STATISTICS OF FOX SKINS.

247

Its flesh, on the other hand, particularly when young, is edible; whilst that of the red fox is rank and disagreeable. It is compared in flavour to that of the American hare, and resembles the flesh of a kid. About 5,000 skins are received on the average yearly by the Hudson's Bay Company, although in some years 12,000 have There is a darker variety known as the sooty or blue fox (V. fuligonus), of which very few are obtained. In Greenland, in the year ending March, 1875, 3,100 fox skins were obtained; of these the blue fox skins were to the value of £4,942, and the white fox skins £370.

been sold.

The following Table shows the imports of the various kinds of fox skins by the Hudson's Bay Company for a series of years :

The RACOON (Procyon lotor, Cuv.) is found in the warmer parts of North America. The skins obtained from the western States, particularly of Michigan, are considered much better than those of Ohio, Pennsylvania, or New York. In 1840 they sold at a dollar a skin. Russia is the principal market, and during late years the price has fallen much lower. The skins afford a rather handsome fur of a greyish-red colour for robes, and were also employed in the manufacture of felt hats. They are used throughout Germany and in Russia as a lining to the long travelling coats and other equipments of northern countries.

The imports by the Hudson's Bay Company range between 1,800 and 4,700 skins annually; but large numbers also come in from the United States, bringing up the total to from 300,000 to 500,000 a year. This skin is shown in the Museum Collection.

BEAR-SKINS. The American black bear (Ursus americanus, Pallas) differs from the European species, and affords in season a thick and brilliant fur. Bear-skins are used as saddle-cloths for horses, for foot-muffs, and furs, grenadiers' hats, and formerly for cuffs. This fur takes dyes well.

Bears are found in considerable numbers in the Minnesota territory and other parts of the new settled States of America, also in small numbers in Canada and the Lower Provinces, but they are constantly diminishing before the progress of civilisation. The black bear is by far the most numerous, but few of the grizzly species being found. An average skin is worth five dollars—a very good one (she-bear), from six to seven. They are principally used for saddle housings and harness trimmings, and sometimes for sleigh robes. Their skins as furs are best when the animals are just issuing from their winter's sleep; and at that season the Indians are reaping their bear harvest.

About 8,000 bear-skins are annually imported by the Hudson's Bay Company, and some others are brought from the United States, Canada, &c.

In 1806, 9,255 bear-skins were received by the Hudson's Bay

BEARS, AND BEAR-SKINS.

249

Company; in 1866, 7,855. In 1870 we received from America 11,777 bear-skins, valued at £15,278. In later years the Board of Trade have not specified the separate skins imported as furs.

The BLACK BEAR inhabits every wooded district of the American continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Carolina

A POLAR BEAR HUNT WITH ESQUIMAUX DOGS.

to the shores of the Arctic sea. The fur on the body is long, straight, shining, and black. The cinnamon bear is considered to be an accidental variety of this species. They hibernate in the northern fur countries for about six months, being in a fat condition; further south they only hide themselves for three or four months. Sir John Richardson tells us that at one time the skin of a black bear, with the fur in prime order and the claws

250

VARIETIES OF BEAR.

appended, was worth from twenty to forty guineas, but at present the demand for them is so small, from their being little used either for muffs or hammer-cloths, that the best sell for less There is a black bear-skin in the Collection of Furs in

than 40s.
the Museum.

In the forty years ending with 1862, 10,000 black bear-skins were obtained in Alaska.

With the progress of settlement and civilisation, bears are fast passing away both in northern Europe and America. There was a time when as many as 500 bears were killed in one winter in two of the counties of Virginia. Then the Indians shared largely in the spoils as well as the excitement of the chase. Their mode of serving up the bear, as a first course, was to roast it whole, entrails, skin, and all, as they would barbecue a hog. Most of the American planters preferred bears' flesh to beef, veal, pork, or mutton. Bears' paws were long reckoned a great delicacy in Germany, and after being salted and smoked, were reserved for the tables of princes. The tongues and hams are still in repute.

The black bear is replaced on the barren grounds of North America by Ursus Richardsonii, a species bearing a strong resemblance to the U. arctos of Europe, another species the brown or barren-ground bear (U. ferox), and the grizzly bear (U. horribilis) ordinarily dwells among the Rocky Mountains. The latter is large, strong and ferocious. They are sometimes nine or ten feet long, and are reported to attain a weight exceeding 800 pounds. From the black, and indeed from all, the natives derive food; they also cut the summer hides into cords. The claws of grizzly and barren-ground bears are much prized for necklaces and coronets by the Indians, as a proof of their prowess.

THE POLAR BEAR (Ursus maritimus, Linn.) is perhaps the only species common to both continents, and may be considered as a sea animal, inhabiting the ice floating between them. They come

THE POLAR BEAR.

251

down on the ice drifted round Cape Farewell in the current from the east coast, and some are taken on the ice round Upernavick, in the far north.

In Capt. Hall's "Life with the Esquimaux," among other anecdotes given of the ingenuity of the polar bear, is one by which he kills a walrus when basking in the sun on the rocks. If this

happens to be near the base of a cliff, the bear mounts the cliff and throws down upon the animal's head a large rock, calculating the distance and the curve with astonishing accuracy, and thus crushing the thick, bullet-proof skull. If the walrus is not instantly killed-simply stunned-the bear rushes down to it, seizes the rock, and hammers away at the head till the skull is broken.