generally most so on the barren ground, near the sea-coast.
Notwithstanding what has been said of this animal only visiting the
settlements once in five or seven years,[129] I can affirm there is not
one year in twenty that they are not caught in greater or less numbers
at Churchill; and I have known that for three years running, not less
than from two hundred to four hundred have been caught each year within
thirty miles of the Fort. They always come from the North along the
coast, and generally make their appearance at Churchill about the middle
of October, but their skins are seldom in season till November; during
that time they are never molested, but permitted to feed round the Fort,
till by degrees they become almost domestic. The great numbers of those
animals that visit Churchill River in some years do not all come in a
body, as it would be impossible for the fourth part of them to find
subsistence by the way; but when they come near the Fort, the carcasses
of dead whales lying along the shores, and the skin and other offal,
after boiling the oil, {364} afford them a plentiful repast, and prove
the means of keeping them about the Fort till, by frequent
reinforcements from the Northward, their numbers are so far increased as
almost to exceed credibility.
When their skins are in season, a number of traps and guns are set, and
the greatest part of them are caught in one month, though some few are
found during the whole Winter. I have frequently known near forty killed
in one night within half a mile of Prince of Wales's Fort; but this
seldom happens after the first or second night. When Churchill River is
frozen over near the mouth, the greatest part of the surviving white
Foxes cross the river, and direct their course to the Southward, and in
some years assemble in considerable numbers at York Fort and Severn
River. Whether they are all killed, or what becomes of those which
escape, is very uncertain; but it is well known that none of them ever
migrate again to the Northward. Besides taking a trap so freely, they
are otherwise so simple, that I have seen them shot off-hand while
feeding, the same as sparrows in a heap of chaff, sometimes two or three
at a shot. This sport is always most successful in moon-light nights;
for in the daytime they generally keep in their holes among the rocks,
and under the hollow ice at high-water-mark.
These animals will prey on each other as readily as on any other animals
they find dead in a trap, or wounded by gun; which renders them so
destructive, that I have known upwards of one hundred and twenty Foxes
of different {365} colours eaten, and destroyed in their traps by their
comrades in the course of one Winter, within half a mile of the Fort.
The Naturalists seem still at a loss to know their breeding-places,
which are doubtless in every part of the coast they frequent. Several of
them breed near Churchill, and I have seen them in considerable numbers
all along the West coast of Hudson's Bay, particularly at Cape
Esquimaux, Navel's Bay, and Whale Cove, also on Marble Island; so that
with some degree of confidence we may affirm, that they breed on every
part of the coast they inhabit during the Summer season. They generally
have from three to five young at a litter; more I never saw with one old
one. When young they are all over almost of a sooty black, but as the
fall advances, the belly, sides, and tail turn to a light ash-colour;
the back, legs, some part of the face, and the tip of the tail, changes
to a lead colour; but when the Winter sets in they become perfectly
white: the ridge of the back and the tip of the tail are the last places
that change to that colour; and there are few of them which have not a
few dark hairs at the tip of the tail all the Winter. If taken young,
they are easily domesticated in some degree, but I never saw one that
was fond of being caressed; and they are always impatient of
confinement.
[Sidenote: The White Fox.]
WHITE FOXES, when killed at any considerable distance from the sea
coast, (where they cannot possibly get any {366} thing to prey upon,
except rabbits, mice, and partridges,) are far from being disagreeable
eating. And on Marble Island I have shot them when they were equal in
flavour to a rabbit; probably owing to their feeding entirely on eggs
and young birds; but near Churchill River they are as rank as train-oil.
[Sidenote: The Lynx, or Wild Cat.]
The LYNX, or WILD CAT,[130] is very scarce to the North of Churchill;
but is exactly the same as those which are found in great plenty to the
South West. I have observed the tracks of this animal at Churchill, and
seen them killed, and have eaten of their flesh in the neighbourhood of
York Fort. The flesh is white, and nearly as good as that of a rabbit.
They are, I think, much larger than that which is described in the
Arctic Zoology; they never approach near the settlements in Hudson's
Bay, and are very destructive to rabbits; they seldom leave a place
which is frequented by rabbits till they have nearly killed them all.
