570 



APPENDIX. 



7th of May, in 1827, it was seen at Fort Chepewyan in lati- 

 tude 58|o, and in the distant parallel of 65°, at Fort Franklin 

 on the 20th of that month. In the 54th degree, they begin 

 to hatch by the end of May; but 11 degrees farther to 

 the north, they do not commence incubation until the 11th 

 of June. The snow even then partially covers the ground ; 

 but there are, in those latitudes, abundance of the berries 

 of the Alpine Arbutus, Crow-Berry, ( Empetrum nigrum,) 

 Whortle-Berry and Cow-Berry ( Vaccinium uliginosum, and 

 V. Vitis idcea), besides those of some other plants, which, 

 after having been frozen up all the winter, are exposed, on 

 the melting of the snow, again to view, full of juice, and retain- 

 ing their original flavor. Dr. Richardson remarks, that the 

 notes of the Robin " resemble those of the common Thrush, 

 (Turdus musicus) but are not so loud. Within the Arctic 

 circle the woods are silent in the bright light of noon-day, 

 but towards midnight, when the sun travels near the horizon 

 and the shades of the forest are lengthened, the concert 

 commences, and continues till six or seven in the morning. 

 Even in those remote regions, the mistake of those natural- 

 ists who have asserted that the feathered tribes of America 

 are void of harmony might be fully disproved. Indeed, 

 the transition is so sudden from the perfect repose, the 

 death-like silence of an arctic winter, to the animated bustle 

 of summer ; the trees spread their foliage with such magic 

 rapidity, and every succeeding morning opens with such 

 agreeable accessions of feathered songsters to swell the 

 chorus — their plumage as gay and unimpaired as when 

 they enlivened the deep-green forests of tropical climes, that 

 the return of a northern spring excites in the mind a deep 

 feeling of the beauties of the season, a sense of the bounty 

 and Providence of the Supreme Being, which is cheaply 

 purchased by the tedium of nine months winter. The most 

 verdant lawns and cultivated glades of Europe, the most 



