SOME EXCURSIONS, 95 sometimes fighting with a fox or a wolf for its spoils. Its chief charac- teristics are great cunning, immense muscular power, and an acute sense of smell. It is found in very high latitudes ; and the short fur with which it is clothed becomes almost black in the winter months, and forms a large item in the Company*s exports. DAring their excursions the settlers paid as much attention to the Flora of the country as to its Fauna ; but in those regions vege- tation has necessarily a hard struggle for existence, as it must brave €very season of the year, whereas the animals are able to migrate to a warmer climate during the winter. The hills on . the eastern side of the lake were well covered with pine and fir trees; and Jaspar also noticed the *' tacamahac," a species of poplar which grows to a great height, and shoots forth yellowish leaves which turn green in the autumn. These trees and larches were, however, few and sickly looking, as if they found the oblique rays of the sun insufiScient to make them thrive. The black fir, or Norway spruce fir, throve better, especially when situated in ravines well sheltered from the north wind. The young shoots of this tree are very valuable, yielding a favourite beverage known in North America as " spruce-beer." A good crop of these branchlets was gathered in and stored in the cellar of Fort Hope. There were also the dwarf birch, a shrub about two feet high, native to very cold climates, and whole thickets of cedars, which are so valuable for fiiel. Of vegetables which could be easily grown and used for food, this barren land yielded but few; and Mrs JolifFe, who took a great interest in "economic" botany, only met with two plants which were available in cooking. One of these, a bulb, very difficult to classify, because its leaves fall off just at the flowering season, turned out to be a wild leek, and yielded a good crop of onions, each about the size of an Qgg. The other plant was that known throughout North America as " Labrador tea ; " it grew abundantly on the shores of the lagoon between the clumps of willow and arbutus, and formed the principal food of the Polar hares. Steeped in boiling water, and flavoured with a few drops of brandy or gin, it formed an excellent beverage, and served to economise the supply of China tea which the party had brought from Fort Reliance. Knowing the scarcity of vegetables, Jaspar Hobson had plenty of seeds with him, chiefly sorrel and scurvy-grass {Gochlearia)^ the antiscorbutic properties of which are invaluable in these latitudes In
