1908.1 



MAMMALS. 



235 



kenzie, Kowever, is too scanty to allow of an intelligent discussion of 

 the variation in color in that section. 



During the season of 1901, though we occasionally saw tracks of 

 martens along the Athabaska and Slave rivers, we took no specimens, 

 with the exception of a series of skulls obtained mainly about trap- 

 pers' cabins. On my later trip, however, I obtained a few. Early 

 in September, 1903, while encamped on the south shore of Great Bear 

 Lake near Leith Point, two were trapped at the body of a moose 

 killed a day of two before. Another was taken later in the month 

 near the site of Fort Franklin, and about the middle of November 

 another was trapped by James MacKinlay about 50 miles south of 

 Fort Simpson. These sj)ecimens are males and in different conditions 

 of pelage and color, and will be referred to in detail beyond. 



•Martens are common along the Athabaska, Slave, and Peace rivers, 

 and large numbers are traded at all the posts on their banks. Skins 

 taken in these valleys average rather dark in color and furnish a good 

 grade of fur. The valley of the Athabaska below Grand Rapid is 

 said to be especially good trapping ground. The number annually 

 taken by each trapi)er varies from a few to a hundred or more. J ames 

 MacKinlay informed me that three hunters working in the Caribou 

 Mountains, southwest of Great Slave Lake, trapped in one season 

 nearly 500 martens, an unusually large catch. The lower Liard 

 Eiver region and the Horn Mountains also are good trapping grounds. 

 L'pward of 3,000 skins are said to be usually traded at Fort Norman. 

 Fort Good Hope also receives a large number, and as many as 6,000 

 have been collected at Fort McPherson during an unusually good 

 season. In the Great Bear Lake region the animals are said to be 

 fairly common on the south and west shores of the lake, and the 

 mountainous ])eninsula separating Smith and Keith bays and 

 mainly covered by the Scented Grass Hills is a favorite trapping 

 ground of the Hare Indians, and yields a good supply of martens. 

 Comparatively few (300 in 1801, 350 in 1862) were traded at Fort 

 Anderson during the few years of its existence, the region tributary 

 to it comprising too much sparsely wooded country to constitute a 

 favorable haVjitat. The Mackenzie, however, carries to its mouth a 

 luxuriant forest growth, and martens occur there in abundance, as 

 before intimated. Martens vary greatly in abundance in the same 

 locality in different years, and to some extent this increase and de- 

 crease is periodic. The winter of 1903-4 was marked by a great 

 scarcity of martens over much of the upper Mackenzie Valley, though 

 in other sections the catch w^as about normal. They were scarce about 

 Fort Simpson in 1906 and 1907. 



An adult male taken near Leith Point, Great Bear Lake, Septem- 

 ber 7, 1903, apparently is in the process of changing from the summer 

 to the winter pelage, The head is grizzled brown and gray ; the ears 



