248 THROUGH THE MACKENZIE BASm 



Rae, Great Slave Lake. They are said to be fairly numerous 

 among the tundras of northern Alaska, while Arctic explor- 

 ers have found the polar hare " very aihundant " on the 

 large islands lying to the north of the American Continent. 

 On Baring Island they were in considerable numbers and 

 many were shot. The Resolute obtained 146 on Melville 

 Island, and Boss secured some in Boothia. ISTares met with 

 them on his polar expedition, and Greely's men captured 57 

 examples. He gives latitude 83° 24' north as its highest 

 northern range. Lieutenant Lockwood killed one at Cape 

 Benet, on the coast of north-western Greenland. Captain 

 Markham, of the Alert , observed traces on the frozen polar 

 sea, 10 miles from the nearest land, in latitude 83° 10' north. 

 Doctor Armstrong also mentions that individuals were occa- 

 sionally seen on the ice at a distance of 2 or 3 miles from 

 the shore. He asserts that they breed three or four times 

 in the course of an Arctic season, and that the females have 

 as many as eight and ten at a birth. This seems both 

 extraordinary and improbable, but the doctor was a close 

 observer and had had three years' experience of Baring 

 Island and its fauna. Sir James Clar'k Boss, on the other 

 hand, writes that a female shot at Sheriff haribour, Boothia, 

 on June 7, 1832, had four young in utero nearly mature, 

 each 5J^ inches long, and of a dark gray colour. In the 

 uterus of one killed at Igloolik on June 2, six young were 

 found, not quite so far advanced. One taken by Boss him- 

 self on June 28, a few days after birth, became sufficiently 

 tame to eat from the hand, but it died fifteen months later. 

 He remarks that the polar hare exists even in the most 

 desolate sections of the Arctic regions, and that, too, through- 

 out the long winter; nor does it seek shelter by burrowing 

 in the snow, but is often met with sitting under the lee of a 

 large stone where drifting snow has accumulated and seems 

 to afford some protection from the biting blast. Doctor Arm- 

 strong, however, holds that this hare, as Well as white foxes, 

 lemmings, and the very few native birds, all burrow in the 

 snow at times during the winter for the sake of warmth. 



