170 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



patois of the Canadian habitant, recapitulating how 

 they all but succeeded on such and such an occasion, 

 or were rewarded with success upon another. By the 

 bright glow of a wood fire, illuminating the unhewn 

 log walls, rough chinking and shingle roof of a frontier 

 cabin, the cold and bitter night being made doubly 

 severe by the howling blasts that impetuously rush 

 with angry noise through the disturbed trees, these 

 narratives of perseverance and hardship form a pleasant 

 way of passing the long wintry night. The cup goes 

 round, the pipe is smoked, and the company, although 

 illiterate and unpolished, possess one great quality 

 sincerity. If they quaff your health or shake your 

 hand, it is not an empty form, but one which emanates 

 from genuine friendship and unselfish feelings. 



There are no distinctive differences between the 

 black and red fox excepting colour, save it be that 

 the fur of the former is much finer : but this can satis- 

 factorily be accounted for by his residence being 

 always in much colder latitudes ; in fact, his chief 

 resorts appear to be the intermediate space between 

 the homes of the red and Arctic representatives. 

 Nevertheless, I claim that he is of different species 

 from either of the afore-mentioned. My reason I will 

 state. 



The black fox has been known in North America 

 since the first settlement of the country. We hear 

 of one of the Indian chiefs presenting some of the 

 earliest settlers with a skin of this species, as a mark of 

 the high estimation placed on the white man's friend- 

 ship. Not so with the red fox of at least the eastern 

 portion of the North American continent. In searching 

 over some old works among the admirable writings on 



