1 72 The Mml- 0.i\ 



Fort Good Hoiie. 'riiis porn- man, having set several snares for 

 bears, went to visit them alone. The event showed that he had 

 found a large bear, caught by the head and leg, and endeavoured 

 to kill it witli arrows, several of whieh he shot into the neck of 

 the aniraal. He seems to have been afraid to approach near 

 enough to give full effect to his weapons, and the enraged bear, 

 ha\dug broken the snare, flew upon him and tore him in pieces. 

 The man's son, a youth of aboiit sixteen years of age, becoming 

 alarmed by the lengthened absence of his father^ took his gun,, 

 and went in quest of him, following his track. On approaching 

 the scene of the tragedy, the bear hastened to attack him also, 

 but was shot by the lad as he was rushing at him. The boy 

 found his father torn limb from limb, and mostly eaten, excejit 

 the head,, which remained entire. The bear, whose carcass was 

 seen by Mr. Bell, was a brown one, and of great size. Fragments 

 of the snare remained about his neck and leg. 

 , I'hese brown bears are veiy powerful ; and the sam^e gentle- 

 man who told the above story informed me that on the Porcu- 

 })ine River, to the west of the Peel, ho saw the foot-marks of a 

 large one which having seized a moose deer in the river, had 

 dragged it about a qdarter of a mile along the sandy banks, and 

 afterwards devoured it all, but part of the hind quarters. The 

 bones were crushed and broken by the animal's teeth, and, from 

 their size and hardness, Mr. Bell judged the moose to have been 

 upwards of a year old, when it would weigh as much as an ox of 

 the same age. The species of these northern brown bears is as 

 yet undetermined. They greatly resemble the Ursus arctos of 

 the old continent, if they are not actually the same ; and are 

 stronger and more carnivorous than the black bears {^Ursvs 

 americanus)^ which also frequent the Mackenzie. The grisly 

 bears ( Ursus ferox) reach the same latitudes, but do not generally 

 descend from the mountains. — Richardson, Vol. l,i?ffge 21*7. 



3. The Musk Ox, Ovibos moschatus. — The evening proving 

 fine, Mr. Rae and Albert went out to hunt, and both had the 

 pleasure of seeing the musk-ox, for the first time in their lives. 

 The uming-mak is known by name and reputation to all the 

 Eskimo tribes ; but as it does not exist in Greenland, or Labrador, 

 nor in the chain of islands extending north from that peninsula 

 along the west side of Davis Straits, Albert, who was a native of 

 East Main, now for the first time approached its haunts, Mr. 

 Rae, with the feelings of an ardent sportsman, had longed to en- 



