94 THE FUR COUNTRY. them being sighted. Sometimes these unwelcome visitors belonged to the family of brown bears, so common throughout the whole
- ' Cursed Laud ; " but now and then a solitary specimen of the
formidable Polar bear warned the hunters what dangers they might have to encounter so soon as the first frost should drive great num- bers of these fearful animals to the neighbourhood of Cape Bathurst, Every book of Arctic explorations is full of accounts of the frequent perils to which travellers and whalers are exposed from the ferocity of these animals. Now and then, too, a distant pack of wolves was seen, which receded like a wave at the approach of the hunters, or the sound of their bark was heard as they followed the trail of a reindeer or wapiti. These creatures were large grey wolves, about three feet high, with long tails, whose fur becomes white in the winter. They abounded in this part of the country, where food was plentiful; and frequented wooded spots, where they lived in holes like foxes. During the temperate season, when they could get as much as they wanted to eat, they were scarcely dangerous, and fled with the characteristic cowardice of their race at the first sign of pursuit ; but when im- pelled by hunger, their numbers rendered them very formidable ; and from the fact of their lairs being close at hand, they never left the country even in the depth of winter. One day the sportsmen returned to Fort Hope, bringing with them an unpleasant-looking animal, which neither Mrs Paulina Barnett nor the astronomer, Thomas Black, had ever before seen. It was a carnivorous creature of the plantigrada family, and greatly resembled the American glutton, being strongly built, with short legs, and, like all animals of the feline tribe, a very supple back its eyes were small and horny, and it was armed with curved clawS and formid- able jaws. " What is this horrid creature % " inquired Mrs Paulina Barnett of Sabine, who replied in his usual sententious manner — "A Scotchman would call it a * quick-hatch,' an Indian an
- okelcoo-haw-gew,' and a Canadian a ' carcajou.' "
- ' And what do you call it ] "
" A wolverene, ma'am," returned Sabine, much delighted with the elegant way in which he had rounded his sentence. The wolverene, as this strange quadruped is called by zoologists, lives in hollow trees or rocky caves, whence it issues at night and creates great havoc amongst beavers, musk-rats, and other rodents,
