvier to this species, as is likewise the Ours Gulare of M. Geoffroy, which has a white throat. The white markings on the hroat of the animal, mentioned by the latter author, are perhaps analogous to the white collar which many of the European Brown Bears exhibit when young. Captain Cartwright remarks that the cubs of the Black Bear, on the Labrador coast, are often marked with white rings round the neck*, and Pennant notices the same thing of the bears of Hudson’s Bay.
The Black Bear is smaller than the other American bears which we have to describe, the total length of an adult seldom exceeding five feet. Its favourite food appears to be berries of various kinds, but when these are not to be pro- cured, it preys upon roots, insects, fish, eggs, and such birds or quadrupeds as it can surprise. It does not eat animal food from choice; for when it has abundance of its favourite vegetable diet, it will pass the carcase of a deer without touching it. It is rather a timid animal, and will seldom face a man unless it is wounded, or has its retreat cut off, or is urged by affection to defend its young. In such cases its strength renders it a dangerous assailant. I have known the female confront her enemy boldly until she had seen her cubs attain the upper branches of a tree, when she made off, evidently considering them to be in safety, but in fact leaving
* CaRTWRIGHT’s Journal of a Residence in Labrador.
16 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
them an easy prey to the hunter. The speed of the Black Bear when in pursuit is said not to be very great, and I have been told that a man may escape from it, particularly if he runs into a willow grove or amongst long grass: for the caution of the Bear obliges it to stop frequently and rise on its hind legs for the purpose of reconnoitring. I have, however, seen a Black Bear make off with a speed that would have baffled the fleetest runner, and ascend a nearly perpendicular cliff with a facility that a cat might envy.
This Bear, when resident in the fur countries, almost invariably hibernates, sind about one thousand skins are annually procured by the Hudson’s Bay Company, from Black Bears destroyed in their winter retreats. It generally selects a spot for its den under a fallen tree, and having scratched away a portion of the soil, retires to it at the commencement of a snow-storm, when the snow soon furnishes it with a close, warm covering. Its breath makes a small opening in the den, and the quantity of hoar frost which occasionally gathers round the aperture serves to betray its retreat to the hunter. In more southern districts, where the timber is of a larger size, Bears often shelter themselves in hollow trees. The Indians remark that a Bear never retires to its den for the winter until it has acquired a thick coat of fat, and it is remarkable that when it comes abroad in the spring it is equally fat, though in a few days thereafter it becomes very lean. The period of the retreat of the Bears is generally about the time when the snow begins to lie on the ground, and they do not come abroad again until the greater part of the snow is gone. At both these periods they can procure many kinds of berries in considerable abundance. In latitude 65°, their winter repose lasts from the beginning of October to the first or second week of May; but on the northern shores of Lake Huron, the period is from two to three months shorter. In very severe winters, great numbers of Bears have been observed to enter the United States from the northward. On these occasions, they were very lean, and almost all males; the few females which accompanied them were not with young *. The remark of the natives above-mentioned, that the fat Bears alone hibernate, explains the cause of these migrations. The Black Bears in the northern districts couple in September, when they are in good condition from feeding on the berries then in maturity. The females retire at once to their dens, and conceal themselves so carefully that even the lyncean eye of an Indian hunter very rarely detects them ; but the males, exhausted by the pursuit of the female, require ten or twelve days to recover their lost fat. An unusually early winter will, it is evident, operate
* PENNANT’S Arctic Zoology, vol. i. p. 60.
MAMMALIA. 1¥
most severely on the males, by preventing them from fattening a second time ; hence their migration at such times to more southerly districts. It is not, how- ever, true that the Black Bears generally abandon the northern districts on the approach of winter, as has been asserted, the quantity of Bear skins procured during that season in all parts of the fur countries being a sufficient proof to the contrary. The females bring forth about the beginning of January, and it is pro- bable that the period of their gestation is about fifteen or sixteen weeks, but I believe it has not been precisely ascertained. The number of cubs varies from one to five, probably with the age of the mother, and they begin to bear long before they attain their full size.
The Black Bear inhabits every wooded district of the American continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Carolina to the shores of the Arctic sea. They are, however, more numerous inland than near the sea-coast. Langsdorff observes, that ‘‘ the valuable Black Bear, the skins of which form part of the (Russian) Company's stock, are not the produce of the Aleutian islands, but of the continent of America, about Cook’s river, Prince William’s Sound, and other places *.
The strength and agility of the Bear, together with its tenacity of life, render an attack upon it hazardous, and its chace has been considered by the rude in- habitants of the northern regions as a matter of the highest importance. Many of the native tribes of America will not join the chace until they have propitiated the whole race of Bears by certain speeches and ceremonies, and when the animal is slain they treat it with the utmost respect, speak of it as of a relation, offer it a pipe to smoke, and seldom fail to make a speech in exculpation of the act of violence they have committed in slaying it, although the hunter at the same time glories in his prowess. ‘This veneration for the Bear seems to have arisen from the ability and pertinacity with which it defends itself; and it is interesting to observe in how similar a manner the same feeling manifests itself in tribes speak- ing diverse languages, and widely separated from each other by geographical position. Thus, Regnard informs us that the chase of the Bear is the most solemn action of the Laplander, and the successful hunter may be known by and exults in the number of tufts of bear’s hair he wears in his bonnet. When the retreat of a Bear is discovered, the ablest sorcerer of the tribe beats the runic drum‘ to discover the event of the chase, and the side on which the animal
* LanesporFr’s Voyages, vol. ii. p. 74. + The same kind of drum, shaped like a double-headed tambourine, and painted with arbitrary characters or rude representations of wild beasts and of the heavenly bodies, is common throughout all the various North American tribes. D
18. NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
ought to be assailed. During the attack, the hunters join in a prescribed chorus, and beg earnestly of the Bear that he will do them no mischief. When they have killed him, they put the body into a sledge to carry it home ; the rein-deer which has been employed to draw it, is exempted from labour during the rest of the year; and means are also taken to prevent it from approaching any female. A new hut is constructed expressly for the purpose of cooking the flesh; and the huntsmen, joined by their wives, begin again their songs of joy, and of thanks to the animal for permitting them to return in safety *. Leems also acquaints us, that the Laplanders never presume to call the Bear by its proper*name of Guourlja, but term it “ the old man in the fur cloak,” because they esteem it to have the strength of ten men and the sense of twelve t. It is also said that the Bear is the great master of the Kamskatkans in medicine, surgery, and the polite arts. They observe the herbs he has recourse to when ill or wounded, and acknowledge him as their dancing-master, mimicking his attitudes and graces with great aptness{. Bear-dances, in which the gestures of the. animal are copied, are also common with the North American Indians.
The following extract § from the narrative of Mr. Alexander Henry, one of the first Englishmen who penetrated into the fur countries after the reduction of Canada under the British arms, will serve to contrast the manners of the Indians with those of the Laplanders, and it contains besides some remarks on the habits of the Bear peculiarly valuable as coming from an eye-witness worthy of all credit. “ Tn the course of the month of January, (whilst on the banks of Lake Michigan,) I happened to observe that the trunk of a very large pine-tree was much torn by the claws of a bear, made both in going up and down. On further examination, I saw that there was a large opening in the upper part, near which the smaller branches were broken. From these marks, and from the additional circum- stance that there were no tracks on the snow, there was reason to believe that a Bear lay concealed in the tree. On returning to the lodge, | communicated my discovery ; and it was agreed that all the family should go together, in the morn- ing, to assist in cutting down the tree, the girth of which was not less than three fathoms. The women, at first, opposed the undertaking, because our axes being only of a pound and a half weight, were not well adapted to so heavy a labour; but the hope of finding a large Bear, and obtaining from its fat a great quantity
* REGNARD’s Journ. to Lapland. (PINKERTON’s Voy. vol. i. p. 194.) + Lerms’s Danish Lapland. (Idem. vol. i. p. 485.)
+. Arctic Zoology, vol. i. p. 65. Introd.,’p. cxx.
§ Henry's Travels, p. 142.
..” MAMMALIA, 19
of oil, an article at the time much wanted, at length prevailed. Accordingly, in the morning, we surrounded the tree, both men and women, as-many at a time as could conveniently work at it; and there we toiled, like beavers, till the sun went down. This day’s work carried us about half-way through the trunk; and the next morning we renewed the attack, continuing it till about two o’clock in the _afternoon, when ‘the tree fell to the ground. For a few minutes every thing remained quiet, and I feared that all our expectations were disappointed; but as I advanced to the opening, there came out, to the great satisfaction of all our party, a Bear of extraordinary size, which, before she had proceeded many yards, I shot. .
“< The Bear being dead, all my assistants approached, and all, but more par- ticularly my old mother, (as I was wont to call her,) took his head in their hands, stroking and kissing it several times; begging a thousand pardons for taking away her life; calling her their relation and grandmother ; and requesting her not to lay the fault upon them, since it was truly an Englishman that had put her to death. ‘This ceremony was not of long duration ; and if it was I that killed their grandmother, they were not themselves behind hand in what remained to be per- formed. ‘The skin being taken off, we found the fat in several places six inches deep. This being divided into two parts loaded two persons; and the flesh parts were as much as four persons could carry. In all, the carcase must have exceeded five hundred weight. As soon as we reached ithe lodge, the Bear’s head was adorned with all the trinkets in the possession of the family, such as silver arm- bands, and wrist-bands, and belts of wampum ; and then laid upon a scaffold, set up for its reception, within the lodge. Near the nose was placed a large quantity of tobacco.
