106 FORT FRANKLIN. 



commenced our journey southwards. To contrast 

 with the above the dates of the arrivals of the mi- 

 gratory birds at Fort Franklin in the same season 

 are here added, the difference of latitude between 

 the two places being a degree and three quarters. 



On the 11th of May, under a hot sun, a pool of 

 water had formed on the ice near the bay of the 

 Deer Pass. We bivouacked on the shore beside 

 it, and had not yet arranged our sleeping-places, 

 when a Canada goose alighted in the pool. It 

 was scarcely allowed to settle before it was shot, 

 and, with a celerity unknown in civilised lands, 

 stripped of its feathers and committed to the 

 cooking-kettle. This was evidently a straggler, 

 and must have seen the small pond in which it 

 alighted from a great distance ; for, on our arrival 

 at Fort Franklin on the following day, we learnt 

 that neither our two fishermen employed there, 

 nor an Indian residing near them, had as yet seen 

 any of the spring birds. On the 14th the Indian 

 saw gulls ; on the 18th, snow geese and various 

 small birds came, together with the pretty little 

 gull named Xema bonapartii, which in large flocks 

 sought for insects in the open water now forming 

 along the shores of the smaller lakes. On the 2 2d, 

 bands of snow geese passed to the north-west, flying 

 high. They evidently found the country about 

 Fort Franklin still too closely wrapped in its winter 



