The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 
been in the mountains at least seven weeks 
before I was able to get there. 
Whilst on the subject of bears, it may be 
interesting to record that the Indians assert 
that both grizzlies and black bears are in the 
habit of eating a certain fungus, which acts as 
a purgative, prior to their denning up for the 
winter. 
I did not want to kill any more sheep now, 
although had I wished to do so I could easily 
have obtained another twenty. There were 
plenty of them to be found in the mountains, 
but good heads were not too common, the rams 
I obtained being generally in ones or twos, and 
not in the company of the ewes and lambs. | 
One afternoon whilst on the mountains Hunter 
shot a cross fox, the fur of which was exactly 
the same as the silver, except about the top of the 
head and ears, which were reddish. This par- 
ticular skin was quite a good one, but was not 
of any large commercial value because the animal 
was in its summer coat and had not yet put on 
its winter one. The trappers and Indians in this 
district maintained that the black or silver or 
cross foxes are but freaks in a red litter; that 
a vixen may have five cubs, one of which may 
be of the sort mentioned, or they may be all the 
prevalent colour, red. The prices paid for these 
skins became so high that several fox farms 
were started by enterprising settlers on the 
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