** The next morning no sooner appeared, than preparations were made for a feast to the manes. The lodge was cleaned.and swept; and the head of the Bear lifted up, and a new stroud blanket, which had never been used before, spread under it. The pipes were now lit; and Wawatam blew tobacco-smoke into the nostrils of the Bear, telling me to do the same, and thus appease the anger of the Bear, on account of my having killed her. I endeavoured to persuade my bene- factor and friendly adviser, that she no longer had any life, and assured him that I was under no apprehension from her displeasure ; but the first proposition obtained no credit, and the second gave but little satisfaction. At length the feast being ready, Wawatam made a speech, resembling, in many things, his
address to the manes of his relations and departed companions; and we then all D2
20 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
ate heartily of the Bear’s flesh. It is only the female Bear that makes her winter lodging in the upper parts of trees, a practice by which her young are secured from the attacks of wolves and other animals. She brings forth in the winter- season ; and remains in her lodge till the cubs have gained some strength. The male always lodges in the ground, under the roots of trees. He takes to this habitation as soon as the snow falls, and remains there till it has disappeared. The Indians remark, that the Bear comes out in the spring with the same fat which he carries in in the autumn; but, after the exercise of only a few days, becomes lean. Excepting for a short part of the season, the male lives con- stantly alone.”
La Hontan* has also given a very full account of the ceremonies attending a Bear-hunt by the Canadian Indians, which does not differ greatly from Mr. Henry’s. The women of the Chepewyan and Dog-rib tribes will not touch a bear’s skin, nor even step over it; so that one spread at the door of a tent is an effectual bar against female intruders. Even the men of some of the tribes refuse to eat bear’s flesh, or pemmican which contains bear’s grease. The Laplanders, also, prohibit their women from eating certain portions of a bear. ‘The flesh of a bear, when in good condition, resembles greasy and rather flabby pork ; and when the animal has been fed on the sea-coast, and by the banks of rivers, has also a fishy taste. The skin of a Black Bear, with the fur in prime order, and the claws appended, was, at one period, worth from twenty to forty guineas, and even more, but at present the demand for them is so small, from their being little used either for muffs or hammercloths, that the best, I believe, sell for less than forty shillings.
* La Hontan, Journal de Voy., vol. v. p. 169, et seg. See alsoScnHootcrort’s Narrative, &c., p. 183. .
MAMMALIA. 21
]9.] » 2. Ursus Arctos? Americanus. Barren-ground Bear.
Grizzly Bear. Hearnz’s Journey, passim. Brown Bear, variety 3, Grizzly. Prennant’s 4rct. Zool. vol. i. p. 62.
The Brown Bears of America are, by some authors, supposed to be merely varieties of the Black Bear of the preceding article; whilst others have con- sidered them to belong to a distinct species, whose identity, however, with the Brown Bear of Europe has not been ascertained; neither has any one given it a new specific appellation. ‘The obscurity in which the subject is involved has been increased by the accounts received from the natives of another species, named the Grisly Bear (Ursus ferox) having been amalgamated with the descriptions that authors have given of their Brown Bear. Warden* mentions a Brown Bear under the appellation ofthe “ Ranging Bear,” and says that it has the general shape of the Black Bear, but that its body and legs are longer, and that it is more ferocious when wounded. It is said to be an inhabitant of the United States, par- ticularly of the western districts; but it never came under our notice, and the remainder of this article has no relation to it. From the inquiries I made through- out the woody country from Lake Superior to Great Slave Lake, being ten degrees of latitude, I learnt that the natives of those districts are acquainted with only two species of Land Bear, viz., the Common Black Bear, including the cinna- mon-coloured and other varieties, and the Grisly Bear, which is confined to the lofty chain of the Rocky Mountains, and the extensive plains that skirt their bases. The barren lands, however, lying to the northward and eastward of Great Slave Lake, and extending to the Arctic Sea, are frequented by a species of Bear, which differs from the American Black Bear in its greater size, profile, physiognomy, longer soles, and tail; and from the Grisly Bear also, in colour and the compa- rative smallness of its claws. Its greatest affinity is with the Brown Bear of Norway ; but its identity with that species has not been established by actual comparison. It frequents the sea-coast in the autumn in considerable numbers, for the purpose of feeding on fish,
The general colour of this Bear is a dusky-(or sometimes yellowish)-brown, but
* WaRDEN’s United States.
92 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
the shoulders and flanks are, in the summer season at least, covered with long hair, which is frequently very pale towards the tips. The Indians and interpreters, who are not very precise in their application of the few terms they have to express varieties of colour, often denominate them ‘‘ White Bears.’’ Hearne calls them ‘‘ Grizzly Bears,” and some confusion has been produced by late writers having applied the same name to Lewis and Clark’s Ursus ferox. Pennant, who describes them as a variety of the American Black Bear, considers them at the same time to be of the same species with the ‘Silver Bear’’ that inhabits the north of Europe. It is, indeed, very probable, that the Brown Bear which Captain King informed Pennant was an inhabitant of Kamskatka, is of this species, which may, in fact, extend all.along the north of the old continent; but this, in the present state of our knowledge, is mere matter of conjecture. Mention is made in the narrative of Cook’s third voyage * of Bears of a brown or sooty colour inhabiting the American coast near Cook’s river. Langsdorff also informs us that Brown and Red Bears are abundant on the Aleutian Islands, where the Black Bear does not exist t. These authors do not furnish us with any details whereby the species may be determined ; but the Bears they mention live in similar districts with the Barren-ground Bear, and differ in that respect ‘from the Ursus ferox, which exists principally, perhaps only, in the buffalo districts.
The Indians dread the Barren-ground Bears, and are careful to avoid burning bones in their hunting encampments, lest the smell should attract them. Keskarrah, an old Indian mentioned in the Narrative of Captain Franklin’s first Journey, was seated at the door of his tent, pitched by a small stream not far from Fort Enterprise, when a large Bear came to the opposite bank, and remained for some time apparently surveying him. Keskarrah considering him- self to be in great danger, and having no one to assist him but his aged wife, made a speech to the following effect: ‘‘Oh Bear! I never did you any harm; I have: always had the highest respect for you and your relations, and never killed any of them except through necessity. Go away, good Bear, and let me alone, and I promise not to molest you.” The Bear walked off; and the old man, fancying that he owed his safety to his eloquence, favoured us, on his arrival at the fort, with his speech at length. The Copper Indians often cautioned us against these “ White Bears” of the barren lands, which they said would attack us if they saw us, but we received no such caution in travellmg through the districts
* Coox’s Third Voyage, vol. ii. p. 376. + Lanesporrr’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 74.
MAMMALIA. 23
frequented by the Black Bear. It does not, however, possess the boldness of the Ursus ferox, as all the individuals we saw fled at once. The Barren-ground Bear resorts to the coast of the Arctic Sea in the month of August, and preys indis- criminately upon animal and vegetable matters. In the stomach of one which I opened there were the remains of a seal, a marmot, a large quantity of the long sweet roots of some astragali and hedysara, together with some berries, and a little grass. Many long white worms adhered to the interior of the stomach which held this farrago. Hearne has given the name of Grizzle Bear Hill to an eminence which had been much ploughed up by the Bears in quest of the Arctomys Parryt, termed by him “ Ground Hog.’’ The appellation of “ grizzly,” first used by Hearne to designate this Bear, being also applied by the traders and American authors to the Ursus feror, I have given this one the ad interim name of Barren-ground Bear, until its difference from, or identity with, the Ursus. arctos of Linneus be fully established *.
DESCRIPTION.
We saw several of these animals during Captain Franklin’s first Expedition. An old and lean male, killed on the shores of the Arctic Sea on the Ist of August, 1821, was of a nearly uniform yellowish-brown colour, except on the forehead and back, where the tips of the fur were paler. The fur, which was straight, and of the fineness of coarse wool, was giving place to a thin coat of blackish hair. Its forehead was broad, and slightly convex, and the arch of the orbit rose conspicuously at the root of the nose, which was straight. The legs were long, and the claws, of an intermediate size between those of the Black and Grisly Bears, projected beyond the hairs, and were more pointed than the claws of the latter.
Dental formula, incisors =, canines =, spurious molars =, grinders #3 = 36,
The incisors were worn flat, except one on each side, which adjoined the canine-teeth, and which rose in a point above the others. The canines strong, conical, and slightly curved, projected an inch and a quarter above the gums. Two small and pointed spurious molar- teeth (dents espacées) rose on each side of the upper jaw, and were succeeded by three tuberculated molars that increased in size from the first to the last. The first of these was pointed anteriorly, and had a lobe posteriorly which exhibited the section of two points. The other two were worn quite flat; the second, or carnivorous-tooth, presented the section of two pairs of points ; and the last, and largest, the section of three pairs. In the lower jaw, one small spurious molar-tooth was situated close to the canines. The first of the true molars was pointed, without any flattened lobe; the remaining three differed little from each other in size, though the middle one was rather the largest; and their crowns were worn so smooth, that no vestige remained of the points they originally possessed.
* In the appendix to Captain Parry’s second voyage, from a hasty consideration of the subject, I erroneously stated the Barren-ground Bear to be the brown variety of the American Black Bear.
24 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
The dimensions of this individual were as follows * :-—
Feet. Inches, Feet. Inches. —
Length from the muzzle to the root of the tail 5 2 Length from anterior angle of the eye to the 5 Of tail A . . . 0 6 centre of the auditory opening . 0 10
Height from the sole of the fore-foot to the Distance from the tip of one ear to the tip top of the shoulder . Q ° » 2 9 of the other . s . 0 10
>> Of hind-quarters . . 52 6 Breadth of fore-foot, which was nearly cir- Length of muzzle from the nostrils to the an- cular 4 . - - 0 6 terior angle of the eye ; . 0 6 Length of the sole of the hind-foot - 0 10
[10.] 3. Ursus rerox. (Lewis and Clark.) Grisly Bear.
Grizzle Bear. UmrreviLLe’s Hudson’s Bay, p. 168. An. 1790.
Grisly Bear. MackErnzir’s Voyage, &c., p. 160. An. 1801.
White, or brown-gray Bear. Gass’ Journal of Lewis and Clark's Expedition, pp. 45, 116, 346. An. 1808.
Grisly, brown, white, and variegated Bear, (Ursus ferox) Lewis and Cranx’s Voyages, &c., vol. i. pp. 284, 293, 343, 375 ; vol. iii, pp. 25, 268. Anno 1814. Cuinron, Trans. Philos. and Liter. New York, vol. i. pp. 56, 114. An. 1815.
