222 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. L'7. 



While in the Jasper House region in the summers of 1895 and 1896 

 J. Alden Loring found these animals rather common, and secured 

 several specimens. On one occasion in 1895, near Henry House, a 

 female * cinnamon ' bear and her two cubs were observed in a tall 

 dead tree. One of the cubs was black, while the other resembled the 

 mother in color. The old one was wounded and disappeared, and 

 although the young ones bleated loudly, she was with difficulty en- 

 ticed near enough to be shot, but was finally secured, together with 

 both the J^oung ones. The stomachs of all were filled with blue- 

 berries (Vaccmium). Another adult, in the black phase, was killed 

 at Jasper House during the same summer. In 1896, while in the 

 same region. Loring saw many tracks of black bears at various points 

 in the mountains and foothills. 



Hood mentions seeing ' brown ' bears, probably referring to the 

 cinnamon phase of the black bear, on the Clearwater, during the 

 spring of 1820.'^ MacFarlane speaks of seeing several black bears on 

 Lockhart Eiver, a tributary of the Anderson, in the summer of 1857.^ 

 In a later paj^er he states that the species is not common within the 

 Arctic portion of the [lower] Anderson River region, though fairly 

 abundant on both sides of the valley in the forested country to the 

 southward.^ Eoss gives the species as common throughout the Mac- 

 kenzie River region north to beyond the Arctic Circle.^ J. B. Tyrrell, 

 as the result of observations made in the country to the eastward of 

 Athabaska Lake in the summers of 1892. 1893. and 1894. states that 

 the black bear ranges throughout the wooded cotmtry.^ J. Tyr- 

 rell records it from Wolverine (Chipman) River, a short distance 

 northeast of the eastern extremity of Athabaska Lake, where he ob- 

 served it in the summer of 1893.^ Rtissell states that only three bears 

 were killed within 20 miles of Fort Rae dtiring the winter of 1893- 

 94; that the}- are frequently seen along the Mackenzie, btit are re- 

 ported not to occur in the neighborhood of La Pierre House.^ J. W. 

 Tyrrell mentions black bears as occurring on the east side of Artillery 

 Lake near latitude 63°.'' Hanbury states that they are found on the 

 main Ark-i-linik. or Thelon, River.' This is the most northeastern 

 record and extends the known distribution of the species in this 

 direction to the extreme limit of trees. 



« Franklin's Narrative Journey to Polar Sea, p. 191, 1S23. 



& Canadian Record of Science, IV, p. 32. 1890. 



^ Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXVIII, p. 721, 1905. 



^ Can. Nat. and Geol., VII, p. 139. 1862. 



^Ann. Pvept. Can. Geol. Surv.. IX (new ser.), p. 166F, 1898. 



f Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada, p. 73, 1898. 



Expl. in Far North, p. 246, 1898. 

 ^Ann. Kept. Dept. Interior (Canada) for 19(X>-1901, p. 115. 1902. 

 ^ Sport and Travel in Northland of Canada, p. 14, 1904. 



