QILPIK^ — ON NOVA SCOTIAN MAMMALS. 



head, by fish boae spear., by rude flint knife, and trap stone 

 %xe, by bronze sword, unwieldy matchlock, clumsy musket, 

 Queen's arms, or Minie rifle, as Esquimaux, Micmac, Northman, 

 Frenchman or trader, sporting n;)blc or Englishman ; by every 

 art in every nationality, by pit-fall, trap-net, or snare, man more 

 crafty than fox or wolf, more murderous than ermine weazel, 

 wars on all. The flabl)y Esquimaux, clothed in deer skins, no 

 longer drives the deer ; men of the nineteenth century, clothe 

 themselves in broad-cloth spun from the vrocl of sheep, replac- 

 ino; the deer on our ancient hills. It is consoling to think as 

 »ve have seen so many of the guests out, we have also in our own 

 ime witnessed some late arrivals. Twenty years ago Mr. 

 Downs informed me the skunk was so rare that he had obta: ;3j 

 ;)ut one skin, and he had some idea of importing a few from 

 N^ew Jersey, where he trapped them as a b jy. . ; h.ve iu- 

 jreased so rapidly since, that their skins are quite common in 

 )ur market. The raccoon has within the las': twenty 3'ears 

 ipread itself along the north side of the valley of Annapolis. 

 They were unknown by the Indians, a certain sign of their 

 strangeness. The beaver is again rapidly increasing in the 

 western counties, though, as yet, unknown in the eastern. 

 Old hunter Hardwicke was said to have trapped the hist one in 

 Annapolis county thirty years ago; since then forty or fifty 

 skins come to market from one locality during a year. It is 

 curi )us too to speculate, that almost the first arrival will be the 

 last seen out. The interior of our Province is divided into 

 several great lake basins, each surrounded by barrens aiid 

 swamps. From the great Shelburjie basin flow the Clyde, the 

 Tusket, the Liverpool, the LaHave into the Atlantic ; and the 

 Lequille, the Bear, and the Sissiboo into the Bay of Fundy. 

 This basin is so sterile that no man can live on its borders by 

 the soil, the timber too is too small to tempt the lumberman. 

 Wide shallow lakes, dotted by innumerable islets, break the 

 drear}- surface of the sterile bog and barren. Here is the home 

 of the moose, among these islets, secure from bears she hides 

 her fawns. Pressed in on all sides by advancing cultivation, 

 with no back ground ot forest, as in Maine, iNew Bruuswick, or 

 Canada, to retreat upon, she here makes her stand, havino- be- 

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