NORTHERN OCEAN 217 



received among the lower class of people in England, concern- 1771. 

 ing the bucks shedding their yards, or more properly the glands "^^ 

 of the [200] pefiis, yearly, whether it be true in England or 

 not, is certainly not true in any of the countries bordering 

 on Hudson's Bay. A long residence among the Indians has 

 enabled me to confirm this assertion with great confidence, as 

 I have seen deer killed every day throughout the year ; and 

 when I have mentioned this circumstance to the Indians, either 

 Northern or Southern, they always assured me that they never 

 observed any such symptoms. With equal truth I can assert, 

 and that from ocular demonstration, that the animal which is 

 called the Alpine Hare in Hudson's Bay, actually undergoes 

 something similar to that which is vulgarly ascribed to the 

 English deer. I have seen and handled several of them, who 

 had been killed just after they had coupled in the Spring, 

 with the penises hanging out, dried up, and shrivelled, like the 

 navel-string of young animals ; and on examination I always 

 found a passage through them for the urine to pass. I have 

 thought proper to give this remark a place in my Journal, 

 because, in all probability, it is not generally known, even to 

 those gentlemen who have made natural history their chief 

 study ; and if their researches are of any real utility to man- 

 kind, it is surely to be regretted that Providence should have 

 placed the greatest part of them too remote from want to be 

 obliged to travel for ocular proofs of what they assert in their 

 publications ; they are therefore wisely content to stay at 

 home, and enjoy the blessings with which they are endowed, 

 resting satisfied to collect such information for their own amuse- 

 ment, and the gratification of the public, as those [201] who 

 are necessitated to be travellers are able or willing to give 

 them. It is true, and I am sorry it is so, that I come under 

 the latter description ; but hope I have not, or shall not, in 

 the course of this Journal, advance any thing that will not 

 stand the test of experiment, and the skill of the most 

 competent judges. 



