NATURAL HISTORY.— MAMMALS 



243 



Lahonton, 2 writing two hundred years ago, states that the 

 black foxes "are very scarce and whosoever catches one is sure 

 to sell it tor its weight in gold." The Cree name for the silver 

 fox signifies the " money fox." Rival traders have so impressed 

 the Indians with the value of the black and silver foxskins that 

 exorbitant prices are demanded; after receiving 150 MB, the for- 

 tunate hunter asks a sack of flour (40 MB) and other articles of 

 trade as a " present." The value of a red foxskin, worth 1 MB, 

 is sometimes enhanced by the use of soot or gunpowder to that 

 of a black fox; such skins are traded at night, and the same 

 trader seldom allows "Johnny Injun" to swindle him a second 

 time, either with painted foxes, or mink with marten tails. The 

 cross foxskins are worth from 5 to 15 MB in the country. 



The several varieties are all taken in steel traps (No. 2), 

 which are buried in the snow, with scraps of frozen fish, meat, 

 or grease strewn about them for bait. Those that have escaped 

 by leaving a foot in the trap are exceeding wary, but I cannot 

 agree with most writers in extolling the sagacity of this species 

 which often allows itself to be caught in poorly concealed 

 traps. They are frequently killed by means of strychnine. A 

 red fox which had been poisoned near Rae, in January, 1894, 

 was dragged some distance by another fox, then buried in the 

 snow and the covering well tramped. 



They are certainly decreasing in number, though they still 

 occur in all parts of this region. They are found along the 

 barren Arctic coast, but the)' are probably not common in the 

 Barren Ground. The Indians do not bring any foxskins to trade 

 from that quarter. One silver fox was killed on Herschel 

 Island during the winter of '93-4, while forty white ones were 

 taken there that season. 



One skull, Cedar Lake, and a complete skeleton from Rae. 



Canis lagopus Linn. White Fox. 



Wa-pak-e-su, C. Et-sim-ba, D. R. Ak-e-vi, L. Tal-i-yehn, S. 



Traders in the Mackenzie valley obtain several hundred skins 

 annually, yet they secure but a small portion of the great catch 

 made along the Arctic coast. The number of blue foxes re- 

 ceived by the Hudson's Bay Company in Mackenzie District 



* Memoirs of North America, Vol. I, p. 235. 