[Sidenote: The Polar or White Bear.]
The POLAR or WHITE BEAR,[131] though common on the sea-coast, is seldom
found in its Winter retreats by any of our Northern Indians, except near
Churchill River; nor do I suppose that the Esquimaux see or kill any of
them more frequently during that season; for in the course of many years
residence at Churchill River, I scarcely ever saw a Winter skin brought
from the Northward by the sloop. Probably the Esquimaux, if they kill
any, may {367} reserve the skins for their own use; for at that season
their hair is very long, with a thick bed of wool at the bottom, and
they are remarkably clean and white. The Winter is the only season that
so oily a skin as the Bear's can possibly be cleaned and dressed by
those people, without greasing the hair, which is very unpleasant to
them; for though they eat train-oil, _&c._ yet they are as careful as
possible to keep their clothes from being greased with it. To dress one
of those greasy skins in Winter, as soon as taken from the beast, it is
stretched out on a smooth patch of snow, and there staked down, where it
soon freezes as hard as a board: while in that state, the women scrape
off all the fat, till they come to the very roots of the hair. It is
sometimes permitted to remain in that position for a considerable time;
and when taken from the snow, is hung up in the open air. The more
intense the frost, the greater is its drying quality; and by being
wafted about by the wind, with a little scraping, it in time becomes
perfectly supple, and both pelt and hair beautifully white. Drying deer,
beaver, and otter skins, in this manner render their pelts very white,
but not supple; probably owing to the close texture and thickness of
their skins; whereas the skin of the bear, though so large an animal, is
remarkably thin and spungy.[BY]
[Sidenote: The Black Bear.]
{368} BLACK BEARS[132] are not very numerous to the North West of
Churchill. Their manner of life is the same as the rest of the species,
though the face of the country they {369} inhabit, differs widely from
the more mild climates. In Summer they proul about in search of berries,
_&c._ and as the Winter approaches, retire to their dens, which are
always under-ground; and generally, if not always, on the side of a
small hillock. The Bears that inhabit the Southern parts of America are
said to take up their Winter abode in hollow trees; but I never saw any
trees in my Northern travels, that could afford any such shelter.
The places of retreat of those Bears that burrow under-ground are easily
discovered in Winter, by the rime that hangs about the mouth of the den;
for let the snow be ever so deep, the heat and breath of the animal
prevents the mouth of the den from being entirely closed up. They
generally retire to their Winter quarters before the snow is of any
considerable depth, and never come abroad again (unless disturbed) till
the thaws are considerable, which in those high latitudes is seldom till
the latter end of March, or the beginning of April; so that the few
Black Bears that inhabit those cold regions may be said to subsist for
four months at least without food. I have been present at the killing
[of] two of them in Winter; and the Northern Indian method is similar to
that said to be in use among the Kamtschatkans; for they always blocked
up the mouth of the den with logs of wood, then broke open the top of
it, and killed the animal either with a spear or a gun; but the latter
method is reckoned both cowardly and wasteful, as it is not possible for
the Bear either to make its escape, or to do the Indians the least
injury. {370} Sometimes they put a snare about the Bear's neck, and draw
up his head close to the hole, and kill him with a hatchet. Though those
animals are but scarce to the North of Churchill, yet they are so
numerous between York Fort and Cumberland House, that in one thousand
seven hundred and seventy-four I saw eleven killed in the course of one
day's journey, but their flesh was abominable. This was in the month of
June, long before any fruit was ripe, for the want of which they then
fed entirely on water insects, which in some of the lakes we crossed
that day were in astonishing multitudes.[BZ][133]
The method by which the Bears catch those insects is by swimming with
their mouths open, in the same manner as the whales do, when feeding on
the sea-spider. There was not one of the Bears killed that day, which
had not its stomach as full of those insects (only) as ever a hog's was
with grains, and when cut open, the stench from them was intolerable. I
have, however, eaten of some killed at that early season which were very
good; {371} but they were found among the woods, far from the places
where those insects haunt, and had fed on grass and other herbage. After
the middle of July, when the berries begin to ripen, they are excellent
eating, and so continue till January or February following; but late in
the Spring they are, by long fasting, very poor and dry eating.