Grizzly Bear. Wanrprn’s United States, vol. i. p.197. An. 1819.
Grey Bear. Harmon’s Journey, p.417. An. 1820,
Ursus Cinereus. Drsmanest’s Mammal. No. 253. An. 1820.
Ursus horribilis. Say, Long's Expedition, vol. ii. p. 244, note 34. An, 1822.
Ursus Candescens. HamittTon Surtn, Griffith’s An. Kingdom, vol. ii. p. 229, and vol. v. No. 320. An. 1826.
Grizzly Bear. Gopman's Nat. Hist., vol.i. p. 131. An. 1826.
Meesheh musquaw. Crer InpDIAns.
Hohbhost. Cuorunnisu Inp1ans (Lewis and Clark).
PLATE I.
This animal has long been known to the Indians and fur traders as a distinet species, inferior to all the varieties of the Black Bear in the quality of its fur, and distinguished by its great strength and ferocity, its carnivorous disposition, the length of its claws, the breadth and length of its soles, and the shortness of its tail. _ It has attracted the attention of almost all travellers who have passed through the
districts it inhabits, and is mentioned in several of the earlier French writers on America under the title of Ours blanc, not that it is ever seen of a white colour like the Polar Bear, but because the Canadian Coureurs des bois who were, and who remain to this day, almost the only interpreters of the Indian languages, translated.
* Baron Cuvier describes the Ursus Arctos, or Brown Bear of Europe, as having the upper part of its cranium arched longitudinally and rounded laterally ; the forehead and occiput forming parts of the same curve, and there being no well-defined line of separation between the forehead, the middle portion of the parietal bones, and the temporal fosses. The sagittal suture beginning to be sensibly marked very near the occipital bones, and the nasal bones to be set in rather
obliquely to the rounded forehead, producing the appearance of a depression at the root of the nose. The sole of the hind-foot is of moderate length.— Ossemens Fossiles,
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MAMMALIA. 25
the terms used by the different tribes to signify hoary or light coloured, by the general epithet of blanc. Lewis and Clark, in their ably-executed Journey to the Shores of the Pacific, had numerous opportunities of observing its manners, and by their ample descriptions, first enabled naturalists to class it as a distinct species. It is true that Forster, long before, in his translation of Bossu’s Travels, had intimated that the “‘ White Bear of Louisiana’’ must be distinct from the Polar Bear, which it resembled in size, but the remark was suffered to pass unheeded. De Witt Clinton, in his discourse at the Institution of the New York Literary and Philosophical Scciety, is the first naturalist who, judging from Lewis and Clark’s account, clearly asserted that this animal was specifically different from either the Polar or common American Bears. Since that time the various synonymes prefixed to this article, in the order of their publication, have been assigned to it. The English name of Grisly has been adopted in this work as being less liable to objection than one founded on colour alone ; and the Latin translation of it, feroxr, which, as far as I have been able to ascertain, first occurs in Desmarest, and seems preferable to cinereus, is used for the specific appellation. Mr. Say, in the account of Major Long’s Expedition, gives a description of the Grisly Bear, drawn up from male and female specimens, preserved in the Phila- delphia Museum, and which, having been brought up in a state of confinement, were killed before they arrived at maturity. Figures of these specimens have been published in the American edition of Long’s Expedition, and in Godman’s Natural History. A young cub, caught on the Rocky Mountains, being brought to England by the Hudson’s Bay Company about eight years ago, has been kept in the Tower ever since, and there is a spirited engraving of it by Landseer, in Griffith’s Animal Kingdom. The etching, forming plate first of this work, is by the same able artist, the head being from that of an adult male, brought home by Mr. Drummond, and the form of the body and attitudes from the individual in the Tower, Iwas present at the death of a young Grisly Bear, killed at Carlton- house on the Saskatchewan. It was a male, in its second year, which being pur- sued by mounted hunters, was overtaken after an hour’s chase, through snow one foot deep. The hunters approached boldly, trusting in the fleetness of their horses ; although, from the size of its foot-prints, they were fully aware that it was a Grisly Bear, even before they saw it*. The skin and scull of this individual are now preserved in the Museum of the Edinburgh University, and a figure of it is given in the sixth number of the very excellent Illustrations of Zoology by Wilson.
* MAcxkENZIE mentions the foot-marks of a Grisly Bear as being nine inches long and proportionably wide. The foot-marks of the young one mentioned in the text were of equal dimensions.
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26 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
Pye
DESCRIPTION. - A
The Grisly Bear has been well compared by Mr. Say with the Norwegian variety of the Ursus Arctos, to which it has a great resemblance in its general appearance. Its fur is long, and mostly of a dark brown colour, with paler tips, that on the flanks being generally lighter coloured in the summer season, and there is frequently a considerable admixture of gray = hairs on the head. The whole muzzle is pale, without the dark central stripe which the _ Black Bear has. It is distinguished from the Brown and Black Bears, by shorter and more hs conical ears, placed further apart, and white, arched, and very long claws, compressed like the :
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incisors of a squirrel, carrying their breadth on their upper surface, nearly to the tips, but chamfered away as it were beneath. They project far beyond the hair of the foot, and cut like a chisel when the animal strikes a blow with them. The forehead is broad, flattish, and continued nearly in a line with the nose, but there is in the older animals a distinct projection of the superciliary ridges of the frontal bone. The soles of its feet are longer and its heel is broader than those of the Brown Bear of Europe. Its tail is very small, so as to be hidden by the hair of the buttocks, and it is a standing joke among the Indian hunters, when they have killed a Grisly Bear, to desire any one unacquainted with the animal to take hold of its
tail. The tail of the Black Bear is conspicuous enough, and that of the Barren-ground Bear 5 is still longer *.
The strength and ferocity of the Grisly Bear are so great that the Indian hunters use much precaution in attacking them. They are reported to attain a weight exceeding eight hundred pounds, and Lewis and Clark mention one that measured nine feet from the nose to the tail, and say that they had’ seen a still larger one, but do not give its dimensions. This is far above the usual size of other Land Bears, and equals the larger specimens of the Polar Bear. Governor Clinton received an account of one fourteen feet long, from an Indian Trader, but even admitting that there was no inaccuracy in the measurement, it is probable that it was taken from the skin after it was removed from the body, when it is known to be capable of stretching several feet. The strength of this Bear may be estimated from its having been known to drag toa considerable distance the carcass of a
* “ Two men visited. the Indian village (on one of the upper branches of the Columbia) where they purchased a dressed bear skin, of an uniform pale reddish-brown colour, which the Indians called yackah, in contradistinction to hohhost, or the White Bear. This remark induced us to inquire more particularly into their opinions as to the several species of hears, and we therefore produced all the skins of that animal which we had killed at this place, and also one very nearly white, which we had purchased. The natives immediately classed the white, the deep and the pale grizzly- red, the grizzly dark-brown, in short, all those with the extremities of the hair of a white or frosty colour, without - regard to the colour of the ground of the fur, under the name of hohhost. They assured us that they were all of the ~ same species with the White Bear ; that they associated together, had longer nails than the others, and never climbed trees. On the other hand, the b/ack skins, those which were b/ack with a number of entire white hairs intermixed, or with a white breast, the uniform bay, the brown, and light reddish-brown, were ranged under the class yackah, and were said to resemble each other in being smaller, and having shorter nails than the White Bear, in climbing trees, and being so little vicious, that they could be pursued with safety.”—Lewis anp Cxark, vol. iii. p. 215.
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MAMMALIA. QT
Baffalo, weighing about one thousand pounds. The following story is well authen- ticated. A party of voyagers, who had been employed all day in tracking a eanoe up the Saskatchewan, had seated themselves in the twilight by a fire, and were busy in preparing their supper, when a large Grisly Bear sprung over their canoe that was tilted behind them, and seizing one of the party by the shoulder carried him off. The rest fled in terror with the exception of a Metif, named Bourasso, who, grasping his gun, followed the Bear as it was retreating leisurely with its prey. He called to his unfortunate comrade that he was afraid of hitting him if he fired at the Bear, but the latter entreated him to fire immediately, without hesitation, as the Bear was squeezing him to death. On this he took a deliberate aim, and discharged his piece into the body of the Bear, which instantly dropped its prey to pursue Bourasso. He escaped with difficulty, and the Bear ultimately retreated to a thicket, where it was supposed to have died ; but the curiosity of the party not being a match for their fears, the fact of its decease was not ascertained. The man who was rescued had his arm fractured, and was otherwise severely bitten by the Bear, but finally recovered. I have seen Bourasso, and can add that the account which he gives is fully credited by the traders resident in that part of the country, who are best qualified to judge of its truth from their know- ledge of the parties. I have been told that there is a man now living in the neighbourhood of Kdmonton-house, who was attacked by a Grisly Bear, which sprung out of a thicket, and with one stroke of its paw completely scalped him, laying bare the scull, and bringing the skin of the forehead down over the eyes. Assistance coming up, the Bear made off without doing him further injury, but the scalp not being replaced, the poor man has lost his sight, although he thinks that his eyes are uninjured.
