NORTHERN OCEAN 355 



for their [382] quills will not permit them to perform that 

 office in the usual mode, like other quadrupeds. To remedy 

 this inconvenience, they sometimes lie on their sides, and meet 

 in that manner ; but the usual mode is for the male to lie on 

 his back, and the female to walk over him, (beginning at his 

 head,) till the parts of generation come in contact. They are 

 the most forlorn animal I know ; for in those parts of Hud- 

 son's Bay where they are most numerous, it is not common to 

 see more than one in a place. They are so remarkably slow 

 and stupid, that our Indians going with packets from Fort to 

 Fort often see them in the trees, but not having occasion for 

 them at that time, leave them till their return ; and should 

 their absence be a week or ten days, they are sure to find 

 them within a mile of the place where they had seen them 

 before. 



Foxes ^ of various colours are not scarce in those parts ; Foxes of 

 but the natives living such a wandering life, seldom kill many. co"ours. 

 It is rather strange that no other species of Fox, except the 

 white, are found at any distance from the woods on the barren 

 ground ; for so long as the trade has been established with the 

 Esquimaux to the North of Churchill, I do not recollect that 

 Foxes of any other colour than white were ever received from 

 them. 



The Varying Hares' are numerous to the North of Varying 

 Churchill River, and extend as far as latitude 72^, prob- 



[* By foxes of various colours, Hearne refers to the different colour-phases of 

 the red fox, Vu/pes /ulvus (Desmarest). These are the cross-fox, in which there 

 is a darkening of the colour, and a more or less plainly marked cross indicated on 

 the back ; the silver, in which the red tinge is nearly or wholly lost, the general 

 colour being black, with many of the hairs showing a white subterminal zone ; 

 and the black, in which the white is absent, or very nearly so. In all these 

 phases, now generally admitted to be varying degrees of melanism, the tip of 

 the tail is white, as in the normal red phase. A perfect black fox is one of the 

 most valuable furs known.] 



[* Lepus arcticiis canus Preble. Arctic hares are still found regularly as 

 far south as Fort Churchill, and in winter reach still farther south, while to the 

 north-west they occupy suitable localities throughout the Barren Grounds.] 