The Southern Indians kill great numbers of those Bears at all seasons of
the year; but no encouragement can prevent them from singeing almost
every one that is in good condition: so that the few skins they do save
and bring to the market, are only of those which are so poor that their
flesh is not worth eating.[CA] In fact, the skinning of a Bear spoils
the meat thereof, as much as it would do to skin a young porker, or a
roasting pig. The same may be said of swans (the skins of which the
Company have lately made an article of trade); otherwise thousands of
their skins might be brought to market annually, by the Indians that
trade with the Hudson's Bay Company's servants at the different
settlements about the Bay.
[Sidenote: The Brown Bear.]
BROWN BEARS[134] are, I believe, never found in the North-Indian
territories: but I saw the skin of an enormous {372} grizzled Bear at
the tents of the Esquimaux at the Copper River;[135] and many of them
are said to breed not very remote from that part.
[Sidenote: The Wolverene.]
The WOLVERENE[136] is common in the Northern regions, as far North as
the Copper River, and perhaps farther. They are equally the inhabitants
of woods and barren grounds; for the Esquimaux to the North of Churchill
kill many of them when their skins are in excellent season: a proof of
their being capable of braving the severest cold. They are very slow in
their pace, but their wonderful sagacity, strength, and acute scent,
make ample amends for that defect; for they are seldom killed at any
season when they do not prove very fat: a great proof of their being
excellent providers. With respect to the fierceness of this animal which
some assert, I can say little, but I know them to be beasts of great
courage and resolution, for I once saw one of them take possession of a
deer that an Indian had killed, and though the Indian advanced within
twenty yards, he would not relinquish his claim to it, but suffered
himself to be shot standing on the deer. I once saw a similar instance
of a lynx, or wild cat, which also suffered itself to be killed, before
it would relinquish the prize. The Wolverenes have also frequently been
seen to take a deer from a wolf before the latter had time to begin his
repast after killing it. Indeed their amazing strength, and the length
and sharpness of their claws, render them capable of making a strong
resistance against {373} any other animal in those parts, the Bear not
excepted. As a proof of their amazing strength, there was one at
Churchill some years since, that overset the greatest part of a large
pile of wood, (containing a whole Winter's firing, that measured upwards
of seventy yards round,) to get at some provisions that had been hid
there by the Company's servants, when going to the Factory to spend the
Christmas holidays. The fact was, this animal had been lurking about in
the neighbourhood of their tent (which was about eight miles from the
Factory) for some weeks, and had committed many depredations on the game
caught in their traps and snares, as well as eaten many foxes that were
killed by guns set for that purpose: but the Wolverene was too cunning
to take either trap or gun himself. The people knowing the mischievous
disposition of those animals, took (as they thought) the most effectual
method to secure the remains of their provisions, which they did not
chuse to carry home, and accordingly tied it up in bundles and placed it
on the top of the wood-pile, (about two miles from their tent,) little
thinking the Wolverene would find it out; but to their great surprise,
when they returned to their tent after the holidays, they found the pile
of wood in the state already mentioned, though some of the trees that
composed it were as much as two men could carry. The only reason the
people could give for the animal doing so much mischief was, that in his
attempting to carry off the booty, some of the small parcels of
provisions had fallen down into the heart of the pile, and {374} sooner
than lose half his prize, he pursued the above method till he had
accomplished his ends. The bags of flour, oatmeal, and pease, though of
no use to him, he tore all to pieces, and scattered the contents about
on the snow; but every bit of animal food, consisting of beef, pork,
bacon, venison, salt geese, partridges, _&c._ to a considerable amount,
he carried away. These animals are great enemies to the Beaver, but the
manner of life of the latter prevents them from falling into their
clutches so frequently as many other animals; they commit vast
depredations on the foxes during the Summer, while the young ones are
small; their quick scent directs them to their dens, and if the entrance
be too small, their strength enables them to widen it, and go in and
kill the mother and all her cubs. In fact, they are the most destructive
animals in this country.[CB]
[Sidenote: The Otter.]
