250 EXPLORATIONS IN THE FAR NORTH 



Peromyscus leucopus articus ? White-footed Mouse. 



A single specimen from Rae. 



Another woolly mouse from the same locality belongs to the 

 genus Microtis. The collection also contains a common house 

 mouse {M?is musculus) from Grand Rapids, where they were 

 abundant notwithstanding the isolated situation of the post and 

 the apparently extremely unfavorable habitat. 



Fiber zibethicus {Linn.). Muskrat. 



Wtih-chusk, C. Dzo n , D. R. Dzu n , L. Te-ka-i, S. 



The muskrat does not differ materially in color as we advance 

 northward, though there are localities where melanistic forms 

 are said to occur in considerable numbers, as along the Sas- 

 katchewan River below Prince Albert. Nearly every post re- 

 ceives an occasional albino, for which a "present" is always 

 expected. 



The muskrat finds in the North an environment perfectly 

 adapted to its aquatic habits, during a portion of the year at 

 least. They do not build winter houses as extensively as those 

 farther south, but usually burrow in the banks of streams and 

 ponds; they prefer the streams to the swamps, and are espe- 

 cially abundant in the deltas of the large rivers, where they 

 may be seen by day, but at night they fairly swarm in the 

 smaller channels. In traveling there by canoe one notices the 

 blackish muzzles moving about, followed by long, ever-widen- 

 ing ripples; every few moments there is a startling plunge at 

 the bow of the canoe. The Indians try to entice the rats to- 

 ward them by a peculiar teasing, "kissing" sound. 



They have little commercial value, yet, owing to their num- 

 bers they are the main dependence of the Crees on some of the 

 Saskatchewan reserves. Over twenty thousand skins are some- 

 times received during one winter at a single station. In the 

 month of February, 1893, tne Cedar Lake Indians were killing 

 them at the rate of six hundred a day. A whole family would 

 engage in the slaughter, stationing the wife and children, armed 

 with spears, at the air-holes; the hunter would frighten the rats 

 out of the house to be killed as soon as they rose to breathe. 

 Later in the spring, hundreds were shot as they swam about in 



