« 
NORTHERN OCEAN. 
In fize they are larger than a Mallard Duck, but 
inferior to the Snow Goole; and though their 
flefh appears delicate to the eye, it is not much ~ 
efteemed. In fome years they pafs the mouth of 
Churchill River in prodigious numbers, and manv 
of them are killed and ferved to the Company’s 
fervants as provifions; but, as I have juit obferv- 
ed, they are not much relifhed. When migrat- 
ing to the South, they generally avail themfelves 
of a ftrong North or North Wetterly wind, which 
makes then fly fo fwift, that when I have killed 
four or five at a fhot, not one of them fell lefs 
than from twenty to fifty yards from the perpen- 
dicular fpot where they were killed. Like the 
White, or Snow Geefe, when in large flocks they 
fly in the fhape of a wedge, and make a great 
noife. Their flight is very irregular,. fometimes 
being forty or fifty yards above the water, and 
in an inftant after they fkim clofe to the furface 
of it, and then rife again to a confiderable height ; 
fo that they may juftly be faid to fly in feftoons. 
447 
The Dunter Geese, as it is called in Hudfon’s Bee 
Bay, but which is certainly the Eider Duck. 
They are common at the mouth of Churchill Ri- 
ver as foon as theice breaks up, but generally fly 
far North to breed; and the few that do remain 
near the fettlement are fo fcattered among {mall 
iflands, and fea-girt rocks and fhoals, as to ren- 
der it not worth while to attempt gathering their 
down. ‘Their eggs, when found, are exceeding 
good eating; and in the Fall of the year the flefh 
3 is 
