The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 1. George Warburton
animals originally belonging to America appear to be of an inferior race—neither so robust, fierce, or numerous as those of the other continents: some are peculiar to the New World; but there is reason to suppose that several species have become utterly extinct, and the spread of cultivation, and increase of the human race rapidly extirpate many of those that still remain. America gives birth to no creature of equal bulk to the elephant and rhinoceros, or of equal strength and ferocity to the lion and tiger. The particular qualities in the climate, stinting the growth and enfeebling the spirit of the native animals, have also proved injurious to such as have been transported to the Canadas by their present European inhabitants. The soil, as well as temperature, of the country seems to be rather unfavorable to the development of strength and perfection in the animal creation.171 The general quality of the natural grasses covering those boundless pastures is not good or sufficiently nutritious.172
The native animals of Canada are the buffalo, bison, and musk bull, belonging to the ox kind. The buffalo is still found in herds of immense numbers upon the prairies of the remote western country, where they have wandered from the hated neighborhood of civilized man: the skin173 is invaluable to the Canadians as a protection from the keen wintery air, and is abundantly supplied to them by the hunters of the Hudson's Bay Company.174 This animal is about the size of an ox, with the head disproportionably large; he is of a lighter color, less ferocious aspect, and inferior strength to those of the Old World. Both the bison and musk ox are varieties of the domestic cow, with a covering of shaggy hair; they possess considerable strength and activity. There are different descriptions of deer: the black and gray moose or elk, the caribou or reindeer,175 the stag176 and fallow deer.177 The moose deer178 is the largest wild animal of the continent; it is often seen upward of ten feet high, and weighing twelve hundred weight; though savage in aspect, the creature is generally timid and inoffensive even when attacked by the hunter, and, like the sheep, may be easily domesticated: the flesh and skin are both of some value.
The black and brown bear179 is found in various parts of America, but chiefly in the northwest: some few are seen in the forests to the north of Quebec. This animal chooses for his lurking-place the hollow trunk of an old tree, which he prepares with sticks and branches, and a coating of warm moss; on the approach of the cold season he retires to his lair, and sleeps through the long winter till the return of spring enables him again to seek his prey. The bear is rather shy than fierce, but very powerful and dangerous when driven to extremities; he displays a strong degree of instinct, and is very dexterous and cunning in procuring food: the flesh is considered a delicacy, and the skin highly prized for beauty and warmth. Foxes180 are numerous; they are of various colors and very cunning. Hares181 are abundant, and turn white in winter like those of Norway. The wolverine or carcajou is called by the hunters beaver-eater, and somewhat resembles a badger; the skin is soft and handsome. A species of porcupine or urchin is found to the northward, and supplies the Indians with quills about four inches long, which, when dyed, are worked into showy ornaments. Squirrels182 and various other small quadrupeds with fine furs are abundant in the forests. The animals of the cat kind are the cougar or American lion, the loup-cervier, the catamount, and the manguay or lynx.
Beavers183 are numerous in North America; these amphibious animals are about two feet nine inches in length, with very short fore feet and divided toes, while the hinder are membranous, and adapted for swimming; the body is covered with a soft, glossy, and valuable fur; the tail is oval, scaly, destitute of hair, and about a foot long. These industrious creatures dam up considerable streams, and construct dwellings of many compartments, to protect them from the rigor of the climate, as well as from their numerous enemies; their winter food, consisting of poplar logs, pieces of willows, alder, and fragments of other trees, is collected in autumn, and sunk in the water near the habitation. The beaver exhibits an extraordinary degree of instinct, and may be easily tamed; when caught or surprised by the approach of an enemy, it gives warning to its companions by striking the water with the flat of its tail. The musk rat and otter resemble the beaver in some of their habits, but are inferior in ingenuity, and of less value to the hunter.
The walrus has now disappeared from the frequented waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but is still found on the northern coasts of Labrador; in shape he somewhat resembles the seal, but is of much greater size, sometimes weighing 4000 pounds; when protecting their young, or when wounded, they are dangerous from their immense tusks; when out of the water, however, they are very helpless.
