WILD ANIMALS. 315

cerviers, foxes, hares, otters, musquashes, minks, squirrels, weasels, &c. For many years after the settlement of the colony, ears were very numerous, and exceedingly annoying and injurious to the inhabitants, destroying their black cattle, sheep, and hogs. They are now much reduced in number, andirarely met with. A premium for their destruction, as well as that of the loup-cer- vier, is granted by the colonial government.

The loup- cervier still commits great ravages among thewsheep' , and one will kill several of those innocent creatures during a night, as it sucks the blood only, leaving the flesh untouched. ‘

Foxes and hares are numerous. Otters, martins, and musk-rats, being so long hunted on account of their skins, have become scarce. The flying, brown, and striped varieties of squirrels, are plentiful. VVeasels and ermines are native animals, but very rarely seen. '

Formerly, mice were in some seasons so very nu- merous, as to destroy the greater part of the corn about a week before it ripened. Within the last twenty years, little injury has been done by these mischievous animals, although they have been known in such swarms, previous to that period, as to cut - down whole fields of Wheat 1n one night

For many years after the settlement of the colony, walruses, or sea-cows, frequented different parts along the shores, and the numbers killed were not only considerable, but they afforded a source of advan-

tageous enterprise to the inhabitants. Their teeth,