56 THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



teresting observations on hunter and hunted of the 

 North. 1 



The following are among the interesting animal 

 notes : 



Cougar. Ogushen, the Indian trapper at Lac des 

 Quinze, found tracks of a large cat at that place in the 

 fall of 1879 (?). He saw them all winter on South Bay 

 of that Lake. One day he came on the place where 

 it had killed a Caribou. When he came back about 

 March he saw it. It came toward him. It was evi- 

 dently a cat longer than a Lynx and it had a very 

 long tail, which swayed from side to side as it walked. 

 He shot it dead, but feared to go near it believing it 

 to be a Wendigo. It had a very bad smell. Ander- 

 son took it to be a Puma. It was unknown to the 

 Indian. Ogushen was a first-class hunter and Ander- 

 son firmly believes he was telling the truth. Lac des 

 Quinze is 15 miles north of Lake Temiscamingue. 



Seals. In old days, he says, small seals were found 

 in Lake Ashkeek. This is 50 miles north-east from 

 Temiscamingue. It empties into Kippewa River, which 

 empties into Temiscamingue. He never saw one, but 

 the Indians of the vicinity told of it as a thing which 

 commonly happened 50 or 60 years ago. Ashkeek 

 is Ojibwa for seal. It is supposed that they wintered 

 in the open water about the Rapids. 



White Foxes, he says, were often taken at Cree Lake. 

 Indeed one or two were captured each year. Cree 

 Lake is 190 miles south-east of Fort Chipewyan. They 



1 Since these notes were made, Thomas Anderson has "crossed the 

 long portage." 



