NO. 1405. MAM3[ALS OF NORTHWEST T2<JRliIT0RIES—MACFARLANE. 739 



JUMPING MOUSE. 



Zapus hvdsonius (Zimiue.rniann). 



In the early sixties of the nineteenth centmy the Smithsonian In- 

 stitntion at Washington received from Liard River, Fort Resolution, 

 Great Slave Lake, and from the Peace River several examples of this 

 mouse, but from report I do not think it is very common in these 

 localities. Mr. B. R. Ross states that it is numerous in the Portag-e 

 La Loche country, but rather rare in the district of Mackenzie 

 River, l)ut I do not remember having seen any at Good Hope or the 

 Anderson. They may, however, be sparingly represented by examples 

 at Liard and other points in the distant north. Mr. P. Deschambeault 

 informs me that lie has seen some jumping mice both at Isle a la 

 Crosse and Lac du Brochet. Mr. Moberly has also met with them on 

 the Athabasca and Peace rivers. 



POLAR HARE. 



Lepus arxficns Ross and L. gralandicus Rhoads. 



I doubt if this hare is ''abundant" in the Barren Grounds, or on the 

 coast shores of arctic Canada, with the exception of the isthmus of 

 Boothia Felix. We hardly ever observed an individual on our man}^ 

 summer and winter journeys in the far Northland, while I think we 

 secured but three specimens during our five years' residence at Fort 

 Anderson. Two or three skins were also obtained by Chief Factor 

 Lawrence Clarke from the Barrens northeast of Fort Rae, Great Slave 

 Lake. They are said to be fairly numerous among the tundras of 

 northern Alaska, while arctic explorers have found the polar hare 

 "very abundant'' on the large islands lying to the north of the Amer- 

 ican Continent. On Baring Island they were in considerable numbers 

 and many were shot. The Besolute obtained 146 on Melville Island 

 and Ross secured some in Boothia. Nares met with them on his polar 

 expedition, and Greely's men captured 57 examples. He gives lati- 

 tude 83^ 24' north as its highest northern range. Lieutenant Lock- 

 wood killed 1 at Cape Benet on the coast of northwestern Greenland. 

 Captain Markham of the Alert observed traces on the polar frozen 

 sea, 10 miles from the nearest land, in latitude 83° 10' north. Doctor 

 Armstrong also mentions that individuals were occasionally seen on 

 the ice at a distance of 2 or 3 miles from the shore. He asserts that 

 thej" breed three or four times in the course of an arctic season, and 

 that the females have as man}" as eight and ten at a birth. This 

 seems both extraordinary and improbable, but the doctor was a close 

 observer and had had three years' experience of Baring Island and 

 its fauna. Sir James Clark Ross, on the other hand, writes that a 

 female shot at Sheriff harbor, Boothia, on June 7, 1832, had four 



