MAMMALS OF XORTIIEKX CAXxVDA 245 



sales winds up with seven good years, varying between 

 437,121 skins in 1877 and 767,896 skins in 1873, which 

 was the best of the series. 



The musquash abounds in all suitable localities through- 

 oqit the entire North- West Territories of Canada. It is abun- 

 dant in marshy tracts on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. 

 It is also very common on the Lower Mackenzie River, and 

 less so on the same portion of the Anderson River, to their 

 outlets in the polar sea. Albino examples are occasionally 

 met with, but in all sections of the country formerly ruled 

 by the Hudson's Bay Company a few skins of a fine dark 

 variety of this species are annually secured by the native 

 and other hunters. Seasons of high water, however, are a 

 necessary factor in the propagation of the muskrat, while 

 summers of drought and continued low water curtail expan- 

 sion and also cause many deaths during the succeeding 

 winters. In corroiboration of this view I would offer a few 

 remarks. The outfit 1889 was my first of five years' 

 charge of the Cumberland District, Lower Saskatchewan. 

 The stage of water that autumn was fairly good in the many 

 marshy streams, small lakes, and ponds in this musquash 

 country (probaibly the ibest in western Canada), and the 

 returns therefore quadrupled those of the preceding season. 

 The following year was dry, and both water and the mus- 

 quash catch shrank considerably, while many thousands of 

 the animals perished miserably under the ice and in their 

 frozen up " washes," or winter houses. This unfortunate 

 occurrence adversely affected results for two or three years, 

 but in the meantime water conditions improved and have 

 been very favouraJble for the last decade, so much so, indeed, 

 that the annual catch of musquash therefore has more than 

 doubled that of any of the previous ten years in the district's 

 history. In fact, I ibelieve it turned out albout 450,000 

 skins for outfit 1900. When very numerous, epidemic liver 

 disease appears and carries off many thousands of musquash. 

 Last year's Cumberland returns declined nearly two-thirds. 