OTTERS[137] are pretty plentiful in the rivers to the North of
Churchill, as far as latitude 62°; farther North I do not recollect to
have seen any. In Winter they generally frequent those parts of rivers
where there are falls or rapids, which do not freeze in the coldest
Winters; because in {375} such situations they are most likely to find
plenty of fish, and the open water gives them a free admission to the
shore, where they sometimes go to eat the fish they have caught; but
most commonly sit on the ice, or get on a great stone in the river. They
are frequently seen in the very depth of Winter at a considerable
distance from any known open water, both in woods and on open plains, as
well as on the ice of large lakes; but it is not known what has led them
to such places: perhaps merely for amusement, for they are not known to
kill any game on the land during that season. If pursued when among the
woods in Winter, (where the snow is always light and deep,) they
immediately dive, and make considerable way under it, but are easily
traced by the motion of the snow above them, and soon overtaken. The
Indians kill numbers of them with clubs, by tracing them in the snow;
but some of the old ones are so fierce when close pursued, that they
turn and fly at their pursuer, and their bite is so severe that it is
much dreaded by the Indians. Besides this method of killing them, the
Indians have another, which is equally successful; namely, by concealing
themselves within a reasonable gun-shot of the Otters usual
landing-places, and waiting their coming out of the water. This method
is more generally practised in moon-light nights. They also shoot many
of them as they are sporting in the water, and some few are caught in
traps.
The Otters in this, as well as every other part of the bay, vary in size
and colour, according to age and season. {376} In Summer, when the hair
is very short, they are almost black, but as the Winter advances, they
turn to a beautiful dark auburn, except a small spot under the chin,
which is of a silver gray. This colour they retain all the Winter; but
late in the Spring (though long before they shed their coat) they turn
to a dull rusty brown; so that a person who is acquainted with those
changes can tell to a great nicety, by looking at the skins, (when
offered for sale,) the very time they were killed, and pay for them
according to their value. The number of their young is various, from
three to five or six. They unite in copulation the same as a dog, and so
do every other animal that has a bone in the _penis_. I will here
enumerate all of that description that I know of in those parts, _viz._
bears of all sorts, wolves, wolvereens, foxes, martins, otters, wejacks,
jackashes, skunks, and ermines.[CC]
[Sidenote: The Jackash.]
JACKASH.[138] This animal is certainly no other than the lesser Otter of
Canada, as its colour, size, and manner of life entirely correspond with
the description of that animal in Mr. Pennant's Arctic Zoology. They,
like the larger Otter, are frequently found in Winter several miles from
any water, and are often caught in traps built for martins. They are
supposed to prey on mice and partridges, the same as the martin; but
when by the side of rivers or {377} creeks, they generally feed on fish.
They vary so much in size and colour, that it was very easy for Mr.
Pennant to have mistaken the specimen sent home for another animal. They
are the easiest to tame and domesticate of any animal I know, except a
large species of field-mice, called the Hair-tailed Mouse; for in a very
short time they are so fond, that it is scarcely possible to keep them
from climbing up one's legs and body, and they never feel themselves
happier than when sitting on the shoulder; but when angry, or
frightened, (like the skunk,) they emit a very disagreeable smell. They
sleep very much in the day, but prowl about and feed in the night; they
are very fierce when at their meals, not suffering those to whom they
are most attached to take it from them. I have kept several of them, but
their over-fondness made them troublesome, as they were always in the
way; and their so frequently emitting a disagreeable smell, rendered
them quite disgusting.
[Sidenote: The Wejack, and Skunk.]
