THE MEDITERRANEAN OF CANADA. 233 



London every year transports the stock thus accumulated to London, 

 where it is sold for the benefit of the mission, and in this way a con- 

 siderable income is secured annually. In reference to the work thus 

 carried on by the missionaries, Lieutenant Gordon pays them a well- 

 deserved compliment by giving it as his opinion that their system of 

 dealing with the natives, when honorably carried out, as it has been, 

 and is on the Labrador coast, is the one which best meets the wants 

 of the natives, and tends to the improvement of their condition. 



So much has been said by Arctic explorers about the incorrigible 

 kleptomania of the natives they encountered, that we read with no 

 less surprise than gratification this testimony as to the moral condition 

 of the Eskimos at Hudson Strait : " One word may be said in regard to 

 their honesty. Although scraps of iron and wood possess a value to 

 them which we can hardly appreciate, they would take nothing with- 

 out first asking permission ; not even a chip or broken nail was taken 

 without their first coming to the officer who was on duty at the build- 

 ing for permission to take it." 



In the matter of animals, the Hudson Bay region is quite as scanti- 

 ly supplied as it is in human inhabitants, the list of terrestrial mam- 

 malia comprising only four species, namely, the polar bear, the fox, 

 the hare, and the reindeer. The skin of the polar bear is quite valu- 

 able, a good one bringing twelve dollars with the agents of the Hud- 

 son Bay Company. These animals, although reported by the Eskimos 

 to be very savage, will not, as a rule, attack human beings unless first 

 wounded or rendered desperate by hunger, under which circumstances 

 any beast of prey becomes an undesirable neighbor. The Eskimos on 

 the south side of the strait stated that, at certain times of the year, 

 there were large numbers of these animals seen. Their meat is not 

 unpalatable, but the liver is said to be poisonous. Of foxes there are 

 three kinds found, to wit, the white, the blue, and the red. The white 

 species would seem to be very numerous, judging from the number of 

 skins seen with the natives. These skins, however, have no commer- 

 cial value. The blue fox is properly of a steel-gray color. The skins 

 are in good demand ; but the animals are not at all numerous. As to 

 the red fox, its sole value consists in the fact that its presence indi- 

 cates the "possibility of that most precious of all pelts a black fox's 

 being somewhere in the vicinity. This species is met with on the south 

 side of the strait, and black foxes are annually shot or trapped in the 

 country south of Cape Chudleigh. The most important and beneficent 

 of all the animals of the country, however, is the reindeer, which fur- 

 nishes food and clothing, and much more, too, for its Eskimo master. 

 The hare is common over the whole coast, and with game-birds of many 

 kinds geese, swans, duck, and ptarmigan will no doubt furnish many 

 a toothsome dish for the tables of the men at the various stations. 



Having thus traversed the whole ground sought to be covered by 

 the expedition, Lieutenant Gordon brings his admirable report to a 



