224 Our North Land. 



been seen to eat mussels and oysters, cutting open the softest shells 

 and extracting the inmates." 



The musk-rat lives mostly in burrows, which it digs in swamps 

 or banks of rivers in which it finds its food. Where, in swamps, it 

 is very wet, it builds little houses that rise three or four feet above 

 the wet surface, and look like small mounds. Its fur has a standard 

 commercial value, and many thousands of these skins are annually 

 exported from America by the Hudson's Bay Company. 



Here, too, we meet with the well-known racoon, with its peculiar 

 long fur. The hairs composing its coat are of two kinds, the one of 

 a woolly character, lying next to the skin, and the other of long, 

 rather stiff hairs, that project through the wool for some distance. 

 The woolly fur is of a uniform grey, while the long hairs are black 

 and greyish white. At the top of the head and across the eyes the 

 fur is of a very dark blackish brown. The tail is short and bushy, 

 and is marked with five and sometimes six blackish rings upon a 

 ground of grey. 



The racoon feeds upon both animal and vegetable food, but is 

 said to prefer the latter. It is about the size of a small fox, and 

 slightly resembles the fox, but is heavier. Its skin has also a standard 

 commercial value, and as the animal abounds plentifully and is easily 

 captured, great quantities of the fur are annually exported. 



One of the curious little animals of the far north is the vary- 

 ing hare, or, perhaps, the alpine hare. So far as a name goes, we 

 had better call it the arctic hare. It is perfectly white in winter, 

 and indeed it is pretty nearly white all the time. In a warm sum- 

 mer, when the ice disappears altogether from the Hudson's Bay 

 region, and there is no snow either on the summits or in the sheltered 

 ravines they become quite grey or a sort of brown ; but in a backward 

 summer, when the snow is in a large measure perpetual, these little 

 creatures remain pretty nearly white all the year. 



Naturalists tell us that these, and nearly all other, varying animals 

 change their fur when they change their colour ; but I am sceptical 

 on this point, so far as the hare is concerned, and also so far as the 

 ptarmigan are concerned. Indeed, I would like to find. some really 

 sound authority on this subject. My travels in the north lead me to 



