in WI.W Ml^'r AKKS. 



about, however, to face the t-luna, or for some other reason, and 

 oame back, arriving here on December ISth loaded down with 

 snow and ice. Those tliat arrived in the niornincr were compar- 

 atively fresh, but those that arrived in the eveniuL' were com- 

 ijletel}' tired out and alighted wherever it came handiest — on 

 barns, housetops, in the fields, near tne railway, on the i<^e in 

 the river, anywhere, everywhere. Then everybody that could 

 ))rocure a gun went for them, and a large number were killed, 

 one man that hap})ened to be on the river with a horse an(-l sled 

 asserting that if he had had his gun he could have tilled his sled. 

 After a day or so of rest they again left. They could get nothing 

 10 eat here, as the river was in the meantime frozen over, so they 

 "Stood not upon the order of their going but went at once." 



Error hero there evidently was, but whose was it? Had ex- 

 perience failed to teach Anserem (Umuvi that our Canaciian winter 

 was not to be ])layed with? Or had betaken weather i)vedic- 

 tions from Wiggins and consequently made a /eA/.sc/W ?// the first 

 time he started off? Or was it merely an anserine lack of judg- 

 ment that was "'visited upon the three or four generations'' that 

 followed his lead, like the iniquities of the Jewish fathfM-s? Who 

 knows ? But as one of our local celebrities says, •"when we look 

 awa}'' back into the dim vista of the future" we imagine we can 

 see a "6nn r]e Inm'wrc'''' which may increase so as to cha-e away 

 all shadows when science, like the sun in niidda}' effulgence, 

 shall inundate all the dark corners of doul)t and uncertainty. 



There is another allied question that arises in one's mind; 

 What is the influence that circumscribes a bird's range? 



We could understand it if it was a matter of foorl. or temp- 

 iM'ature. or the huntsman's gun. but there seems to be niort than 

 this. Why should the common crow be scattered over tlie 

 whole world, and the different species of vultures be so limited 

 in their range? The food is lo a certain extent the same, and 

 one appears to be about as well provided with winter clothes as 

 the other, and yet the crow is found almost as i'ar north as man 

 can live while the range of the turkey buzzard is said to be only 

 as far north as New Jersev and the carrion crow finds its limit 