Mr. Drummond, in his excursions over the Rocky Mountains, had frequent opportunities of observing the manners of the Grisly Bears, and it often happened that in turning the point of a rock or sharp angle of,a valley, he came suddenly upon one or more of them. On such occasions they reared on their hind legs and made a loud noise like a person breathing quick, but much harsher. He kept his ground without attempting to molest them, and they on their part, after attentively regarding him for some time, generally wheeled round and galloped off, though, from their known disposition, there is little doubt but he would have been torn in pieces had he lost his presence of mind and attempted to fly. When he dis- covered them from a distance, he generally frightened them away by beating on a large tin box, in which he carried his specimens of plants. He never saw
more than four together, and two of these he supposes to have been cubs; he E2
28 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
more often met them singly or in pairs. He was only once attacked, and then by a female, for the purpose of allowing her cubs time to escape. His gun on this oceasion missed fire, but he kept her at bay with the stock of it, until some gentlemen of the Hudson’s Bay Company, with whom he was travelling at the time, came up and drove her off. In the latter end of June 1826, he observed a male caressing a female, and soon afterwards they both came towards him, but whether accidentally, or for the purpose of attacking him, he was uncertain. He ascended a tree, and as the female drew near, fired at and mortally wounded her. She uttered a few loud screams, which threw the male into a furious rage, and he reared up against the trunk of the tree in which Mr. Drummond was seated, but never attempted to ascend it. The female, in the meanwhile retiring to a short distance, lay down, and as the male was proceeding to join her, Mr. Drummond shot him also. From the size of their teeth and claws, he judged them to be about four years old. The cubs of the Grisly Bear can climb trees, but when the animal is fully grown it is unable to do so, as the Indians report, from the form of its claws. Two instances are related by Lewis and Clark, and I have heard of several others, where a hunter having sought shelter in a tree from the pursuit of a Grisly Bear, has been held a close prisoner for many hours, by the infuriated animal keeping watch below. The Black and Brown or even the Polar Bear ascend trees with facility. Some interesting anecdotes of contests with this Bear, selected from the narratives of Lewis and Clark, Major Long, and others, are related in Godman’s Natural History, to which the reader is referred.
The Grisly Bears are carnivorous, but occasionally eat vegetables, and are ob- served to be particularly fond of the roots of some species of psoralea and hedysarum. They also eat the fruits of various shrubs, such as the bird-cherry, choke-cherry, and hippophde Canadensis. The berries of the latter produce a powerful cathartic effect upon them. Few of the natives, even of the tribes, who are fond of the flesh of the Black Bear, will eat of the Grisly Bear, unless when pressed by hunger. Say and Gass mention a method which the Shoshonee or Snake Indians have of baking Bear’s flesh in a pit filled with alternate layers of brush-wood and meat, and covered with earth *, which is nearly similar to the way in which the natives of the South-sea Islands prepare their dogs and hogs.
The Grisly Bear inhabits the Rocky Mountains and the plains lying to the east- ward of them, as far as latitude 61°, and perhaps still farther north. Its southern range, according to Lieutenant Pike, extends to Mexico. ‘There is a Brown
* Gass’s Journal, &c., p. 311.
MAMMALIA. 29
Bear on the Andes of Peru, but whether it is of this species or not is not known *. Lewis and Clark could not ascertain that the Grisly Bear at all inhabited the country between the western declivity of the Rocky Monntains and the sea-coast, and remark that those which they saw about the great falls of the Columbia were more variegated in colour, and of a milder disposition than those near the sources of the Missouri, but certainly of the same species. Mr. Drummond observes that the Grisly Bears are most numerous in the woody country skirting the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, particularly in districts which are interspersed with open prairies and grassy hills. They vary, he says, much in colour, from a very light gray to a dark chestnut. The latter variety is common about the sources of the Peace River, and, according to the Indians, is more ferocious than the gray one. The Black Bear, which inhabits the same districts, and frequently varies there to a cream-colour, never associates with the Grisly Bear.
The young Grisly Bears and gravid females hibernate, but the older males often come abroad in the winter in quest of food. Mackenzie mentions the den or winter retreat of a Grisly Bear, which was ten feet wide, five feet high, and six feet long. These dens are named watee by the Indians. As this Bear comes abroad before the snow disappears, its foot-marks are frequently seen in the spring, and when there is a crust on the snow, the weight of the animal often causes it to crack and sink for a yard or more round the spot trod upon. ‘These impressions, somewhat obscured by a partial thaw, have been considered by the inexperienced as the vestiges of an enormously large quadruped, and the natives, although perfectly aware of the cause of the marks, are prone by their observations to heighten the wonder they perceive to be excited by them. Many reports of the existence of live Mammoths in the Rocky Mountain range, have, I doubt not, originated in this manner, Necklaces of the claws of a Grisly Bear are highly prized by the Indian warriors as proofs of their prowess.
* ConDAMINE’s Travels, p. 82. Utioa’s Voyage, 461 (quoted from Arctic Zoology, p. clxx.)
30 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
[10.] 4, Ursus Maritimus. (Lin.) Polar or Sea Bear.
White Bear. ManrtTen’s Spitz. Trans., p. 107, t. O, fig.c. An. 1675.
Ursus Maritimus. Lin. Syst.
Ursus Albus. Brisson, Réegne Animal, p- 260, sp. 2. An. 1756.
L’ours Blanc. Burron, vol. xv. p. 128. An. 1767.
Ursus Marinus. Pauwas’s I2. vol. iii. p. 691, e¢ SP1IcEL. Zool. xiv. t.1. An. 1780.
Polar Bear. PENNaNT’s Arctic Zoology, p. 53, and Introd. pp. Ixxxix and cxciii. An. 1784.
Ursus Albus. Ross's Voy., App. p. xliv. with a plate of the head, p. 199. An, 1820.
Ursus Maritimus. Parry’s First Voy., Supp. p. clxxxiii. FRranxiin’s First Journey, p. 648. Parnry’s Second Voy., App. p. 288.
Bear, Lyown’s Private Journal, pp. 13 and 377. An. 1824,
Wawpusk (pl. Wawpuskwuck). CrreE INDIANS.
Nannook. EsQuimaux. Nennook, GREENLANDERS.
Buffon had many doubts as to the Sea or Polar Bear being a distinct species from the Land Bear, of which there are white varieties in the northern countries. He acknowledges, however, that the distinctive characters which Marten, one of its earliest describers, has pointed out, would, if correct, establish it as a peculiar species. A further acquaintance with the animal has fully confirmed Marten’s observations.
DESCRIPTION.
The Polar Bear is distinguished from the other species by its narrow head and muzzle pro- longed on a straight line with the flattened forehead; its short ears; long neck; the greater length of its body in proportion to its height; the soles of the hind-feet equalling one-sixth of the length of its body ; and, lastly, the quality of its fur, which is very thick and long on the body, still more so on the limbs, and everywhere of a yellowish-white colour, The naked extremity of the snout, the tongue, margins of the eyelids, and claws, are black; the lips purplish- black ; the eyes dark brown, and the interior of the mouth pale violet.
I have met with no account of any Polar Bear, killed of late years, which exceeded nine feet in length, or four feet and a half in height. It is possible that larger individuals may be occasionally found; but the greatness of the dimensions attributed to them by the older voyagers has, I doubt not, originated in the skin having been measured after being much stretched in the process of flaying. Marten, who seems to have been a correct observer, expressly states that . the Polar Bear is of the same size with the German Bears.
The great power of the Polar Bear is portrayed in the segcn of a disastrous accident which befel the crew of Barentz’s vessel on his second voyage to Waigats Straits. ‘‘On the 6th of September, 1594, some sailors landed to search for a
MAMMALIA, 31
certain sort of stone, a species of diamond. During this search, two of the seamen lay down to sleep by one another, anda White Bear, very lean, approach- ing softly, seized one of them by the nape of the neck. The poor man, not knowing what it was, cried out, ‘Who has seized me thus behind?’ on which his companion, raising his head, said, ‘ Holloa, mate, it is a Bear,’ and immediately ran away. The Bear having dreadfully mangled the unfortunate man’s head, sucked the blood. The rest of the persons who were on shore, to the number of twenty, immediately ran with their matchlocks and pikes, and found the Bear devouring the body, which, on seeing them, ran upon them, and carrying another man away, tore him to pieces. This second misadventure so terrified them, that they all fled. They advanced again, however, with a reinforcement, and the two pilots having fired three times without hitting the animal, the purser approached a little nearer, and shot the Bear in the head, close by the eye. This did not cause him to quit his prey, for, holding the body, which he was devouring always by the neck, he carried it away as yet quite entire. Nevertheless, they then perceived that he began himself to totter, and the purser and a Scotchman going towards him, they gave him several sabre wounds, and cut him to pieces, without his abandoning his prey *.”
In Barentz’s third voyage, a story is told of two Bears coming to the carcass of a third one that had been shot, when one of them, taking it by the throat, carried it to a considerable distance, over the most rugged ice, where they both began to eat it. They were scared from their repast by the report of a musket, and a party of seamen going to the place, found that, in the little time they were about it, they had already devoured half the carcase, which was of such a size that four men had great difficulty in lifting the remainder{. In a manuscript account of Hudson’s Bay, written about the year 1786, by Mr. Andrew Graham, one of Pennant’s ablest correspondents, and preserved at the Hudson’s Bay House, an anecdote of a different description occurs. “One of the Company’s servants who was tenting abroad to procure rabbits (Lepus Americanus), having occasion to come to the factory for a few necessaries, on his return to the tent passed through a narrow thicket of willows, and found himself close toa White Bear lying asleep. As he had nothing wherewith to defend himself, he took the bag off his shoulder and held it before his breast, between the Bear and him. ‘The animal arose on seeing the man, stretched himself and rubbed his nose, and having satisfied his curiosity by smelling at the bag, which contained a loaf of bread and a rundlet of strong beer,
* CHURCHILL’s Coll. of Voy., vol.i. p. 88. + Ibid., vol. i, p. 115.
32 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
walked. quietly away, thereby relieving the man from his very disagreeable situation,”
The Polar Bears feed chiefly on animal substances, and as they swim and diye well, they hunt seals and other marine animals with great success. They are even said to wage war, though rather unequally, with the Walrus. They feed likewise on land animals, birds, and eggs, nor do they disdain to prey on carrion, or, in the absence of other food, to seek the shore in quest of berries and roots, They scent their prey from a great distance, and are often attracted to the whale vessels by the smell of burning ‘reng, or the refuse of the whale blubber. Captain Lyons thus describes the mode in which the Polar Bear surprises a seal. ‘* The Bear, on seeing his intended prey, gets quietly into the water, and swims to leeward of him, from whence, by frequent short dives, he silently makes his approaches, and so arranges his distance, that, at the last dive, he comes to the spot where the seal is lying. Ifthe poor animal attempts to escape by rolling into the water, he falls into the Bear's clutches; if, on the contrary, he lies still, his destroyer makes a powerful spring, kills him on the ice, and devours him at leisure.” The same writer describes the pace of the Polar Bear, at full speed, as “a kind of shuffle, as quick as the sharp gallop of a horse.”
