710 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxvni. 



Deschanibeault never saw a single fisher durino- his fifteen years in 

 charge of Lac dii Brochet, Reindeer Lake. 



While the annual London sales for the first twenty years, 1853 to 

 1872, ranged between the minimum, 1,605 for 1866, and the maxinunn, 

 7,959 in 1870, the sales of the last five, 1873 to 1877, only amounted 

 to 3,639, 3,539, 3,558, 3,263, and 3,338 skins, respectively. The three 

 best sales of the series were 7,197 for 1860, 7,477 in 1869, and 7,959 in 

 1870; and the three lowest were 1875 with 3,558, 1876 with 3,263, and 

 1877 with 3,338, as above mentioned. In 1902, the company sold 3,679, 

 and in 1903, 3,223 skins, making a grand total of 141,107 for the 

 twenty-seven years in question. Judging from the northern depart- 

 ment returns for outfit 1865 (sold in London in 1867) 1 think that about 

 two-fifths or more of the fishers appearing in the company's annual f ur 

 catalogue must be obtained from the western, southern, and Montreal 

 departments of- the Hudson Bay service. 



MARTEN. 



Must fin (inwricana al/leficola Preble. 



This is probal)ly the most constant of the '' periodic" fur-bearing 

 animals, whose presence in considerable numbers is ver}" largely 

 dependent upon a greater abundance of hares or rabbits, though mice 

 also form an important item of marten diet. The remarks made under 

 Lynx in this regard have a similar, but somewhat hiodified, application 

 to this Amei'ican representative of the liussian sable. In years of 

 plenty the marten is very numerous throughout the entire northern 

 forest region; but it is not uniformly so at the same time in every 

 section of country all over the immense territories covered \y^ the 

 Hudson's Bay Company's trading operations. When it is abundant or 

 scarce, say in the northern and western departments, it will generally 

 be found that there is an important and corresponding increase or 

 decrease in the southern and Montreal departments. The natives 

 maintain that l\'nxes and martens migrate from the north and west to 

 the east and south, and that when they have attained their height in 

 numbers for several seasons, the great bulk (no section is ever totally 

 devoid of martens) of those who escape capture resume the return 

 march until the next period of protracted migration. It must be 

 admitted that many old fur traders have come to entertain similar 

 views from their own personal experience and observation. Of course 

 there are post, district, and departmental fluctuations in annual results, 

 caused by local epidemics among the hunters and other relative reasons, 

 but, on the whole, I think the aforesaid twenty-five years' London 

 sales statement adds strength to the migration theory, and is otherwise 

 of some interest. If it were possible, however, to obtain from the 

 London executive a complete abstract of all the furs and peltries annu- 

 ally disposed of by the Hudson's Bay Company, since the union with 



