31<(j cook's voyage to may, 



seal skins were also pretty common ; and the last 

 were in general white, very beautifully spotted with 

 black, or sometimes simply white, and many of the 

 bears here were of a brown or sooty colour. 



Besides these animals, which were all seen at 

 Nootka, there are some others in this place which 

 we did not find there, such as the white bear, of 

 whose skins the natives brought several pieces, and 

 some entire skins of cubs, from which their size 

 could not be determined. We also found the wol- 

 verene, or quickhatch, which had very bright co- 

 lours ; a larger sort of ermine than the common one, 

 which is the same as at Nootka, varied with a brown 

 colour, and with scarcely any black on its tail. The 

 natives also brought the skin of the head of some 

 very large animal, but it could not be positively deter- 

 mined what it was, though, from the colour and shag- 

 giness of the hair, and its unlikeness to any land 

 animal, we judged it might probably be that of the 

 large male ursine seal or sea-bear. But one of the 

 most beautiful skins, and which seems peculiar to 

 this place as we never saw it before, is that of a small 

 animal about ten inches long, of a brown or rusty colour 

 on the back, with a great number of obscure whitish 

 specks, and the sides of a blueish ash-colour, also 

 with a few of these specks. The tail is not above a 

 third of the length of its body, and is covered with a 

 hair of a whitish colour at the edges. It is no doubt 

 the same with those called spotted field-mice by 

 Mr. Staehlin *, in his short account of the New 

 Northern Archipelago ; but whether they be really 

 of the mouse kind or a squirrel, we could not tell, for 

 want of perfect skins, though Mr. Anderson was in- 

 clined to think that it is the same animal described 

 under the name of the Casan marmot, by Mr. 

 Pennant. The number of skins we found here, 

 points out the great plenty of these several animals 

 just mentioned -> but it is remarkable, that we 



* In his Account of Kodjak, p. 32. 34. 



