THE APPROACH OF WINTER 39 



hole. In about every third litter you will find either 

 black, silver, or cross whelps ; and occasionally all three in 

 a single litter. The whelps are exceedingly beautiful 

 little creatures, playful, and can be reared up and 

 rendered as tame as domestic dogs. They will not, 

 however, submit to the teasing of children, and are 

 always fonder of their immediate master than other 

 persons in a house. 



When there are but few white hairs in a black fox- 

 skin, they are picked out by hand, and thus is made the 

 black skin of commerce. What the price of such a skin 

 is now I do not know ; but three years after the period I 

 am writing of (1865), during a flying visit to England 

 I sold a very fine pair without a white hair in them,^ to 

 a Bond Street furrier for sixty pounds sterling. For similar 

 skins the Hudson Company gave the poor Indians from 

 six to eight castors — that is about twelve to sij:teen shillings 

 actual value, not paid in money, but kind. 



The pelts of the '• blue " and of the white fox are of 

 but little value. The hair, though thick and long, is 

 much coarser than that of the red fox and its varieties. 

 It is certain that these latter foxes never pair with the 

 former, though the habitat of the one overlaps that of 

 the other. The white fox is a pelagic species ; and 

 though it wanders inland sometimes considerable dis- 

 tances, I have never seen it myself farther away from 

 the shores of Hudson Bay than eighteen or twenty 

 miles. 



The badger referred to above was the Taxidea Ameri- 

 cana, an animal that does not diti'er in outward appear- 

 ances, or habits, from the common badger of Europe. 

 There are said to be structural differences between the 

 two animals. Perhaps so ; but they are very slight, if 

 anybody but the scientific straw-splitter can perceive 

 them. It has been said to me that the American is 



1 Chom and her daughter had picked out the few white hairs which 

 originaJly disfigured these skins. 



