CHAPTER I. 



/^F all the mammals of tlie Canadas, few perhaps have 

 ^-^ receded before the advancing strides of civilization 

 more rapidly than the Carnivores, which — though com- 

 mon enough but a few years ago — exist only at the 

 present day in the most remote wooded tracts, and are 

 yearly decreasing in numbers. 



The most important and valuable among them, 

 namely, the Black Bear (Ursus Americanus)^ has pro- 

 bably diminished less than other species, and is still not 

 uncommon in the country lying between the southern 

 side of the St. Lawrence, and Gaspe; and also in the 

 district at the head-waters of the Ottawa, the scenery of 

 which alone, with its foaming falls, rugged rocks, and 

 noble timber, would well repay the journey thither. 

 The motionless forests of stately pine, the still lakes, and 

 the solemn silence of an utterly wild country, convey the 

 impression of a land unchanged since the Deluge. A 

 few Indians, or a stray lumberer with equally dark skin 

 and even wilder locks, are the only signs of life; but the 



