CHAP. iv. PEKIODICAL DISAPPEAKANCE OF THE MAETEN. 53 



heard him scratching. He was making his winter house. 

 I walked carefully round the tree, and found where he 

 had gone through the branches and got under the trunk. 

 I stepped lightly as possible on to the trunk, and walked 

 along; it until I came to where the bear was scratching. 



o o 



I held my axe ready to strike, and stamped with my foot. 

 The bear came out of the hole to see what the noise was ; 

 I split his skull in two pieces as soon as he showed his 

 head. We shall come to the place in a day or two, 

 and, if you like to step ashore, you can see the tree 

 where I killed him, and his split skull hanging on a pole 

 close by.' 



The periodical disappearance of the marten is noticed 

 by Mr. Boss, C. T., who, with Mr. Gaudet's brother, has 

 been for thirteen years in the Mackenzie Eiver District. 



He says * that it occurs in decades., or thereabouts, with 

 wonderful regularity, and it is quite unknown what 

 becomes of them. They are not found dead. The failure 

 extends through the Hudson's Bay territories at the same 

 time ; and there is no tract or region to which they can 

 migrate where the Hudson's Bay Company have not Posts. 

 When at their lowest ebb in point of numbers, they will 

 scarcely take the bait at all. Providence thus appears to 

 have implanted some instinct in them by which the total 

 destruction of the species is prevented. 



The importance of the marten in the fur countries may 

 be gathered from the following tables, which exhibit the 

 returns from Mackenzie Eiver District for 1859 : 



* A Popular Treatise on the Fur-bearing Animals of the Mackenzie River 

 District. By Bernard Rogan Ross, C.T. (Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, 

 1801.) 



