Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/276

266 macrotis of Say), of a darker hue on the back, and bluishgrey, the belly yellow; its tail is shorter, not exceeding from eight inches to a foot, and the ears remarkably large, much like those of an Ass, and of the same dark color as the tail. This is a considerably larger animal than the Chevreuil, and less plentiful; both are found in the upland countries, all through the great range of mountains which extend across the lands of the Snake and Flathead Indians. I sent last October to England a young Chevreuil which I had killed on the Multnomak River, where these creatures are remarkably abundant. As nothing could be more interesting to me than a knowledge of this genus, I have instructed several of the hunters in the mode of preparing the skin, and furnished them with a small quantity of preserving powder; so that I do hope to obtain at least a pair of each.

There are two sorts of Rabbit and one of Hare, but none of them have I seen alive; the latter, which is only found in the interior, is said to be very large.

On the Multnomak there is a most singular kind of Fox, smaller than any other except the White Fox of Northeast America, its extreme length being only from thirty-three to forty inches. The hair is remarkably short and very coarse, and what is most singular, each hair is brown at the bottom, white in the middle, and black at the points, which gives the creature a light grey colour; the belly white, and the sides of the neck and body as well as the forehead, brown; the ears and nose somewhat black, and it has a grey beard and a black stroke from the shoulders to the tip of the tail. The propensity which this Fox exhibits for climbing trees distinguishes it from all the other species; he mounts with as much facility as a Squirrel. The first I saw was on the Multnomak, where this kind of Fox is by no means rare.

A large Lynx (Felis rufa, Richardson and Guldenst) was started by Mr. McLeod and me when we were on a hunting excursion in the month of February. The small Bulldog belonging to that gentleman caught it by the throat and killed it without any further trouble. It was a full grown female,