The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. VI. Being the Second of the Third VoyageCook, James
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The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. VI. Being the Second of the Third Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
Besides these animals, which were all seen at Nootka, there are some
others in this place which we did not find there, such as the white
bear, of whose skins the natives brought several pieces, and some entire
skins of cubs, from which their size could not be determined. We also
found the wolverene, or quickhatch, which had very bright colours; a
larger sort of ermine than the common one, which is the same as at
Nootka, varied with a brown colour, and with scarcely any black on its
tail. The natives also brought the skin of the head of some very large
animal, but it could not be positively determined what it was, though,
from the colour and shagginess of the hair, and its unlikeness to any
land animal, we judged it might probably be that of the large male
ursine seal or sea-bear. But one of the most beautiful skins, and which
seems peculiar to this place as we never saw it before, is that of a
small animal about ten inches long, of a brown or rusty colour on the
back, with a great number of obscure whitish specks, and the sides of a
blueish ash-colour, also with a few of these specks. The tail is not
above a third of the length of its body, and is covered with a hair of a
whitish colour at the edges. It is no doubt the same with those called
spotted field-mice by Mr. Stæhlin[70], in his short account of the New
Northern Archipelago; but whether they be really of the mouse kind or a
squirrel, we could not tell, for want of perfect skins, though Mr.
Anderson was inclined to think that it is the same animal described
under the name of the _Casan_ marmot, by Mr. Pennant. The number of
skins we found here, points out the great plenty of these several
animals just mentioned; but it is remarkable, that we neither saw the
skins of the moose nor of the common deer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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