HUDSON BAY A NATIONAL ASSET 



varieties, it frequents the fresh water, ascending rivers and 

 being found in fresh water lakes of high elevation. 



The Polar Bear may be regarded in the animal world as 

 the monarch of the Hudson Bay region. He is found almost 

 as frequently in the water as upon the land, having a very 

 wide range over which he roams throughout the year, fol- 

 lowing the general movements of the seals and other animals 

 upon which he preys. The female polar bear resorts to the 

 shelter of some friendly snowbank during the winter 

 months, and there gives birth to her young in the month of 

 March ; but the males do not hibernate, preferring rather to 

 take their chances of an occasional cold meal whilst roaming 

 their solitary fields of ice and snow. I had occasion one 

 winter to meet with Mr. Bruin when on his foraging rounds, 

 but as I was armed with a good rifle, he furnished the meal, 

 not i. Upon making an examination of the stomach of this 

 bear, it was found to contain nothing but the droppings of 

 reindeer. For miles he had followed the tracks of an 

 Eskimo, but met with misfortune before overtaking his 

 quarry. 



The skin of the polar bear forms a beautiful and valuable 

 robe, whilst the blubber affords a fine grade of oil, but the 

 chief value of the animal is as a prize for the sportsman. 



The Reindeer, or Caribou, of the Hudson Bay country is 

 to-day what the buffalo was to the western plains thirty or 

 forty years ago, the chief source of food to the natives; but 

 as it has been described at considerable length in a former 

 chapter of this book, no further mention of it need be made 

 here. 



The Mitslc-ox is one of the noblest and most valuable ani- 

 mals of the northern shores of Hudson Bay and adjacent 

 territory. It is found in very considerable numbers and 

 affords most luxurious robes. I have seen musk-ox robes 

 stacked by the Eskimos like hay-cocks along the shore of 

 Chesterfield Inlet, awaiting an opportunity to market them; 

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