22 On the Fur-hearing Animals 



densely, is a dirty white. The claws are nearly an inch long, 

 brown in color, strong, and well curved. The tail is of a like 

 tint with the back, but of a lighter shade. The nose is reddish 

 with a black tip. The fur is remarkably thick and fine, and the 

 tail very full. In summer pelage it is difficult to define the color, 

 but it may be called a smoky brown, on the forehead the grey of 

 the winter coat still remains, and there is also a faint stripe of 

 the same shade down the centre of the back. There is less of 

 the reddish tint throughout than in the winter fur. 



It has been supposed that the blue fox is the young of the white fox 

 but this I do not think possible. The specimen now before me is 

 full grown, and in fact it would be a very large animal of the 

 other color. The color is also very rare, for while hundreds of 

 white are traded, not more than six, on an average, of the blue 

 are exported yearly from this District. If they were the young 

 of the white the number would be certainly greater. What are 

 traded are all obtained from the Eskimos inhabiting the sea coast, 

 so that it may justly be termed a littoral animal. On only two 

 occasions, to my knowledge, has it been killed inland, and then 

 at the eastern end of Slave Lake close to, or on the barren grounds. 

 But on inspecting the two animals minutely, so close is their re- 

 semblance to one another, except in color, that I am inclined, in 

 default of more precise information, to class them as varieties of the 

 same species, the blue being a rare one and holding the same posi- 

 tion that the silver does in the Fulvus species. An examination of 

 a number of skins would doubtless show shades of color filling up 

 the intermediate position that the cross fox holds to the other 

 group. 



Family. — Mustelidce, 



Fam. Ch. Carnivora with a single tubercular molar tooth only, 

 on either side of the jaw ; the sectorial premolar of typical shape ; 

 feet five toed : plantipode, or digitipode. Coccum wanting. 



The preceding diagnosis, taken from Wagner, expresses in a 

 few words the characters of a group of the carnivora, of which 

 there are several representatives in this District. 



In this family are contained three sub-families Martinae, Lutrinae 



and Melinse. These include several genera, comprising species of 



some of the most valuable and beautiful fur animals of North 



America. Of the Mephites, I found the bones, and a portion of 



. the skin of a common skunk, [Mephitis mephitica) lying partially 



