The north and the north-west were, of course, pre-eminently the great fur-trading regions, though all parts of the vast Dominion have at one time or another yielded furs for commerce with the white man.  The principal fur-bearing smaller mammals of the north and north-west were wolves, foxes, lynxes, gluttons (wolverene), otters, martens (sables) and black fishing martens, mink (a kind of polecat), ermine-stoats, weasels, polar hares (Lepus timidus), beavers, musquash, lemming, gopher or pouched ground-squirrels, and the common red squirrel of North America.  The grey squirrel and striped chipmunk are only found in southern Canada.

The musquash (Fiber zibethicus) is such a characteristic animal of northern Canada that it is worth while to give Hearne’s description of it (I would mention it is really a huge vole, and no relation of the beaver):—­

“The musk rat or musquash builds a dwelling near the banks of ponds or swamps to shelter it from the bitter cold of the winter, but never on land, always on the ice, as soon as it is firm enough, taking care to keep a hole open to admit it to dive for its food, which chiefly consists of the roots of grass or arums.  It sometimes happens in very cold winters that the holes communicating with their dwellings under the water are so blocked by ice that they cannot break through them.  When this is the case, and they have no provisions left in the house, they begin to eat one another.  At last there may be only one rat left out of a whole lodge.  They occasionally eat fish, but in general feed very cleanly, and when fat are good eating.  They are easily tamed and soon grow fond of their owner.  They are very cleanly and playful, and ‘smell exceedingly pleasant of musk’, but their resemblance to the rat is so great that few are partial to them, though of course they are much larger in size, and have webbed hind feet and a flat scaly tail.  In Canadian regions farther south the musquash no longer builds on the ice, but in swamps, where it raises heaps of mud like islands in the surrounding water.  On the top of these mounds they build their nests, and on the top of the musquash nest, or ‘lodge’, wild geese frequently lay their eggs and bring forth their young brood without any fear of being molested by foxes.”

The YUKON territories of the Dominion, and above all the State of BRITISH COLUMBIA, constitute a very distinct region from the rest of British North America, not only in their tribes of Amerindians but in their fauna, flora, and climate.  British Columbia is one of the most beautiful and richly endowed countries in the world.  Here, in spite of northern latitudes, the warm airs coming up from the Pacific Ocean act somewhat in the same way as the Gulf Stream on north-west Europe, and favour the growth of magnificent forests.

All this north-western part of British Columbia is very mountainous, and the rocks are rich in minerals, especially gold in the Fraser and Columbia Rivers, far north in the upper valley of the Yukon, and copper and coal in Vancouver Island.