Interior of British North America. 137 



A description of the plumage would be, white, with the whole 

 under parts, head, and first half of the upper part of the neck 

 tinged with bright rush-colour, darkest on the top of the head 

 behind a line crossing the forehead from eye to eye, which line 

 of division is strongly marked. Of the lower parts, the chin and 

 second half of the neck are least tinged — va. fact, nearly white. 

 This rust-colour is confined to the ends of the feathers. Shafts 

 of all the feathers white, Dr. Richardson considers this the 

 more common of the two Swans inhabiting the interior, and the 

 earlier visitor, with which my observations agree. Mr. Ross 

 notes it as common on the Mackenzie. 



Anserin^e. 

 It may be well imagined how the first material evidence of 

 spring and plenty, evinced by the arrival of waterfowl on their 

 northward migration, is hailed by the hardy fur-traders and 

 voyageurs of the interior, after having been shut up for months 

 in an isolated fur-trading fort, separated by hundreds of miles 

 of a snow and ice-bound wilderness from the most advanced 

 limits of civilization, and perchance living on no very liberal 

 allowance of jerked bufi"alo-meat or frozen white-fish, I well 

 recollect this circumstance in the spring of 1858. It was on 

 the 28th of March that our eager eyes, having been watching 

 for weeks for some sure indication of a break-up in the winter, 

 were greeted with this welcome sight. It was Sunday (happily 

 kept even in those wild regions as a day of rest) that we observed 

 one or two Geese and a flock of Ducks pass over, with somewhat 

 undecided flight, evidently in search of an open piece of water 

 or marsh as a resting-place ; but there was as yet none to be found 

 in the neighbourhood. Nevertheless the birds had rightly 

 judged in anticipation, led by the unerring hand of Him who 

 alone directs the progression of the seasons, and guides the 

 world in its annual path ; for, during the two following nights, 

 the temperature only just reached the verge of freezing, leaving 

 pools of snow-water formed by the powerful mid-day sun un- 

 skimmed by ice ; and a couple of Ducks were bagged on the 

 29th. All became now astir, getting guns cleaned, fixing flints 

 (the flint gun is still in general use in the fur-countries), and 

 making ready for the campaign, each one being eager to kill 



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