NATURAL HISTORY. 



IX 



A few days previous to the arrival of the Esquimaux near Fehx Harbour, in 

 January, 1830, the tracks of this animal were first seen; and soon after, the skins of 

 two old and two young ones were brought to the ship by the natives, who had taken 

 them in traps built of stones. 



During each of the following winters their tracks were occasionally seen, and at 

 Victoria Harbour they were very numerous. There, in the middle of the winter, two 

 or three months before we abandoned the ship, we were one day surprised by a visit 

 from one, which pressed hard by hunger, had climbed the snow wall that surrounded 

 our vessel, and came boldly on deck, where our crew were walking for exercise. Undis- 

 mayed at the presence of twelve or fourteen men, he seized upon a canister which had 

 some meat in it, and was in so ravenous a state that whilst busily engaged at his feast 

 he suffered me to pass a noose over his head, by which he was immediately secured and 

 strangled. By discharging the contents of two secretory organs, it emitted a most 

 insupportable stench. These secretory vessels are about tlie size of a walnut, and 

 discharge a fluid of a yellowish-brown colour, and of tlie consistence of honey, by the 

 rectum, when hard pressed by its enemies. 



The descriptions of authors are sufficiently accurate ; but the following dimensions 

 may be useful : 



