1008.] MAMMALS. 219 



animal from Port Kennedy, where three were trapped in December, 

 1858; others were shot in February and March, 1859, and the species 

 appeared in greater numbers about the last of March." 



Armstrong mentions that a few were taken in December, 1850, in 

 Prince of Wales Strait, near Princess Royal Islands, during the 

 voyage of the Investigator, and that a few others were noted later 

 in the winter. 6 Among the stomachs examined some were empty, 

 others contained a few small pieces of dwarf willow, while one was 

 distended with the hair and a portion of the hoof of a caribou." A 

 specimen taken near the same place May 15, 1851, had assumed its 

 partially brown summer coat/* He reports a black fox seen near 

 Prince Albert Cape, Banks Land, in September, 1851, probably an 

 example of this species in the sooty phase. 6 Allen records skulls of 

 this animal from Fort Anderson, Fort Good Hope, and Peel River/ 

 Warburton Pike saw one at Lac du Rocher, north of Great Slave 

 Lake, on September 13, 1889." Russell observed a family of Arctic- 

 foxes near Warren Point, east of Herschel Island, in the summer of 

 1894." 



MacFarlane states that this species was usually common in the 

 Anderson River region, and that a few were traded at various posts 

 in Cumberland and English River districts, Cumberland House hav- 

 ing received 5 skins in 1876. Lac du Brochet, Reindeer Lake, ob- 

 tained 785 skins in 1886, mainly from the inland Eskimo. In 1890 

 one was traded at Portage La Loche. He states that the species has 

 been trapped on the south shore of Great Slave Lake, and that many 

 years ago one w T as shot some distance up Peace River.' 



In regard to the occurrence of the blue color phase, I extract the 

 following notes from his account. Very few were obtained at Fort 

 Anderson. Farther inland Ross, up to the year 18(51, had known 

 of only two examples being taken, both on the edge of the Barren 

 Grounds near the eastern end of Great Slave Lake, but four were 

 obtained from the same quarter a year or two later. A number were 

 secured also in 1859 and .1862 from the region tributary to Fort Fond 

 du Lac, Athabaska Lake, as well as others during succeeding years. 

 In 1889 Lac du Brochet, Reindeer Lake, obtained seven from the 

 inland Eskimo.-' The number of skins in the white phase obtained 



a Voyage of the Fox, pp. 195, 202. 215, 218, 1860. 



6 Narrative Discovery Northwest Passage, p. 292, 1S57. 



' I hid., pp. 303, 304, 1857. 



,; Ibid., p. 324, 1857. 



' Ibid., p. 42G, 1857. 



t Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. Terr., No. 4, Vol. II, p. 325, L876. 



" Barren Ground of Northern Canada, p. .'!7, L892. 



'< Expl. in Tar North, p. 143, L898. 



i Proc. D. S. Nat. Mas., XXVIII, p. 7<>I, 1905. 



J Ibid., pp. 70G, 707, 1905. 



