476 APPENDIX. 



territory in question is about equal to the portion of the 

 old continent which would be cut off to the northward 

 by an imaginary line running from the Bay of Biscay, 

 through the Gulf of Lyons, the Adriatic and Black 

 Seas, to the Caspian and Lake Aral, and from thence 

 north-eastwardly to the sea of Ochotsk, thus compris- 

 ing twenty-seven degrees of latitude, and in the sixtieth 

 parallel upwards of one hundred degrees of longitude : 

 or, Captain Back's journey from New York to the Gulf 

 of Boothia may be likened to that of a traveller who 

 should embark in a canoe at Naples, and proceed up or 

 down various rivers, and across portages, until he reach 

 Arkhangel and the entrance of the White Sea. In a 

 country embracing so many parallels of latitude, and 

 presenting a surface so greatly varied by hill and dale, 

 woods and prairies, we may naturally expect a consider- 

 able variety in its ferine inhabitants; and those which 

 exist in America are highly interesting to the zoologist, 

 as being less perfectly known than their European re- 

 presentatives, — while, at the same time, their range 

 having been as yet scarcely restricted, or their habits 

 influenced, by man, they offer instructive studies to the 

 naturalist. It is in North America alone that oppor- 

 tunities occur for observing the curious operations of 

 the beaver, which are guided by an instinct almost 

 surpassing human reason : there too we may watch the 

 regular migrations of the bison and reindeer to their 

 wonted feeding-places or remote retreats where they 

 bring forth their young ; and note the periodical flights of 

 birds proceeding in immense flocks from warmer and more 

 populous climes to the secluded shores of the Arctic Sea. 

 The ichthyologist too, who shall devote his time to the 

 investigation of the fresh waters of that country, and of 

 its several bounding seas, will reap a rich harvest; and 