Nearly all these wild animals are pursued by the Indians, and the hunters of the Hudson's Bay Company,184 for their skins; they are consequently growing rarer, and their haunts become more remote each succeeding year: probably, at no distant time, they will be altogether extinct.
The birds of Canada differ little from those of the same names in Europe, but the severe climate is generally uncongenial to them. There are eagles, vultures, hawks, falcons, kites, owls, ravens, crows, rooks, jays, magpies, daws, cuckoos, woodpeckers, hoopers, creepers, humming-birds, thrushes, blackbirds, linnets, finches, sparrows, fly-catchers, pigeons, turkeys, ducks, geese, swans, grouse, ptarmigans, snipes, quails, and many others. The plumage of the American birds is very brilliant; but the sweet voices that fill the European woods with melody are never heard. Many of the birds of Lower Canada are migratory; the water-fowl seek the cooler north during the heat of summer, and other species fly to the south to shun the wintery frosts. In the milder latitudes of Upper Canada, birds are more numerous. They are known by the same names as those of corresponding species in England, but differ from them to some extent in plumage and character.
In Lower Canada the reptiles are few and innocuous, and even these are not met with in the cultivated parts of the country. In the Upper Province, however, they are more numerous; some species are very dangerous, others harmless and exquisitely beautiful. Two kinds of rattlesnakes185 are found here: one of a deep brown and yellow color, and seldom more than thirty inches in length; it frequents marshes and low meadows, and is very dangerous to cattle, often fastening its fangs upon their lips while grazing. The other is a bright greenish yellow clouded with brown, and twice the size of the former. These reptiles are thicker in proportion to their length than any others; the rattle is at the end of the tail, and consists of a number of dry, horny shells inclosed within each other. When wounded or enraged, the skin of the rattlesnake assumes a variety of beautiful colors; the flesh is white as that of the most delicate fish, and is esteemed a great luxury by the Indians. Cold weather weakens or destroys their poisonous qualities. In the spring, when they issue from their place of winter concealment, they are harmless till they have got to water, and at that time emit a sickening smell so as to injure those who hunt them. In some of the remoter districts they are still numerous, but in the long-settled parts of the country they are now rarely or never seen.
Several varieties of lizards and frogs abound; the latter make an astonishing noise in marshy places during the summer evening by their harsh croaking. The land crab is found on the northern shore of Lake Erie. A small tortoise, called a terrapin,186 is taken in some rivers, creeks, and swampy grounds, and is used as an article of food. Seals have been occasionally seen on the islands in Lake Ontario.
Insects187 are very numerous and various, some of them both troublesome and mischievous: locusts or grasshoppers have been known to cause great destruction to the vegetable world. Musquitoes and sand-flies infest the woods, and the neighborhood of water, in incredible numbers, during the hot weather. There are many moths and butterflies resembling those seen in England. The beautiful fire-fly
Buffon, Hist. Nat., tom. ix., p. 13, 203; Acosta, Hist., lib. iv., cap. xxxiv.; Pisonis Hist., p. 6; Herrera, Dec. IV., lib. iv., cap. i.; lib. x., cap. xiii.
Canada has not the fine natural pastures of Ireland, England, Holland, and other countries enjoying a cool, moist, and equable climate. Artificial grasses, now a most valuable branch of British husbandry, are peculiarly important in Canada, where so large a quantity of hay should be stored for winter use. They are also most useful in preparing the soil for grain crops, but have the disadvantage of requiring to stand the severe winter, so trying to all except annual plants. Clover, which is supposed to yield three times the produce of natural grass, grows luxuriantly; but in the second year its roots are often found to have been destroyed by frost. For this reason, it is necessary to have recourse to the species named Timothy, which is extremely hardy, and will set at defiance even a Canadian winter.—Talbot, vol. i., p. 301, Gould, p. 67.
