Another lichen, "reindeer moss" (_Cladina_), is also eaten by men as well as deer.

The _muskegs_, or bogs and marshes, produce in the summertime a very rapid growth of grass (as well as breeding swarms of mosquitoes!), and thus furnish food for the geese and swans which throng them between June and October.
In the summertime all these northern territories of Canada--from the basin of Lake Winnipeg, with its white pelicans, to the Arctic circle--swarm with birds, wild swans, geese, ducks, plovers, grouse, cranes, eagles, owls of several kinds--especially the great snowy eagle-owl--red-breasted thrushes, black and white snow-buntings, scarlet grosbeaks (the female green and grey), crested jays, and ravens "of a beautiful glossy black, richly tinged with purple", but smaller in size than those of Europe.
This is also the country for bears.

Some grizzlies still linger here.
Their range at one time extended to near the Arctic circle.

In Alaska (British as well as United States) there is an enormous chocolate-coloured bear, the biggest in the world.

The Polar bear, usually creamy white along the seacoast, is stated to range inland during the summer over the "barren grounds", and to develop either a permanent local variety or a seasonal change of coat, which is greyish-brown or blue-grey.
The black bear in northern Canada is said to give birth at times to cubs which are cinnamon-brown in colour.
"In the early summer the black bears swim up and down the northern rivers with their mouths open, swallowing the immense number of water insects which have come into being at that season." Hearne goes on to state that bears which have subsisted on this food for some days, when cut open emit a stench that is intolerable, and which taints their flesh to a sickening degree.