The principal residence of the Polar Bear is on fields of ice, with which he frequently drives to a great distance from the land. In this way they are often carried from the coast of Greenland to Iceland, where they commit such ravages on the flocks, that the inhabitants rise in a body to destroy them. Captain Sabine mentions that he saw one about mid-way between the north and south shores of Barrow’s Straits, which are forty miles apart, although there was no ice in sight to which he could resort to rest himself upon ; and Captain Lyons informs us, that the Polar Bears not only swim with rapidity, but are capable of making long springs in the water. They are not known to travel far inland. They have been found in higher latitudes than any other quadruped, having been seen by Captain Parry in his most adventurous boat-voyage beyond 82 degrees of north latitude, The limit of their incursions southward on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, and of Labrador, may be stated to be about the 55th parallel. They are often seen about York Factory in the autumn, having most probably drifted from the north- ward on the ice during the summer. Pennant, who has collected, from good authorities, much information relative to their range, states, that they are frequent on all the Asiatic coasts of the Frozen Ocean, from the mouth of the Obi east- ward, and abound in Nova Zembla, Cherry Island, Spitzbergen, Greenland, Labrador, and the coasts of Baffin’s and Hudson’s Bays. They were seen by
MAMMALIA. 33 Captain Parry within Barrow’s Straits as far as Melville Island ; and the Esquimaux, to the westward of Mackenzie’s river, told Captain Franklin that they occasionally, though very rarely, visited that coast. The exact limit of their range to the westward is uncertain, but they are said not to be known on the islands in Behring’s Straits, nor on the coast of Siberia to the eastward of Tchutskoinoss. They are not mentioned by Langsdorff and other visiters of the north-west coast of America; nor did Captain Beechey meet with any in his late voyage to Icy Cape. None were seen on the coast between the Mackenzie and Copper Mine River; and Pennant informs us, that they are unknown along the shores of the White Sea, which is an inlet of a similar character.
The Polar Bear being able to procure its food in the depth of even an Arctic winter, there is not the same necessity for its hibernating that exists in the case of the Black Bear, which feeds chiefly on vegetable matters ; and it is probable, that, although they may all retire occasionally to caverns in the snow, the pregnant females alone seclude themselves for the entire winter. It is mentioned in Le Roy’s narrative of the residence of four Russian seamen for six winters in Spitzbergen, and also in the account of Barentz’s winter in Nova Zembla, that the Bears disappeared with the sun, and returned again with that luminary, after an absence in the one case of four months, and in the other of three. Their retire- ment has been considered by some as a proof of their hibernation ; but, I think, the most probable explanation of it is that they went out to sea in search of food. Polar Bears were seen in the course of the two winters that Captain Parry remained on the coast of Melville Peninsula; and the Esquimaux of that quarter derive a considerable portion of their subsistence not only from the flesh of the female Bears, which they dig together with their cubs from under the snow, but also from the males that they kill when roaming at large at all periods of the winter. Hearne states with more precision, and, I believe, from actual observa- tion, that the males leave the land in the winter time and go out on the ice to the edge of the open water in search of seals, whilst the females burrow in deep snow- drifts from the end of December to the end of March, remaining without food, and bringing forth their young during that period; that when they leave their dens in March, their young, which are generally two in number, are not larger than rabbits, and make a foot-mark in the snow no bigger than a crown piece. He also informs us that the males are found in company with the females in August, and then exhibit great attachment to them. Mr. Andrew Graham’s observations, written before the publication of Hearne’s Narrative, confirm the account given by
that traveller. “In winter,” says he, “the White Bear sleeps like other species of F
34 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
the genus, but takes up its residence in a different situation, generally under the declivities of rocks, or at the foot of a bank, where the snow drifts over it to a great depth; a small hole, for the admission of fresh air, is constantly observed in the dome of its den. This, however, has regard solely to the she-Bear, which retires to her winter-quarters in November, where she lives without food, brings forth two young about Christmas, and leaves the den in the month of March, when the cubs are as large as a shepherd’s dog. If perchance her offspring are tired, they ascend the back of the dam, where they ride secure either in water or ashore. Though they sometimes go nearly thirty miles from the sea in winter, they always come down to the shores in the spring with their cubs, where they subsist on seals and sea-weed. The he-Bear wanders about the marshes and adjacent parts until November, and then goes out to the sea upon the ice, and preys upon seals. They are very fat, and though very inoffensive if not meddled with, they are very: fierce when provoked *.”’ | Captain Lyons records the Esquimaux account of the hibernation of the Polar Bear in the following words: “ From Ooyarrakhioo, a most intelligent man, I ob- tained an account of the Bear, which is too interesting to be passed over in silence. ‘At the commencement of winter, the pregnant Bears are very fat, and always solitary. When a heavy fall of snow sets in, the animal seeks some hollow place in which she can lie down, and remains quiet, while the snow covers her. Some- times she will wait until a quantity of snow has fallen, and then digs herself a cave: at all events, it seems necessary that she should be covered by and lie amongst the snow. She now goes to sleep, and does not wake until the spring sun is pretty high, when she brings forth two cubs. ‘The cave, by this time, has become much larger, by the effect of the animal’s warmth and breath, so that the cubs have room enough to move, and they acquire considerable strength by con- tinually sucking. The dam at length becomes so thin and weak, that it is with great difficulty she extricates herself, when the sun is powerful enough to throw a strong glare through the snow which roofs the den.’ The Esquimaux affirm that during this long confinement the Bear has no evacuations, and is herself the means of preventing them by stopping all the natural passages with moss, grass, or earth. The natives find and kill the Bears during their confinement by means of dogs, which scent them through the snow, and begin scratching and howling very eagerly. As it would be unsafe to make a large opening, a long trench is cut of sufficient width to enable a man to look down, and see where the Bear’s head lies,
* Grauam, MSS. p. 20.
MAMMALIA. 35
and he then selects a mortal part into which he thrusts his spear. The old one being killed, the hole is broken open, and the young cubs may be taken out by the hand, as, having tasted no blood and never having been at liberty, they are then very harmless and quiet. Females which are not pregnant roam throughout the whole winter in the same manner as the males. The coupling time is May.’
The flesh of the Polar Bear is, as stated by Captain Phipps (Lord Mulgrave), exceedingly coarse. The Russian sailors who wintered in Spitzbergen, found it, on the other hand, much more agreeable to the taste than the flesh of the rein- deer. I quote this fact here, not to show that there was any thing peculiarly gross in the taste of the Russians, but to have an opportunity of remarking, that when people have fed for a long time solely upon lean animal food, the desire for fat meat becomes so insatiable, that they can consume a large quantity of un- mixed, and even oily fat, without nausea. Our seamen relish the paws of the Bear, and the Esquimaux prefer its flesh at all times to that of the seal. Instances are recorded of the liver of the Polar Bear having poisoned people.
The reader who is desirous of fuller accounts of the manners and habits of this very curious animal will be gratified by turning to Marten’s Spitzbergen, Fabricius’ Fauna Groenlandica, Pennant’s Arctic Zoology, and Scoresby’s Account of the Arctic Regions. I subjoin some well-authenticated measurements of Polar Bears.
Captain Phipps. Captain Ross. Captain Lyon. Feet. Inches. Feet. Inches. Feet. Inches. Length from nose to tail 5 5 a 1 7 10 8 ves 3 the shoulder-blade 2 3 2) 0 0 0 Height at the shoulder 4 4 3 4 1 4 9 Girth near the fore-legs 7 0 6 0 7 ll >> Of the neck 2 1 3 2 3 41 Breadth of the fore-paw 0 7 * 0 10 0 10 J hind-paw 0 0 0 8 0 0 Length from nostrils to hind head 0 0 1 6 ] 6 > Of fore-claws 0 0 0 23 0 24 ~£ of hind-claws 0 0 0 1¢ 0 1k = of tail 0 0 0 4 0 5 Weight ; : . ° 610 lbs. 3 1160 lbs. - 1600 Ibs *.
* Captain Lyon states that his specimen was unusually large.
> 1) NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
[11.] 1. Procyon Loror. (Cuvier.) The Raccoon.
GENUvs Procyon, Storr. CuviER.
Ursus lotor, Lin. GMELIN. vol. i. p. 103.
Le Raton. Burron, vol. viii. pp. 337, t. xliii.
Raccoon Bear. PENNANT’s Arct. Zool., vol.i. p. 69. ;
Procyon lotor. CuviER’s Régne An., vol. i. p.143. SaBINE, Frankl. Jour., p. 649. HarLan. Faun., p, 53. The Raccoon, Gopman’s Nat. Hist., vol, i. p. 163,
This animal inhabits the southern parts of the fur districts, being found as far north as Red River, in latitude 50°, from which quarter about one hundred skins are procured annually by the Hudson’s Bay Company. If there is no mistake as to the identity of the species, the Raccoon extends farther north on the shores of the Pacific than it does on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. Dixon and Portlock obtained cloaks of Raccoon skins from the natives of Cook’s River, in latitude 60°, and skins, supposed to be of the Raccoon, were also seen at Nootka Sound by Captain Cook. Lewis and Clarke expressly: state that the Raccoon, at the mouth of the Columbia, is the same with the animal so common in the United States. Desmarest says that the Raccoon extends as far south as Paraguay. It is an animal, with a fox-like countenance, but with much of the gait of a Bear, and being partially plantigrade, it was classed by Linneus in the genus Ursus, In the wild state, it sleeps by day, comes from its retreat in the evening, and prowls in the night in search of roots, fruits, green corn, birds and insects. It is said to eat merely the brain, or suck the blood of such birds as it kills. At low water it frequents the sea-shore to feed on crabs and oysters. It is fond of dipping its food into water before it eats, which occasioned Linneeus to give it the specific name of lotor. It climbs trees with facility. The fur of the Raccoon is used in the manufacture of hats, and its flesh, when it has been fed on vegetables, is reported to be good. The live animal is often seen in English menageries.
