358 A JOURNEY TO THE 



them with blunt-headed arrows. The method of snaring 

 them is rather curious, though very simple, as it consists of 

 nothing more than setting a number of snares all round the 

 body of the tree in which they are seen, and arranging them 

 in such a manner that it is scarcely possible for the squirrels 

 to descend without being entangled in one of them. This 

 is generally the amusement of the boys. Though small, and 

 seldom fat, yet they are good eating. 



The beauty and delicacy of this animal induced me to 

 attempt taming and domesticating some of them, but without 

 success ; for though several of them were so familiar as to 

 take any thing out of my hand, and sit on the table where I 

 was writing, and play with the pens, ^c. yet they never would 

 bear to be handled, and were very mischievous ; gnawing the 

 chair-bottoms, window-curtains, sashes, i^c. to pieces. They 

 are an article of trade in the [386] Company's standard, but 

 the greatest part of their skins, being killed in Summer, are of 

 very little value. 

 The Ground The Ground Squirrels ^ are never found in the woody 



Squirrel. parts of North America, but are very plentiful on the barren 

 ground, to the North of Churchill River, as far as the latitude 

 71°, and probably much farther. In size they are equal to 

 the American Grey Squirrel, though more beautiful in colour. 

 They generally burrow among the rocks and under great 

 stones, but sometimes on the sides of sandy ridges ; and are so 

 provident in laying up a Winter's stock during the Summer, 

 that they are seldom seen on the surface of the snow in 

 Winter. They generally feed on the tufts of grass, the tender 

 tops of dwarf willows, ^c. and are for the most part exceed- 



\} Citellus parryi (Richardson). This species at the time of Hearne's writing 

 was undescribed, but was later characterised by Richardson (App. to Parry's 

 Second Voyage, p. 316, 1827), from specimens taken at Five Hawser Bay, 

 Melville Peninsula. It inhabits the Barren Grounds from Hudson Bay north- 

 westward to the Mackenzie, and is represented by related and intergrading 

 forms nearly throughout Alaska, and southward in the Rocky Mountains to the 

 northern United States.] 



