FISHING FOR A FOX. 388 



Whatever may be the cause of this variation it 

 very importantly affects the fur trade in this region. 

 The year succeeding that when rabbits are most 

 plentiful is generally the most prolific in the supply 

 of those animals before-mentioned whose principal 

 food they are ; and in the same manner the season 

 following that of their almost entire absence is wofully 

 deficient in its tribute of fur-bearing creatures. 

 Possibly the epidemic which visits the victims may 

 also affect the ravenous tyrants, whose prey they 

 become ; but independently of this conjecture there 

 is no doubt that in the times of scarcity the lesser 

 beasts of prey are reduced to great hunger, and feed 

 upon each other. I have several times seen martens 

 which had been trapped devoured by lynxes. At 

 Fort Simpson, on one occasion an Indian who was 

 about to set a hook and line in the river for fish 

 observed a fox near him, which had been impelled 

 by starvation to approach the habitation of man in 

 search of food. He threw the baited hook towards 

 the animal, it greedily swallowed the deceitful prize 

 whose acquisition was its capture and its death. 



We experienced severe cold at Fort Simpson, 

 registering more than once 50 below zero ; but this 

 was mild compared to the temperature at Bear Lake, 

 where my last winter was passed. Dr. Rae wrote 