DESCRIPTION.
The Raccoon has a round head, with a narrow, tapering nose, which projects considerably beyond the mouth. The end of the nose is naked and black, and it possesses much flexibility. The lips are also black. The eyes are round and moderately large; the pupils circular, The low, erect ears are elliptical, with their tips much rounded, and, together with their edges, are of a soiled white colour. The whiskers are strong. The muzzle is covered with short hairs, of a
\
LABRADORIA,
WW
WN
{Wor WS NUIGSAS Nw AWS Ds S
MELES-
4
iq A otis
~ SSS SE COS SRA Aa
MAMMALIA. 37
soiled white colour. This pale colour passes in the form of a band round the cheek and over the eyes, A dark mark includes the eye and cheek, on each side, and there is also a mark of a similar colour between the eyes, continued from the forehead. ‘The dark colour is produced by a mixture of grey, dark-brown and black hairs. The back is grizzled, its fur consisting of dirty white hairs, ringed with black. The belly is considerably paler. The tail is bushy, like the brush of a fox, and has adirty white colour, with about six dark rings round it. The extremities are short, and all the feet have five toes, armed with long, strong claws, fitted for burrowing. There is a fulness of the skin on the flanks, which adds to the apparent shortness of the limbs. The animal walks on the hind and fore toes, but when it sits, brings the whole hind sole to the ground, and it often assumes an erect posture like a Bear.
Carver quaintly describes the Raccoon as having the limbs of a beaver, the body of a
badger, the head of a fox, the nose of a dog, the tail of a cat, and sharp claws, by which it climbs trees like a monkey.
DIMENSIONS. Feet. Inches. Feet. Inches, Length of head and body . 5 2 0 Length of tail (vertebre) 0 : 0 : oa head ‘ ° : : 0 6 Height of the back . 4 : “ 1 1
[12.] 1. Meres Lasraporia. (Sabine.) American Badger.
Genus. Meles. Brisson.
Carcajou. Burron, tom. vi. p. 117, pl. 23. (édit. de Paris en 36 vol. 1749-1789.) Quadrupédes enlum. 295. Common Badger. PENNaNT’S Arctic Zoology, vol.i. p. 71.
Badger var. 6. American. PENNANT’s Hist. Quadr., vol. ii. p. 15.
Ursus Labradoricus. Lin. GmMELtn, vol. i. p. 102.
Prarow. Gass’s Journal, p.34,
Blaireau. Lewis anp CLarKkeE’s Voyage, &c. vol. i. pp. 50, 137, 213.
Taxus Labradoricus. Say, Long’s Exped., vol. i. p. 261.
Meles Labradoria. SaBine, Franklin’s First Journ, p. 649. Harian’s Fauna, p. 57. American Badger. GopMman’s Nat. Hist., vol.i. p. 179.
Blaireau d’Amérique. F. Cuvier, Hist. Nat. des Mamm. cum figura.
Brairo et Siffeur. Frencu Canapians.
Naunaspache-neeskeshew. Mistonusk, (also awawteek@oo, ‘* the animal that digs.”) CreE Inprans. Chocartoosh, PAWNEEs.
Puate 2.
Buffon, in the body of his great work, doubts whether the Badger be an inhabitant of the American continent, notwithstanding that M. Brisson had
38 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
described a small quadruped from New York, under the name of Meles alba*. Brisson’s animal, according to M. Desmarest, proved to be merely an albino variety of the Raccoon {; but Buffon afterwards, in the first addition to his article on the Glutton, described the skin of a true Badger, which he received, it is said, from Labrador, under the misapplied name of Carcajout. His specimen was imperfect, having only four toes the fifth having been rubbed off, as he supposes, in stuffing ; and Gmelin, who adopted the opinion of Schreber in considering it to be a distinct species from the European Badger, carelessly allowed “ palmis tetradactylis’” to form part of the specific character. Shaw pointed out the differences between the two species more perfectly, and his observations have been confirmed and extended by Mr. Sabine, who described a specimen, obtained on the plains of the Saskatchewan by Captain Franklin’s party. Kalm says that he saw the common Badger in Pennsylvania, where it is known by the name of the Ground Hog§. I suspect, however, that there is some mistake in his observation, because recent American naturalists do not mention it as an inhabitant of that state ; and the appellation of Ground Hog is applied by the country people to the marmots and several other animals that have the habit of burrowing in the earth ||. If there be, indeed, a true Badger on the Atlantic coast, it must differ in habits, and be perhaps a distinct species from the one described by Mr. Sabine, which inhabits a district of country very different in character. For the same reason, I have some doubts of Buffon’s specimen having come from Labrador §]. The Blaireaux, seen by Lewis and Clarke on the plains of the Missouri, are doubtless specifically the same with those of the ad- joining and similar Saskatchewan country; and even the Brairo, which the same travellers describe as an inhabitant of the open plains, and sometimes of the woods, of Columbia, presents no character, in their account of it, which denote it to be distinct from the Saskatchewan animal, except the curious and perhaps accidental circumstance of a double nail, like the Beaver’s, on one of the toes of each hind foot.
The Meles Labradoria frequents the sandy plains or prairies which skirt the Rocky Mountains as far north as the banks of the Peace River, and sources of
* Brisson, Regne An., p. 255.
+ DesmareEst’s Mamm., p. 168 and 174.
t The name of Carcajou belongs properly to the Wolverene.
§ Kaxm’s Travels, vol. i. p. 189.
|| Gass, indeed, in noticing the Badgers of the Missouri, says that they are about the size of aground hog, and nearly of the same colour.—Gass’s Journal, p. 34.
q Buffon says “ qu’il venoit du pays des Esquimaux,” but in fact it may have been brought actually from the banks of the Saskatchewan by some of the Canadian fur hunters.
MAMMALIA. , 39:
the River of the Mountains, in latitude 58°. It abounds on the plains watered by the Missouri, but its exact southern range has not, as far as I know, been defined by any traveller. The sandy prairies, in the neighbourhood of Carlton-house, on the banks of the Saskatchewan, and also on the Red River, that flows into Lake Winipeg, are perforated by innumerable Badger-holes, which are a great annoy- ance to horsemen, particularly when the ground is covered with snow. These holes are partly dug by the Badgers for habitations; but the greater number of them are merely enlargements of the burrows of the Arctomys Hoodi and Richardsonii, which the Badgers dig up and prey upon.
Whilst the ground is covered with snow, the Badger rarely or never comes from its hole; and I suppose that in that climate it passes the winter from the beginning of November to April in a torpid state. Indeed, as it obtains the small animals on which it feeds by surprising them in their burrows, it has little chance of digging them out at a time when the ground is frozen into a solid rock. Like the Bears, the Badgers do not lose much flesh during their long hiberna- tion, for, on coming abroad in the spring, they are observed to be very fat. As they pair, however, at that season, they soon become lean.
This Badger is a slow and timid animal, taking to the first earth it comes to when pursued ; and as it makes its way through the sandy soil with the rapidity of a mole, it soon places itself out of the reach of danger. The strength of its fore-feet and claws is so great, that one which had insinuated only its head and shoulders into a hole, resisted the utmost efforts of two stout young men who endeavoured to drag it out by the hind legs and tail, until one of them fired the contents of his fowling-piece into its body. Early in the spring, however, when they first begin to stir abroad, they may be easily caught by pouring water into their holes ; for the ground being frozen at that period, the water does not escape through the sand, but soon fills the hole, and its tenant is obliged to come out.
The American Badger appears to be a more carnivorous animal than the European one. A female which I killed had a small marmot, nearly entire, together with some field-mice, in its stomach. It had also been eating some vegetable matters.
DESCRIPTION Of a female American Badger, killed at Carlton-house, in the latter end of April.
Its fur is very soft and fine, about three inches and a half long on the back, of a purplish- brown colour from the roots upwards, variegated with narrow black rings near its summits, and tipped with white, producing a pleasant and somewhat mottled or hoary gray colour, but
40. NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
exhibiting no brown tints when the fur lies smooth. The upper surface of the head is of a darker colour, bisected by a narrow white line, which runs from the nose to the nape of the. neck. This white stripe is bounded by dark fur, which gradually fades into gray and white as it approaches the ears. A grayish-brown patch includes the eye, and extends to the tip 0 the nose. There is also a brownish patch on the cheek before the ears, but the rest of the cheek, the under-jaw, and the throat are white. Its belly is thinly coated with coarser whitish hairs, its legs are of a blackish-brown colour, and its tail of a dirty brown. It is low on its legs, has a broad, fleshy body, a flattish head, and very short, round ears. Its claws are long, strong, and of a pale horn colour. The molar teeth are remarkably smooth and flat on the crowns for an omnivorous animal. It measures two feet six inches from the nose to the root of the tail, and the length of its tail is six inches.
