A WINTER WITH THE LUMBERERS 191 



There was not much game in the vicinity of the 

 camp. Though we saw a bear on our journey up, I 

 could find no traces of others. The only large game 

 I killed during the entire time of my stay here was a 

 couple of moose-deer. There was an abundance of 

 grouse, ptarmigan and Canadian grouse, already noticed 

 in another part of the country, but no ducks or geese till 

 the approach of spring, when the latter were especially 

 abundant, as may be guessed from the name of the creek. 

 Throughout the winter there were snow-buntings, or 

 snow-flakes, as the Canadians invariably call them, about 

 our neighbourhood, but I saw no other small birds till 

 March. Then several flocks passed overhead, but I did 

 not succeed in obtaining specimens and therefore cannot 

 name the species. Subsequent to their appearance, there 

 was a heavy fall of snow, and more than a month elapsed 

 before a general thaw set in. In fact this spot proved 

 one of the poorest, from a naturalist's point of view, that 

 I ever stayed at for any length of time ; but it should be 

 mentioned that I never wandered more than a few miles 

 from camp, for I suffered excessively from the cold, and 

 was unwell during much of the time of my stay here. 

 Also the ground had been much shot over by the men, 

 who had doubtless thoroughly scared the game. 



Once or twice we heard wolves howling at night, and 

 saw their tracks in the snow ; but I could never catch sight 

 of any of them, or succeed in trapping them. There were 

 porcupines here, of the species common over nearly the 

 whole of North America, viz. Erethizon dorsatus. I have 

 found this animal on both sides of the continent as far 

 south as the 35 th parallel, and as far to the north as I 

 have wandered. Strange as the fact may seem, this 

 porcupine never hibernates, not even in the most northern 

 part of its habitat. Though it differs much from the 

 tree-porcupines of South America, I have, down to a 

 recent date, considered it to be a tree-porcupine ; but I 

 now learn that it is not a true tree-porcupine. Never- 



