MAMMALS OF XOETHEEN CANADA 205 



tioned. In 1902 the Company sold 3,679, and in 1903 

 8,223 skins, making a grand total of 144,107 for the 

 twenty-seven years in question. Judging from the northern 

 department returns for outfit 1865 (sold in London in 1867) 

 I think that about two-fifths or more of the fishers appearing 

 in the Company's annual fur catalogue must have been 

 obtained from the western, southern, and Montreal depart- 

 ments of the Hudson Bay service. 



Maetex — Mustela americana abieticola (Preble). 



This is probably the most constant of the " periodic " fur- 

 bearing animals, whose presence in considerable numbers is 

 very largely dependent upon a gi-eater abundance of hares or 

 rabbits, though mice also form an important item of marten 

 diet. The remarks made under Lynx in this regard have a sim- 

 ilar, but somewhat modified, application to this American 

 representative of the Russian sable. In years of plenty the 

 marten is very numerous throughout the entire northern forest 

 region ; but it is not uniformly so at the same time in every 

 section of country all over the immense territories covered 

 by the Hudson's Bay Company's trading operations. When 

 it is abundant or scarce, say in the northern and western 

 departments, it will generally be found that there is an 

 important and corresponding increase or decrease in the 

 southern and Montreal departments. The natives maintain 

 that lynxes and martens migrate from the north and west 

 to the east and south, and that when they have attained their 

 height in numbers for several seasons the great bulk (no 

 section is ever totally devoid of martens) of those who escape 

 capture resume the return march until the next period of 

 protracted migration. It must be admitted that many old 

 fur traders have come to entertain similar views from their 

 ovrai personal experience and observation. Of course there 

 are post, district, and departmental fluctuations in annual 

 results, caused by local epidemics among the hunters and 