"In the western parts of Lower Canada, and throughout Upper Canada, where it is customary for travelers to carry their own bedding with them, these skins are very generally made use of for the purpose of sleeping upon. For upward of two months we scarcely ever had any other bed than one of the skins spread on the floor and a blanket to each person. The skins are dressed by the Indians with the hair on, and they are rendered by a peculiar process as pliable as cloth. When the buffalo is killed in the beginning of the winter, at which time he is fenced against the cold, the hair resembles very much that of a black bear; it is then long, straight, and of a blackish color; but when the animal is killed in the summer, the hair is short and curly, and of a light brown color, owing to its being scorched by the rays of the sun."—Weld, p. 313.
Charlevoix says, "que la peau, quoique très forte, devient souple et moëlleuse comme le meilleur chamois. Les sauvages en font des boucliers, qui sont très légers, et que les bals de fusil ne perçent pas aisément."—Tom. v., p. 193.
The height of the domesticated reindeer is about three feet; of the wild ones, four. It lives to the age of sixteen years. The reindeer is a native of the northern regions only. In America it does not extend further south than Canada. The Indians often kill numbers for the sake of their tongue only; at other times they separate the flesh from the bones, and preserve it by drying it in the smoke. The fat they sell to the English, who use it for frying instead of butter. The skins, also, are an article of extensive commerce with the English.—Rees's
Charlevoix says that the Canadian
Pennant is persuaded that the stag is not a native of America, and considers the deer known in that country by the name of stag as a distinct species. The American stag is the Cervus Canadensis of Erxleben. The Americans hunt and shoot those animals not so much for the sake of the flesh as of the fat, which serves as tallow in making candles, and the skins, which they dispose of to the Hudson's Bay Company. They are caught principally in the inland parts, near the vicinity of the lakes.—Rees's
Charlevoix says that "le Cerf en Canada est absolument le même qu'en France, peut être communément un peu plus grand."—Tom. v., p. 189.
The fallow deer in America have been introduced there from Europe; for the animal called the American fallow is of a very different kind, and is peculiar to the New Continent. This, the
See Appendix, No. XXXIII. (vol. II.)
See Appendix, No. XXXIV. (vol. II.)
See Appendix, No. XXXV. (vol. II.)
See Appendix, No. XXXVI. (vol. II.)
See Appendix, No. XXXVII. (vol. II.)
See Appendix, No. XXXVIII. (vol. II.)
See Appendix, No. XXXIX. (vol. II.)
See Appendix, No. XL. (vol. II.)
"While we were roaming along the shore of Lake Ontario we caught a species of tortoise (testudo picta), which was a gayly-colored shell, and I carried it a day's journey in the carriage, and then turned it out, to see whether, as I was told, it would know its way back to Lake Ontario. I am bound to admit that its instinct on this occasion did not fail, for it made directly for a ravine, in the bottom of which was a stream that would lead it in time to the Genesee River, and this would carry it to its native lake if it escaped destruction at the Falls below Rochester, where the celebrated diver, Sam Patch, perished, after he had succeeded in throwing himself with impunity down several other great waterfalls. There is a fresh-water tortoise in Europe (Terrapena Europea) found in Hungary, Prussia, and Silesia, as far north as latitude 50° to 52°. It also occurs near Bordeaux, and in the north of Italy, 44° and 45° north latitude, which precisely corresponds with the latitude of Lake Ontario."—Lyell's
"To the Malacodermous division belongs the remarkable genus Lampyris, which contains the insects commonly called glow-worms. The substance from which the luminous property results has been the subject of frequent experiment and observation. It is obviously under the control of the animal, which, when approached, may frequently be observed to diminish or put out its light. The only species with which we are acquainted in British America is Lampyris corusca. It occurs in Canada, and has been taken at least as far north as latitude 54°. It was originally described by Simmons as a native of Finland and Russia, on the authority of Uddman, but has not since been found there."—Murray, vol. iii., p. 277.
"We saw numerous yellow butterflies, very like a British species. Sometimes forty of them clustering on a small spot resembled a plot of primroses, and as they rose altogether, and flew off slowly on every side, it was like the play of a beautiful fountain."—Lyell's