The European Badger differs totally from the American one, in its dark- coloured, much coarser, and shorter fur; in the well-defined white lines on the head, in its more conspicuous ears, which are black tipped with white, and in having a larger head. The differences betwixt these animals are detailed in the following quotation from Mr. Sabine :—
‘‘ The American Badger is generally less in size, and of a lighter make; the head, though equally long, is not so sharp towards the nose, and the markings on the fur are remarkably different ; a narrow white line runs from between the eyes towards the back, the rest of the upper part of the head is brown, the throat and whole under jaw are white, the cheeks partly so ; a semicircular brown spot is placed between the light part of the cheeks and the ears ; the white marking extends in a triangular form a little above the eyes, and below the eyes in a line towards the fore part of the mouth, but the whole eye lies within the dark colour of the upper part of the head, which colour runs in a sharp angle at the corner of the eye into the white. The European Badger has three broad white marks; one on the top of the head and one on each side, and between them are two broad black lines, which include the eyes and ears; and the whole under parts of the throat and jaw are black. The upper parts of the body and sides in the American animal are covered with rather long, fine, grayish hairs, which in the other are darker, coarser, and longer ; the under parts in the former are lighter than the upper, in the latter they are darker; the legs in the first are dark brown, in the other quite black; and though the animal is of larger size generally, its nails, which are dark, are smaller than the light horn-coloured nails of the American species ; and, finally, the tail of the European Badger is longer than that of the American,”
The specimen of the American Badger which Mr. Sabine comments upon, was two feet two inches long, excluding the tail, which was three inches long. Buffon’s specimen was two feet four inches in length, exclusive of the tail. He remarks that it had one molar tooth of a side fewer than the European Badger, and he compares the colour of its fur to that of the Canada lynx. The specimen of Meles’ Labradoria, in the Zoological Museum, certainly very much resembles the lynx in
MAMMALIA. Al
the colours of the upper aspect of its body. The Tlacoyotl, seu Coyotlhunwli of Fernandez, seems to be very like the Meles Labradoria. <“‘ Inveni in agro -Tetzcocano animal pilosum valde, vocatum Tlalcoyotl, duas longum spithamas, unguibus melis, aut Quauhpecotli similibus, brevibus cruribus et nigro vestitis pilo, brevissima cauda, corpore toto ex albo vergente in fulvum, sed dorso, ac superna parte capitis, et colli nigris, lineaque distinctis candenti; caput est parvum, rostrum tenue, et longiusculum, canini exerti, ac vita victusque eadem quee Quauhpecotli, i. e. vorax est, nullisque parcit oblatis escis, nec tamen editur ejus caro*.”’ The Ytzcuintecuani, and the Quauhpecotli, or Meles montanus or Texon, of the same author, are probably of nearly allied genera. The latter has a long tail.
[13.] 1. Guto Luscus. (Sabine.) The Wolverene.
Genus. Gulo. Storr. CuviER.
Carcajou. La Hontan, Voyage, vol. i. p. 81. An. 1703.
Quickhatch or Wolverene. Extis’s Voy. Hudson’s Bay, p. 42, t.iv. An. 1748. Epwarps,¢. 103.
Ursus luscus. Linn. Syst. p.71. Linn. GMELIN, vol. i. p.103.
Ursus Freti Hudsonis. Brisson, Quadr., p. 188. An. 1756.
Wolverene. PENNANT’S Hist. Quadr., vol. ii. p. 8, 4.8. Arctic Zool., vol. i. p.66. HEARNE's Journey, p. 372.
Wolverin, Quiquihatch, or Carcajou. GraHam’s MSS., p. 13.
Gulo arcticus, var. A. Glouton wolverene. DEsmarEest, Mamm., p. 174.
Gulo luscus. Sabine (Capt.) Suppl. Parry’s First Voy. clxxxiv. Sanine (Mr.) Franklin's First Journey, p. 650. RicHarpson’s Append., Parry’s Second Voy., p. 292.
Kablee-arioo, Esqguimaux. Naghai-eh. CHEPEWYANS.
Ommeethatsees, okeecoohagew, and okeecoohawgees. CrEE INDIANS.
Carcajou. FRENCH CANADIANS. Quickehatch. ENeLisnH RESIDENTS AT Hupson’s Bay.
The glutton of the northern parts of Europe, the rossomak of the Russians, has attracted the attention of naturalists from the many extravagant stories which have been told of its extraordinary voracity, and of its method of procuring relief when over-distended with food. Olaus Magnus, who, according to Buffon, is the earliest writer that mentions this animal, has collected the popular notions of its habits, though without giving full credit to them himself; and his account has
* FRANCISCI FERNANDEZ (Phillipi Secundi Prim. Medico) Hist. Anim. Nove Hisp., cap. xxxvii. p. 12. G
42 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
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 of jerf, in the language of that .country, of wi/fras, in German, and rosomaka, 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 squeez- ing 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 trait 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 of 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 Jarger 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}. This character seems to be entirely fictitious, and to have partly originated in the name of ‘‘elutton”? 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 carcqouw, 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 felis, 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 Quickehatch, which is evidently derived from its Cree or Algonquin name of ofee-coo-haw-gees, and
* OLaus Maenvus, 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.
MAMMALIA. 43
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 Coureurs des bois, to the same source (ohkee-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 of 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 begining 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 along way. Mr. Graham observes that ‘‘ the Wolverenes are extremely mis- chievous, 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 ofa partridge ora 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 con- siderable distance from the trap. Drifts of snow often conceal the repositories thus made of the martens from the hunter, 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 sup- posing 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
44 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
‘Wolverene, although it is reported to defend itself with boldness and success against the attack of other quadrupeds, flies from the face of man, and makes. but a poor fight with a hunter, who requires no other arms than a stick to kill it.
It brings forth from two to four young once a year. The cubs are covered . with a downy fur, of a pale or cream colour. It is found throughout the whole northern parts of the American continent, from the coast of Labrador and Davis’ Straits to the shores of the Pacific and the islands of Alaska. It even visits the islands of the Polar sea, its bones having been found in Melville island, nearly in latitude 75°. It is not rare in Canada, but the extent of its range to the south-' ward is not mentioned by American writers.
DESCRIPTION.
This animal has a broad compact head, which is suddenly rounded off on every side to form the nose. In the shape of its jaws it resembles a dog. Its ears are low, rounded, and much hid by the surrounding fur. The back is arched; the tail low and bushy; the legs thick and short, and the whole aspect of the animal indicates strength, without much activity.. The fur bears a great similarity to that of the black bear, but is not so long, nor of so much value. It is in general of a dark brown colour, passing in the height of winter almost into black. A pale reddish-brown band, more or less distinct in different individuals, and sometimes fading into soiled brownish-white, commences behind the shoulder, and run- ning along the flanks, turns up on the hip and unites with its fellow on the rump. The short tail is thickly covered with long black hair. There are some white markings on the throat and between the fore-legs, which are not constant in size or number. The legs are brownish-black. This animal places its feet on the ground much in the manner of a bear, and imprints a track on the snow or sand, which is often mistaken for that of the bear by Europeans on their first arrival in the fur countries. The Indians distinguish the tracks at the first glance by the length of the steps. The claws are strong and sharp.
DIMENSIONS.
ee!
Length of head and body X F 2 0 tail (vertebre) B . 4 0 7
SS tail with fur : 0
MAMMALIA. ADS
[14.] 1. Musrezva (Purorrus) vurearis. (Lin.) The Common “piri i, in Weasel. |
Genus. Mustela. Linn. Sub-genus. Putorius. Cuvier. Mustela vulgaris. Lin. GMELIN, 1, p. 99. Mustela nivalis. Lin. Fauna Suec., ii., p. 7. Common Weasel. .PENNANT, Arctic Zool. i., p. 75. Putorius vulgaris. Cuvier, Régne An. Mustela vulgaris. Harzan. Faun.,i., p. 61. No. 49. Musrum Zoot, SociEry.
It is stated in Arctic Zoology, that this species inhabits the Hudson’s Bay coun- tries, Newfoundland, and the United States, as far south as Carolina, becoming in cold districts white in winter, like the Ermine. It is omitted in Godman’s account of the animals of the United States; and the Prince of Musignano is of opinion that what has been considered as the common weasel in the United States, is merely the ermine in its summer dress. Both species, however, are indubitably inhabitants of the American continent, the ermine extending to the most remote arctic districts, and the Weasel as far to the north, at least, as the Saskatchewan river. Captain Bayfield presented the Zoological Society with specimens of the Common Weasel, killed on the borders of Lake Superior, which agree in all respects with the European species, and I obtained similar specimens at Carlton House. ; |
DESCRIPTION.
The Weasel very much resembles the ermine ; but it is a much smaller animal, has a flatter’ forehead, a narrower and longer nose, and a much shorter tail. Its fur, short and of inferior quality, has, in summer, a dull yellowish-brown colour, deepening into chestnut brown on the upper part of the head and nose, and at the tip of the tail into blackish-brown. The under parts are yellowish-white, as are also the whole of the feet, and the interior of the legs and thighs. The entire of the under jaw is pure white, and the white extends half along the upper lip, terminating opposite the anterior part of the orbit, or at the posterior row of whiskers. The upper part of the cheek, between the white at the angle of the mouth, and the orbit, is included in the brown colour of the head. The tail is of the same colour above and- below. The brown and white colours join by a straight well-defined line on the sides of the neck and belly, the latter colour occupying nearly one-third less of the circumference of the body than the brown. The claws are smaller and more curved than those of the ermine, and the extremities are more slender, but longer in proportion to its size.
46 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. DIMENSIONS Of an old female killed at Carlton House. Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines, Length of the head and body . 9 0 Height of the ear. . 0 2 a head . we I 8 From tip of the nose to the anterior point 33 tail (v i) : . 2 0 of the orbit ° * 0 6 os 5 including hair 2 10
The Weasels of the fur countries become white in winter like the Ermine, and are not distinguished from them by the traders.
Rese 2. Mustera (Purorius) erminea. (Lin. Gmel.) The Ermine, or Stoat.
Mustela erminea. Lin. GMELIN.,, i. p. 98.
Stoat-weasel. PENNANT, Arciic Zool., i., p. 75.
Mustela erminea. Parry’s First Voy., Suppl. clxxxv. Franx1in’s First Journey, p. 652. Parry’s Second Voy., App. p. 294. Liyon’s Private Journal, pp. 82—107.
Seegoos and Shacooshew. Cree Inprans. Terreeya. EsquimMaux.
