The phocids are best known for the reason that off the shores of southeast Labrador the pursuit of species of this family is carried on each spring to an extent probably surpassing that anywhere else on the face of the globe.

At the mouth of Little Whale river, the white whale is taken to the number of 500 each year, although the capture is steadily decreasing. The Indians here do the greater part of the labor of driving, killing, flaying, and preserving them. At Fort Chimo another station for the pursuit of white whales is carried on. Here the Eskimo do the driving and killing, while the Indians perform the labor of removing the blubber and rendering it fit for the oil tanks into which it is placed to put it beyond the action of the weather. The skin of the white whale is tanned and converted into a leather of remarkably good quality, especially noted for being nearly waterproof.

Of the land mammals, the reindeer is probably the most abundant of all. It is found in immense numbers in certain localities, and forms for many of the inhabitants the principal source of subsistence, while to nearly all the residents its skins are absolutely necessary to protect them from the severity of the winter.

The black, white and brown bears are common enough in their respective areas. The former rarely ranges beyond the woodlands, never being found so far north as Fort Chimo. The white bear is common in the northern portions bordering the sea and is occasionally found as far south as the strait of Belleisle, to which it has been carried on icebergs or fields of ice. Akpatok island and the vicinity of Cape Chidley are reported to be localities infested with these brutes. The brown or barren-ground bear appears to be restricted to a narrow area and is not plentiful, yet is common enough to keep the Indian in wholsome dread of its vicious disposition when enraged.

The smaller mammals occur in greater or less abundance according to the quality and quantity of food to be obtained. The wolves, foxes, and wolverines are pretty evenly distributed throughout the region. The hares are found in the wooded tracts for the smaller species and on the barren regions for the larger species.

[BIRDS.]

The actual residents were ascertained to be less than twenty species for the northern portion of the Ungava district.

Of the actual residents the two species of the genus Lagopus are the most abundant of all birds in the region, and form an important article of food for all classes of people inhabiting the district. The winter exerts an important influence on the smaller resident species. During the winter of 1882-’83 the number of the four species obtained of the genus Acanthis was almost incredible. Their notes might be heard at any time during that season, which was cold, though regularly so, and not specially stormy. In the winter of 1883-’84 not a single individual was observed from the middle of November to the last of March. The same remarks may well apply to the white-winged crossbill (Loxia leucoptera), which was very abundant the first winter, but during the last winter a very small flock only was observed and these were apparently vagrants.

Among the water birds, certain species which were expected to occur were conspicuously absent. The character of the country forbids them rearing their young, as there is little to feed upon; and only a few breed in the immediate vicinity of Fort Chimo. Among the gulls, Larus argentatus smithsonianus is certainly the only one breeding in abundance within Ungava bay. Of the terns, the Arctic tern (Sterna paradiseæ) was the only one ascertained to breed in Hudson strait. I am not certain that they do breed there every year. Although I saw them in early July, 1883, under conditions that led me to believe that they were on their way to their nests, yet it was not until 1884 that a number of eggs were secured near that locality.

Of the smaller waders, but two species were actually ascertained to breed in the vicinity of Fort Chimo, yet two or three other species were observed under such circumstances as to leave no doubt that they also breed there.