342 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. X. 



rants, gooseberries, raspberries, and strawberries, 

 common ; cranberries, wortleberries, and others, 

 plentifully met with on swampy and heathy 

 grounds. Of the quadrupeds hunted for food are 

 mostly the moose and the reindeer, the buffalo or 

 bison, the red-deer, jumping-deer, long-tailed-deer, 

 and a species of antelope. Of the fur-bearing ani- 

 mals, are foxes of various kinds, distinguished as 

 black, silver, cross, red, and blue ; the wolverene, 

 the lynx, the martin, the fisher, the otter, and the 

 beaver. The Indians, it appears, have nearly 

 destroyed the fur-bearing animals ; and so scarce 

 is the beaver become, that in the whole journey to 

 the shores of the Polar sea, and back, one single 

 habitation, and one dam only of that industrious 

 and ingenious creature, were met with. Among 

 the many interesting anecdotes that have been told 

 of this animal, Dr. Richardson relates the follow- 

 ing : — 



" One day a gentleman, long resident in this country, 

 espied five young beavers sporting in the water, leaping 

 upon the trunk of a tree, pushing one another off, and 

 playing a thousand interesting tricks. He approached 

 softly under cover of the bushes, and prepared to fire on the 

 unsuspecting creatures, but a nearer approach discovered to 

 him such a similitude betwixt their gestures and the infantile 

 caresses of his own children, that he threw aside his gun. 

 This gentleman's feelings are to be envied, but few traders 

 in furs would have acted so feelingly." — p. 92. 



It has been stated that on the 18th January, 



