NATURAL HISTORY.— MAMMALS 



•39 



cap, but the sale of marten skins is the only source of revenue of 

 many of them. They receive from I to 3 M8 for a prime skin. 



The traders assert that the marten is subject to periodic mur- 

 rains, as is the varying hare, but when these periods occurred 

 and whether at seven year intervals they did not know. The 

 marten is found throughout the wooded portions of this region. 

 They are not decreasing in numbers except in some of the 

 southern districts. 



Two specimens, Crow Nest Pass. 



Mustela pennanti Erx. Fisher. 1 



U-tcek, C. £n-e-i-wo n , D. R. No-tha-cho, S. 



This species, usually called the Pekan in literature, is known 

 in the North as the fisher. They are described by the trappers 

 as "big black marten"; the Slavey name signifies " big marten." 



They are caught in dead falls, similar to but heavier than 

 those used for martens. Steel traps are also used. 



Prime skins are worth from 10 to 15 IVB in the country. 



They are not common anywhere in this region. The)' extend 

 northward as far as the Great Slave Lake, but are not found 

 between Lake Athabasca and the Great Slave Lake except 

 along the Slave River. They have been seen just north of the 

 Mackenzie at Providence. A trader who has spent twenty 

 years in the North assured me that he had seen but one fisher 

 in the Mackenzie District and that one was taken at Lake Bischo 

 in 1881. 



Lutra hudsonica {Lac). Otter. 



Nek-ik, C. Nom-ba, Tcho, L. Num-ba, S. 



The otter is one of the rarest of the fur bearing mammals of 

 the North. 



I have seen an otter track in the snow near Rae in Novem- 

 ber far from open water. 



The finest skins are said to come from the Peace River Dis- 

 trict. I was told by a former resident of Nelson (abandoned 

 in 1893) that the otter was comparatively common there, but 

 that the superstition of the Indians prevented them from killing 

 the animal. At many other posts the natives prefer to bring 



1 See p. 102, ante. 



