692 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. voi.. xxviii. 



sales, is pretty innch as follows: The catch of lynxes for each of (say) 

 three seasons when they are least numerous, oi- rather comparatively 

 scarce, fell sometimes as low as -t,0()() or r),(»ii(» sl<ins as th(> entire out- 

 put for tlu^ iunuense extent of territory covered l)y the Hudson's Bay 

 Company's l)usiness operations. The fourth year would double these 

 quantities, the fifth often more than doubled the fourth, the sixth 

 douhUnl the fifth, while the seventh almost invariably witnessed the 

 maximum trade of skins. The eiohth would still be good, while the 

 ninth and tenth would each exhibit a startlino- decline in the returns, 

 which in quantity w^ould closely correspond with the sixth and fifth 

 years, respectively, in each decade. Indeed, the regidarity of these 

 peculiar results in seasons of scarcity and plenty is remarkably 

 interesting'. 



The Canada lynx is very widel}' distributed o\'er the "Great Mac- 

 kenzie Basin." It feeds on eggs, ducks, partridges, mice, stranded 

 fish, and occasionally on a land-captured beaver, young deer, or sheep, 

 while ral)bits. of course, form their staple article of diet. It is chiefly 

 taken in snares; some are trapped, and others are followed up with 

 dogs, treed, and shot. The flesh is white and tender, and is an 

 important and nuich-relished native country product. The female is 

 said to bring forth from two to five, and not unfi'equently as many as 

 six, at a birth anmially in June and July, the period of gi^station 

 being about three months. The young are about the size of a puppy, 

 with the eyes partly open, but are very helpless for several days. 

 They are suckled for about two months. 



For the twenty-five years from 1853 to 1877, inclusive, the company 

 sold in London a total of 507,450 skins of the Canada lynx, or an 

 average of 20,298 a year. During that period, the minimum sale 

 was 4, -11:8 in 1863, and the maxinmm year was 1868, with 76,556 

 skins. The number entered in their catalogue in 1902 is 5,701, and in 

 1903, 9,031. 



WHITE WOLF. 



Cavils (ilhiiH (8al)ine). 

 GRAY AND BLACK WOLF. 



Cauls t/ris('i(s (.Sal)ine). 



The white is the most abundant variety of wolf in the far north; 

 next comes the gra3%and the black is the rarest. These w^olves yearly 

 succeed in killing as prey ([uite a large number of reindeer and not a 

 few moose. On one occasion, whih* traveling upon the ice between 

 Forts Liard and Nelson, in the Mackenzie River District, we came 

 across a big patch of hard-packed snow on the Liard River where a 

 large buck moose had evidently been sui-rounded and no doubt over- 

 powered, after a most gallant fight for \\U\ by perhaps a score of fero- 



