722 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, vol. xxviii. 



men would do under similiir circumstances. This is particularly the 

 case with the black ))car. Tliey are taken in snares, shot, anil cap- 

 tured in deadfall and powerful steel traps. The Indians themselves 

 can not account satisfactorily for the recurrino- seasons of excep- 

 tional scarcity of bears in certain regularly-occupied tracts. If the 

 bears perished by disease, or even starved to death — a very unusual 

 occurreiu'c — they think that they should sometimes come across their 

 remains in their many hunting- peregrinations, if oidy for the reason 

 that relics of a badly wounded animal are almost invaiiably discov- 

 ered sooner or later in the vicinity of the locality where it was shot. 

 Migration, therefore, seems the most reasonable solution of the ditti- 

 culty. Remarks as to food, habits, and distribution, but not numbers, 

 made under this heading are e({ually applicable to I\ cinnainoneufi^ 

 the skins of which are usual Iv described as hrowti in the company's 

 lists. 



For the reasons already given under U. JtorriJnlis^ 1 am unable to 

 show the quantities of each color sold in London for the period 

 from 1S58 to 1S77, but with the aid of the following data a fairly 

 correct estimate of the proportion of black and In-own bears collected 

 in the northern distric^t, at least, may be formed, namely: From 

 1863 to 1883, Mackenzie River District furnished a total of 9o6 black 

 and 571 })rown, and for 183(5, 1887, and 188i», 1,078 black and 183 

 brown skins. The posts of old Athabasca produced 712 black and 70 

 brown in oiittit 1880. Then came the London catalogues for 19<)2, 

 with 7,087 black and 101 brown, and 1903, with 6,-ll:4 black and 2-16 

 brown bears. In the twenty-tive years' statement, all the bears are 

 grouped together under one heading, and they aggregate a total of 

 200,042, or an average of nearly 8,002 a year. The bear returns for 

 the two years 1902 and 1903 are only 113 skins below this average, 

 while the competition in the fnr trade during- the last three decades 

 has been far and away the greatest in its history since the coalition 

 with the Northwest Company in 1821. For twenty-seven j^ears, from 

 1858 to 1881, inclusi^'e, Athabasca District's quota to the London sales 

 was 13,997 assorted bears. This total would have been upward of 

 2,000 larger but for the transfer in 1878 of the posts of Battle River, 

 Dunvegan, Hudson's Hope, and St. John, with other Edmonton fur- 

 trade stations, to constitute the company's new district of Peace River, 

 which, for outtit 1889, turned out 500 black, 67 )>rown, and 38 gray 

 ])ears. For the live years 1885 to 1889, New Caledonia district, Brit- 

 ish Columbia, supplied 1,602 assorted bears, and in 1889, 333 black, 

 11 brown, and 21 gray, as against 412 black, 22 l)rown, and 20 gray 

 shipped the year previous. I may mention in conclusion that the 

 English River District, next on the southeast of Athabasca, traded 283 

 black and 64 brown in outtit 1889, and in 1890, 399 black, 120 brown, 

 and 1 gray Vjear skins. 



