the health, vigour, freedom, and capability of enjoying simple pleasures which the Newfoundlanders possess, they have much to console them for the absence of those exciting and artificial enjoyments in which more advanced communities find their chief happiness.

CHAPTER IX.

ANIMAL KINGDOM.

The caribou, wolf, and black bear-The "Wolf Killing Act"-The beaver" Newfoundland dog"-The seal tribe-Eagles, hawks, and pigeons-The American bittern-The great auk-The gigantic cephalopod, or devil-fish.

AMONG the well known wild animals indigenous to Newfoundland are the caribou or reindeer, of which an account will be given in the chapter on "Newfoundland as a Sporting Country," and the wolf, of which there are considerable numbers in the interior, though they are rarely seen by the settlers. Captain Kennedy in his "Sporting Notes" gives it as his opinion that the wolves are far less numerous than is generally supposed. They are very destructive to the caribou. The black bear is frequently met with. It feeds on the wild berries and roots in summer, and passes the winter in a state of torpor. The seal-hunters occasionally encounter the white or polar bear on the ice off the coast, and sometimes it has been known to land. The fox is found in considerable numbers and varieties, as the black, silver, gray, and red fox. The skin of the black fox is worth 157. sterling; that of the silver fox, 81.; the gray fox, 11. 10s.; the red fox, which is the commonest, only 8s. The skin of a bear is valued at from 21. to 31.; that of a deer at 15s., and that of a wolf at 11. By the

"Wolf Killing Act" a reward of twelve dollars is offered for every wolf skin; but so cunning are these animals that it is exceedingly difficult to trap or shoot them, and the reward is seldom obtained. The beaver is still numerous in the lakes of the interior; the skin is worth 16s. A good trapper will kill thirty or forty beavers in a week, and average two a day all the season. The otter is less numerous; the skin is valued at 11. 8s. There are two species, one frequenting fresh water, and a much larger kind found on the coast, and chiefly in salt water. The marten, the weasel, the bat, the rat, the field and common mouse, and the musquash or musk-rat are numerous. Arctic hare grows to a large size, and becomes completely white in winter. It is a variety of the lepus Americanus. A few years ago a few pairs of the common North American hare were brought from Nova Scotia and let loose in the neighbourhood of the capital. They have thriven and multiplied rapidly, and in many places furnish an important item of food for the settlers in the winter. They are called "rabbits," but improperly so, as they never burrow, and have all the habits of the hare.

The

There are few fine specimens of the world-renowned "Newfoundland dog" to be met with now in the island from which it derived its name. The common dogs are a wretched mongrel race, cowardly, thievish, and addicted to sheep-killing. By starvation, neglect, and bad treatment the race has degenerated so that few traits of the original remain. The Newfoundland dog thrives better elsewhere, though there are still some superior specimens to be met with in the country. The origin of this fine breed is lost in obscurity. It is doubtful whether the aborigines possessed the dog at all; and it is highly improbable that the Newfoundland dog is indigenous. Some happy crossing of breeds may have produced it here. The old settlers say that the ancient genuine breed consisted of a dog about