Farina Boreali- Americana, 353 



one of the few survivors, felt a wish to contemplate in a complete form how 

 much had been achieved by men surrounded with such difficulties as, to 

 minds less ardent in the pursuit of knowledge, would have proved insur- 

 mountable barriers to its attainment. 



From the Zoological Appendix to Captain Franklin's First Voyage, by 

 Mr. Sabine, and from several brief scientific notices of the new species and 

 genera of animals met with in both expeditions, published in the Zoological 

 Journal, we were in a great measure prepared for the contents of this 

 work. In general such preparation in the reader is disadvantageous to 

 the author, by raising the expectations of the former too high to be 

 satisfied : but, in this instance, such is decidedly not the case ; for, whe- 

 ther we consider the condensed mass of novel information, the number 

 of species for the first time introduced to our systems, the accuracy of 

 the scientific details, the beauty and correctness of the illustrations, and 

 the whole appearance of the book, it reflects the highest degree of credit 

 upon the authors, the artist, and the government, the liberality of which 

 we are most happy to see extended to the rewarding of meritorious perse- 

 verance, and to the diffusing over the world that knowledge which English- 

 men especially love to acquire, and which England, of all the nations upon 

 the face of the globe, possesses the greatest power of accumulating. 



In the Introduction the general plan of the work is detailed, by which 

 Ave learn, with pleasure, that the present is only the first of a series of 

 volumes, which will embrace the whole zoology and botany of the districts 

 visited by the expeditions. In furtherance of this useful and laborious de- 

 sign 500/. has been appropriated by government to defray the expense of 

 publication of the first two portions, which consist of the Mammalia (the 

 present volume) containing twenty-seven plates, and of the Birds which will 

 be illustrated by fifty coloured ones ; and to the Fishes, Insects, and Plants, 

 an equal sum has been dedicated. 



A condensed and simple sketch of the districts traversed by the voyagers 

 forms the bulk of the Introduction, which, by furnishing lists of the qua- 

 drupeds found in each, presents a most valuable table of their geographical 

 distribution in this part of America, and forms a clue to the observations 

 upon that most difficult of all questions in the science, the discrimination 

 between species and mere varieties produced by difference in climate and 

 food, which are scattered through the body of the work. 



After describing the rapidity with which the expeditions passed to the 

 north-eastern arm of Lake Huron, and the consequent impossibility of col- 

 lecting more than a very few animals during that stage of their progress, 

 the author informs us that, " with these slight exceptions, the specimens 

 brought to England were entirely collected to the north of the Great Ca- 

 nada Lakes, beyond the settled parts of Upper Canada, and, in fact, in a 

 widely extended territory, wherein the scattered trading posts of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company furnish the only vestiges of civilisation.'' The work 

 may therefore be termed Contributions to a Fauna of the British-American 

 Fur Countries. 



This territory is artificially divided into five districts : — 



1. The Rocky Mountains (the Shining Mountains of Pennant), which 

 are supposed by Dr. Richardson to be continuations of the Andes, giving 

 rise to the four principal rivers, Columbia, Missouri, Saskatchewan, and 

 Mackenzie, besides many smaller streams. They contain 1 species of bat, 

 1 shrew, 12 carnivorous quadrupeds, 21 gnawers (Rod^ntia), 5 deer, 1 goat, 

 1 sheep, and the bison. 



2. The Barren Grounds, so named from their containing no wood, form the 

 north-eastern corner of America, bounded on the west by the Copper Mine 

 River, the Great Slave, Athapescow, Wollaston, and Deer Lakes ; on the 

 south by the Churchill, or Mississippi River ; and on the north and east by 

 the sea. " Being destitute of fur-bearing animals, no settlements have been 



