414 BIRDS OF ARCTIC AMERICA MACFARLANE. 



The scope of country intended to be embraced within the above some- 

 what pretentions heading of " Arctic America" is bounded on the north 

 by the Polar Sea to the eastern outlet of the Mackenzie River, on the 

 east by the coast of Franklin Bay from Cape Bathurst to its depth in 

 Langtou Harbor, on the west by the Lower Mackenzie River, and on the 

 south by the sixty-seventh parallel of north latitude to its intersection 

 with longitude 124° W. It may, however, be mentioned that very few 

 specimens indeed were gathered to the southward of G7° 30' IT. and to 

 the westward of longitude 129°, except from the Lower Anderson to 

 the Mackenzie. 



The period during which the following collections and observations 

 were made extended from the beginning of April, 1862, to the end of 

 June, 1S6G. No account is, however, taken of a box of specimens ob- 

 tained in the summer of 1861 and presented to the late Chief Trader 

 Bernard R. Ross. The principal scene of investigation was Fort An- 

 derson (latitude 68° 30' N. and longitude 128° W. or thereabouts), 

 established in 1861 for the Esquimau trade and abandoned in 1866. It 

 was situated on the right bank of the Anderson River, first visited by 

 me in 1857. This large stream, which disembogues itself into Liverpool 

 Bay, has its sources in the Revd. Abbe Petitot's Ti-Degale (Frost- 

 hardened Mountain), lying at " some little distance " to the north of 

 Great Bear Lake. 



The tract of country in question may be briefly described as mainly 

 flat, but intersected by several hilly ridges or heights of land, having 

 the principal portion of its surface more or less densely covered with 

 forest and diversified by gentle eminences, marshy spaces, and spots of 

 peaty soil, many streams and numerous lakes and sheets of water, 

 greatly varying in size. Beyond the sixty-eighth degree of latitude, 

 however, trees become sparse and stunted, except along the ravines 

 and banks of the larger rivers, where the fringe of timber soon rapidly 

 narrows and disappears altogether in about 69° N. Thence to the 

 coast and from the border of the woods to the southeast, begin those 

 vast steppes, or undulating plains, which extend for hundreds of miles 

 and are known as the "Barren Grounds." Fewer lakes and streams 

 are there met with, while much of the country on the west side of the 

 Anderson, near its outlet to the Mackenzie, is said to be devoid of wood, 

 low, and comparatively more marshy than elsewhere; and we have 

 then the shores and smaller islands and iiilets of Esquimaux Lake 

 and the adjacent Polar Sea to finish this rather meager sketch. But, 

 for all that, I do not believe that a field of equal extent, better adapted 

 for the breeding purposes of so interesting and important a variety, 

 from the Yellow Warbler to the Golden Eagle, among the land, to the 

 Least Sandpiper and the Trumpeter Swan, among the water birds of 

 iNorth America, exists in any other part of the northwest territories 

 of Canada. 



If the scene of operations was rich and varied, it must be admitted 



