144 ON THE MAMMALS OF THE HUDSON’S BAT TERRITORY. 
itself most gallantly against the attack of two large gulls, which 
continued swooping down at it, hut were kept at bay by the 
brave little animal turning on its back and squealing loudly. I 
ran up and was in time to drive away its dangerous opponents, 
and place it in safe shelter under a piece of ice. 
Occasionally large numbers of lemmings are found drowned 
along the shores of James’s Bay, but as they are generally seen 
after a very high tide, it is uncertain whether they are then 
migrating, or merely caught by the high tide on their native 
grounds. As soon as snow falls to any considerable depth, the 
lemming leaves its summer quarters in the ground, and builds 
a bed of grass and moss as a winter shelter, from which it 
bores under the snow in one or more directions to obtain food. 
They do not seem to hibernate during the winter, for when 
wintering in a snow-hut at Repulse Bay in 1853—4 I used to 
hear them scratching tracks through the snow throughout the 
cold season*. 
The Arctic hare ( Lepus glacialis), of which I have seen and 
shot a good many, shows a considerable amount of intelligence 
in its efforts to throw foxes, wolves, and other enemies off the 
scent. It seems to have been eminently successful in this re- 
spect with the crew of McClure’s ship when wintering in Prince 
of Wales’s Strait, if it were not from bad shooting on the 
part of the men, for we are told that although hundreds of 
hares were seen, the total bag in a month was only seven 
hares ! 
The Arctic hare, after its night’s feed, usually goes some dis- 
tance from its feeding-ground before settling down in its form 
for the day. When following up the track, I was at first ex- 
tremely puzzled to find all at once a complication of tracks, and 
on going a little further found no track at all. On retracing my 
steps and carefully examining the snow, I observed two very small 
marks, at least 20 feet distant, from the main track. A succes- 
sion of two or three similar long jumps followed, and a very little 
experience taught me that the hare was always crouching near ; 
usually close to some large stones or rock uncovered by snow. 
These long jumps were iuvariably made to leeward for obvious 
reasons, because if to windward a fox would have sceutedhis prey. 
* Many lemmings were seen at the winter quarters of the Nares Arctic 
Expedition, in lat. S2°. and a large “ cache ” of dead ones was found, made by 
a white fox. — J. R. 
