278 



XATUEAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



CUNICULUS TOEQtJATXJS (Pallas). White LemmiDg (Esk. Kilu^-u-mi-u-tuku). 



List of specimens. 



Biographical notes. — The distribution of this species is very nearly the same as that of Che 

 common lemming, except that it does not occur along the southern part of the latter's range. It 

 is unknown also upon the Aleutian and Fur Seal Islands. On Saint Lawrence and the Bering 

 Straits Islands and adjacent coasts it is very common. From the mouth of the Kuskoquim Eiver 

 north to the extreme Arctic shore of the Territory, and from Bering Straits to the British boundary 

 line, it occurs more or less commonly, according to the locality. 



Specimens were brought me by the fur traders from above Fort Yukon and from Nul,ato, 

 Anvik, and Kotlik, along the course of the Yukon, and also from the Kaviak Peninsula and about 

 Kotzebue Sound. A few were taken near Saint Michaels, but they were not numerous there. They 

 are more plentiful about Bering Straits than any other district visited by me, if the number of their 

 skins among the native children can be taken as a guide. 



The children about the straits had hundreds of their skins iu both summer and winter fur, 

 about equally divided. About Saint Michaels they are much less abundant than the common lem- 

 ming and they rarely came about the houses. Murdoch found them very common at Point Bar- 

 row, where their habits were the same as those of the common lemming. 



The Norton Sound Eskimo have an odd superstition that the White Lemming lives in the land 

 beyond the stars and that it sometimes comes down to the earth, descending in a spiral course 

 during snow-storms. I have known old men to insist that they had seen them coming down. Mr. 

 Murdoch records this same belief as existing among the Point Barrow Eskimo. 



Fiber zibethicus (Linn.). Muskrat (Esk. LVi(j''-u-icul<). 



List of specimens. 



Biographical notes. — The distribution in Alaska of the Muskrat and the Mink is the same. 

 Wherever bogs and ponds or running water occurs, except along the extreme northern coast line, 

 they may be found more or less commonly. The marshy country between the Lower Yukon and 

 Kuskofjuim Eiveis is their i)lace of greatest abundance, although they are almost equally common 

 about Selawik Lake, near the head of Kotzebue Sound, and up the Nunatog Eiver. Their habits 

 in the north are the same as those of their kind living iu lower latitudes, except that in the north 

 they are forced to endure the severe winters and remain under their icy covering for six or more 

 months each year. They share the sluggish streams and the countless pools and lakes of the 

 tundra with the mink, which they outnumber. 



From the slight market value of their skins they are not sought by the fur traders at present, 

 but their abundance may be estimated from the fact that over 25,000 of their skins were obtained 

 yearly by the fur traders about the Yukon delta some years ago when their skins were a market- 

 able commodity. Like the mink they are equally numerous iu the fresh-water streams and ponds 

 of the interior or iu tlie tide creeks and brackish pools of the marshy country bordering Bering 

 Sea. 