This well-known and very handsome little animal is a common inhabitant of
America, from its most northern limits to the middle districts of the United States ; and many specimens, both in the brown winter and white summer fur, were brought home by the late expeditions of discovery. It is a bold animal, and often domesticates itself in the habitations of the fur traders, where it may be heard the livelong night pursuing the white-footed mouse (AZus leucopus). Captain Lyon mentions his having seen an ermine hunt the footsteps of mice, like a hound after a fox, and he also describes their mode of burrowing in the snow. “TI now observed,” says he, “ a curious kind of burrow, made by the ermines, which was pushed up in the same manner as the tracks of moles through the earth in England. These passages run in a serpentine direction, and near the hole or dwelling-place the circles are multiplied, as if to render the approach more intricate.”’ The same lively writer relates the manners of a captive ermine as follows :—‘‘ He was a fierce little fellow, and the instant he obtained day-light in his new dwelling, he flew at the bars, and shook them with the greatest fury,
‘*
MAMMALIA. Aq
uttering a very shrill passionate cry, and emitting the strong musky smell which I formerly noticed. No threats or teasing could induce him to retire to the sleeping place, and whenever he did so of his own accord, the slightest rubbing on the bars was sufficient to bring him out to the attack of his tormentors. He soon took food from the hand, but not until he had first used every exertion to reach and bite the fingers which conveyed it. This boldness gave me great hopes of being able to keep my little captive alive through the winter, but he was killed by an accident.”
According to Indian report, the ermine brings forth ten or twelve young at a time. In the time of Charlevoix, ermine-skins formed part of the menues pelletries exported from Canada; but their value at present is so little, that they do not repay the Hudson’s Bay Company the expense of collecting ; hence very few are brought to England from that quarter.
DESCRIPTION.
The ermine has a convex nose and forehead, a long slender body, and long cylindrical tail, with short and rather stout limbs. Its ears are low and rounded, and go more than half round the auditory opening. They are proportionably higher than the ears of the common weasel. In the winter time the fur in some specimens is of a pure white colour throughout, except on the end of the tail, which, together with a few of the anterior whiskers, are black. In other specimens there is a bright primrose-yellow tinge on the belly, the posterior part of the back, or the tail. The feet in the winter are clothed with hair on the soles, which projects so as to conceal the claws. In the summer the soles are nearly naked, and the fur on the upper parts resembles that of the common weasel in colour.
DIMENSIONS Of a specimen killed at Fort Franklin, Great Bear Lake. ; _Inches. _ Lines, Inches. Lines. Length of headandbody . » . Ii 0 Length of head 5 : . 2 3 Sole tail (vertebra) - 4 0 Height of ear . : . oY ap) 3k = 5, including fur . 5 0 Distance between orbit and end of nose 0 6
In the neighbourhood of Carlton House there is a variety of a larger size, having a longer
tail and longer fore-claws.
DIMENSIONS, ‘ Inches. ‘Lines. Length of head and_body 4 é f 12 0 5 tail (vertebrae) . » : : 5 A
99 >> including fur * ¢ 6 6
48 ; NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
[16.] 3. Musrera (Purorivs) vison. (Lin. Gmel.) The Vison-W easel.
Otay. Sacarp TuHEopat, Hist. du Can. p. 749. An. 1636. Foutereau. La Honran, Voyage, i. p. 81. An, 1703.
Mink. Katm, Journ.
Le vison. Byrron, xiii. p. 308, t. 43.
Mustela vison. Lin. GMEL, i. p. 94.
Minx. Lawson, Carol., p. 121.
Mustela lutreola? Forsrer, Phil. Trans., lxii. p. 371.
Minx Otter. PENNanT, Arctic Zool., i. p. 87.
Vison-Weasel. Ixsip. i. p. 78.
Jackash. HEARNE, Journey, p.376. Grauam, MSS., p. 6. Mustela vison. Cuvier, Régne An., i. p. 150, t. 1. fig. 2. Mustela lutreola. Sabine, Franklin’s Journ., p. 652.
Mustela vison et M. lutreocephala. Hanrian, Fauna, pp. 63, 65. The Mink. Gopman, Wat. Hist. i. p. 206.
Vison Weasel. Britiso Museum.
Shakweshew or Atjackashew. CREE INDIANS.
Mink. Hupson’s Bay TrapERrs. Foutereau. CANADIAN VOYAGERS.
This animal is very similar to the mustela lutreola of the north of Europe, in form; and the name of menk, applied to the latter, is supposed by Pennant, with great probability, to have been transferred to the former by some Swedish colonists. La Hontan mentions a sort of small amphibious Weasels, under the name of Foutereaux, which is the appellation of the minks to this day amongst the French Canadian voyagers. « Buffon described a specimen from Canada, pre- served in the museum of M. Aubry, under the name of Vison, and gives a correct figure, except that the form of the tail of the specimen had been spoiled in mounting. Pennant admits the Vison into his list of species, having had merely an imperfect view of M. Aubry’s specimen through its glass-case, and not recog- nising it to be the same with his minx or lesser otter, which he considers as identical with the Mustela lutreola. Forster, who received a Vison from Hudson’s Bay, under the name of mink, expresses a doubt of its being the latter species ; and Baron Cuvier has placed the European mink in his sub-genus Putorius, whilst he ranges the Vison amongst the true martens. The Hudson’s Bay Vison has the teeth of the polecats. I have not been able to trace the origin of the term Vison ; but a list of the furs exported to France, presented by a Montreal merchant to Kalm in 1749, informs us, that ‘the visons, or foutereaux, are a kind of martins that live in the water.” There is no animal of the genus mustela inhabiting the
MAMMALIA. 49
northern parts of America, which'can be said to live in the water but the Vison ; the fisher, notwithstanding its name, being as much a land animal as the pine- martin.
The Vison passes much of its time in the water, and when pursued seeks shelter in that element in preference to endeavouring to escape by land, on which it travels slowly. It swims and dives well, and can remain a considerable time under water. Its short fur, forming a smooth glossy coat, its tail exactly like that of an otter, and the shortness of its legs, denote its aquatic habits. It preys upon small fish, fish-spawn, fresh-water mussels, &c., ia the summer ; but in the winter, when its watery haunts are frozen over, it will hunt mice on land, or travel to a considerable distance through the snow in search of a rapid or fall, where there is still some open water. Under the article Mustela Canadensis, the mistakes which have arisen from the habits of this ores having been attributed to the Pekan or Fisher, are pointed out. then irritated, exhales, next to the Skunk, the most fetid smell of any ani the fur-countries. The odour resides in a fluid secreted by two ¢ ands Ritieted at the-anns. . Hovis -not very timid when in the water, and will approach near to a canoe out of curiosity, diving however instantly on perceiving the flash of a gun, or any movement from whence it appre- hends danger*. It is easily tamed, and is capable of strong attachment. Ina domestic state it is observed to sleep much in the day, and to be fond of warmth. One, which I saw in the possession of a Canadian woman, passed the day in her pocket, looking out occasionally when its attention was roused by any unusual _noise. Like a cat, a tame Vison is easily offended, and will, on a sudden provo- cation, bite those who are most kind to it. It is fond of being caressed. The fur of the Vison is of little value, and at many of the remote parts their skins are taken by the traders from the Indians merely to accommodate the latter, but are afterwards burnt, as they will not repay the expense of carriage. The fur, however, is very fine, although short, and is likely, in the revolutions of fashion, to become valuable again.
We saw the Vison on the banks of Mackenzie’s River as far north as latitude 66°, and there is every reason to believe that it ranges to the mouth of that river, in ee 69°. Itis a common animal throughout the whole breadth of the continent of America, and we are told by Pennant that it exists as far south as Carolina. It has from four to seven young at a time.
* It resembles a musk-rat in its mode of swimming, and is shot in the water in like manner, by the hunters, as La Hontan has remarked. ‘ H
a. * NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
DESCRIPTION.
Dental formula, incisors &, canines =, grinders = = 34.
The Vison has an anterior molar less in both jaws than the American pine-martin; but the teeth of the two species differ in shape merely in the antipenultimate or carnivorous tooth of the lower jaw having only a slightly salient angle, in place of the interior very minute point, which exists on the lower carnivorous tooth of the martin, Size.—Less than the pine-martin, but, from the greater length of its neck, it measures nearly as much from the nose to the tail. Shape.—The head is depressed and small; the nose short, flat, and thick; the eyes small, and far forward ; the ears low, nearly semicircular, and covered with short fur. The neck is long, and the body is long and slender, and has much flexibility. The legs are’ short, and the toes are connected by short hairy webs that are completely concealed by the fur, which is as long on the feet both above and below, as on the legs. The claws are nearly straight, sharp, and white, and scarcely project beyond the fur. The tail is round and thick at the root, from whence it tapers gradually to the tip, exactly resembling the tail of an otter in form. In the prepared specimens, the part of the tail next the body is usually too slender, whilst towards the tip it is over-stuffed, causing the hairs to stand out, and giving it a bushy appearance con- trary to nature,
The fur is short on the head, and is longest on the posterior part of the body and tail. It is of two sorts—a very dense down, and longer and stronger hairs. The tips of the latter form a smooth shining coat both on the body and tail, which completely conceals the down. The colour of the down is intermediate betwixt brown and gray, being nearly that which Werner denominates brocoli-brown. The colour of the surface of the fur is chocolate or umber-brown ; a little paler on the head and belly, but deepening on the tail and posterior part of the back into blackish-brown. The lower jaw is white, with a narrow brown mark at
the apex; and there are occasionally some white markings on the throat, but they are not -
constant either in number or size. The whiskers are of the same colour with the fur, and are shorter than the head, but remarkably strong. There are two brown-coloured glands situated in the hollow between the tuberosities of the ischium and the tail, which have each a small cavity capable of containing a garden pea, and lined by a white, wrinkled membrane. The fluid they secrete is very fetid.
w DIMENSIONS. Inches. Lines, : Fathent Lines. Length of head and body - s 17 0 Distance from centre of orbit to end of nose 1 1) x tail, including fur , 8 6 on end of nose to auditory opening 2 oS
3 head! : eye” ’ 3 3 Breadth between the ears a he 2 0.
MAMMALIA. -
[17.] 4. Musrera