Though the WEJACK[139][CD] and SKUNK[140] are never found in the
Northern Indian country, yet I cannot help observing that foetid smell
of the latter has not been much exaggerated by any Author. When I was at
Cumberland {378} House, in the Fall of one thousand seven hundred and
seventy-four, some Indians that were tenting on the plantation killed
two of those animals, and made a feast of them; when the spot where they
were singed and gutted was so impregnated with that nauseous smell which
they emit, that after a whole Winter had elapsed, and the snow had
thawed away in the Spring, the smell was still intolerable. I am told,
however, that the flesh is by no means tainted with the smell, if care
be taken in gutting, and taking out the bag that contains this
surprising effluvia, and which they have the power of emitting at
pleasure; but I rather doubt their being capable of ejecting their urine
so far as is reported; I do not think it is their urine which contains
that pestilential effluvia, for if that was the case, all the country
where they frequent would be so scented with it, that neither man nor
beast could live there with any degree of comfort.
[Sidenote: The Pine Martin.]
The COMMON PINE MARTIN[141] is found in most parts of this country, and
though very scarce in what is absolutely called the Northern Indian
territory, yet by the Indians strolling toward the borders of the
Southern Indian country, are killed in great numbers, and annually
traded for at Churchill Factory.
[Sidenote: The Ermine, or Stote.]
The ERMINE, or STOTE,[142] is common in those parts, but generally more
plentiful on the barren ground, and open plains or marshes, than in the
woods; probably owing to {379} the mice being more numerous in the
former situations than in the latter. In Summer they are of a tawney
brown, but in Winter of a delicate white all over, except the tip of the
tail, which is of a glossy black. They are, for their size, the
strongest and most courageous animal I know: as they not only kill
partridges, but even attack rabbits with great success. They sometimes
take up their abode in the out-offices and provision-sheds belonging to
the Factories; and though they commit some depredations, make ample
amends by killing great numbers of mice, which are very numerous and
destructive at most of the settlements in the Bay. I have taken much
pains to tame and domesticate this beautiful animal, but never could
succeed; for the longer I kept it the more restless and impatient it
became.
_Animals with Cutting Teeth._
[Sidenote: The Musk Rat.]
The MUSK RAT,[143] or MUSQUASH; or, as Naturalists call it, the MUSK
BEAVER; is common in those parts; generally frequenting ponds and deep
swamps that do not freeze dry in Winter. The manner of life of this
species of animals is peculiar, and resembles that of the Beaver, as
they are in some respects provident, and build houses to shelter
themselves from the inclemency of the cold in Winter; but instead of
making those houses on the banks of ponds or swamps, like the Beaver,
they generally build them on the ice as soon as it is skinned over, and
at a considerable {380} distance from the shore; always taking care to
keep a hole open in the ice to admit them to dive for their food, which
chiefly consists of the roots of grass: in the Southern parts of the
country they feed much on a well-known root, called _Calamus
Aromaticus_.[144] The materials made use of in building their houses are
mud and grass, which they fetch up from the bottom. It sometimes happens
in very cold Winters, that the holes in their houses freeze over, in
spite of all their efforts to keep them open. When that is the case, and
they have no provisions left in the house, the strongest preys on the
weakest, till by degrees only one is left out of a whole lodge. I have
seen several instances sufficient to confirm the truth of this
assertion; for when their houses were broke open, the skeletons of seven
or eight have been found, and only one entire animal. Though they
occasionally eat fish and other animal food, yet in general they feed
very clean, and when fat are good eating, particularly when nicely
singed, scalded, and boiled. They are easily tamed, and soon grow fond;
are very cleanly and playful, and smell exceedingly pleasant of musk;
but their resemblance to a Rat is so great that few are partial to them.
Indeed the only difference between them and a common Rat, exclusive of
their superior size, is, that their hind-feet are large and webbed, and
the tail, instead of being round, is flat and scaly.
Though I have before said, that the Musk Beaver generally build their
houses on the ice, it is not always the case; for in the Southern parts
of the country, particularly {381} about Cumberland House, I have seen,
in some of the deep swamps that were over-run with rushes and long
grass, many small islands that have been raised by the industry of those
animals; on the tops of which they had built their houses, like the
beaver, some of which were very large. The tops of those houses are
favourite breeding-places for the geese, which bring forth their young
brood there, without the fear of being molested by foxes, or any other
destructive animal, except the Eagle.
[Sidenote: The Porcupine.]