of the Hudson's Bay Territories, 343 



requires from this kind of game in that quarter a slight removal 

 of one or two degrees to the southward. 



Of all the geese I have enumerated, the Anser ccerulescens, or 

 blue wavy, appears to be the least known in the settled and 

 civilized portions of North America. In May it frequents only 

 James's Bay and the Eastmain of Labrador, and it is probably the 

 case that its hatcrhing ground is on the north-west extremity of 

 that peninsula, and the opposite and scarcely known coast of 

 Hudson's Straits. In the autumn their bands, increased six or 

 sevenfold by the young, return by the same route, but where they 

 winter is the query. I have not seen them on the Columbia nor 

 on the north-west coast. Do they adopt the seaboard on a lower 

 latitude ? Are they to be found in winter retreat in Southern 

 California and Mexico ? 



It is very difficult to form anything like an accurate idea of the 

 numbers of the various species of geese that have just been passed 

 under review. Of the quantity shot at particular points where 

 they become an article of provisions, we may arrive at a wide but 

 still a better estimate. Seventeen to twenty thousand geese are 

 sometimes killed by the Albany Indians in the autumn or fall of 

 the year, and ten thousand or more in the spring, making a total 



for these coast Crees alone of at least 30,000 



Not speaking so certainly of other natives, I would place 



the Moose Indians as killins: at all seasons 10,000 



Rupert's River natives 8,000 



Eastmain and to the north, including Esquimaux 6,000 



The Severn coast I cannot compute as yielding less than. 10,000 

 The York Factory and Churchill Indians, with Esquimaux 



beyond, must dispose of. 10,000 



Making a total of geese killed on the coast of. 74,000 



As many geese must die wounded, and others are got hold of by 

 the foxes and wolverines, we may safely allow the total loss to the 

 flocks while running the fiery gauntlet as equivalent to 80,000. I 

 was at one time inclined to believe that two-thirds of this number 

 was, or might be, the proportion for the autumn hunt, but it is 

 probably nearer three-fourths, and we have thus 60,000 in round 

 numbers brought down from the newly-fledged flocks, as they 

 pass southernward along the bay. I have lately been informed 

 by an old and experienced hunter, that he believes that for every 

 goose that is killed, above twenty must leave the bay without 



