674 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. XXVIII. 



In its immonsi^ northwest territories, situated on ])oth sides of the 

 Rocky Moiintiiins, iuid in the wilds of Quebec, Ontario, Labrador, and 

 Hudson l>ay, hut cspeciall}^ in the "Great Mackenzie Basin," the 

 Dominion of Canada presents an indubita})iy ricli and varied field for 

 scientitic investigation. For many years to come there should be 

 ample room within its continental boundaries (without reference to the 

 important outlying arctic islands and lands which extend almost to 

 tiie North Pole) not only for her own and other British explorers, but 

 also for lik(>-mind(>d brother-workers from the g-reat neighboring- 

 Republic, to make large and valuable acquisitions in all branches of 

 natural history; and if the former would only take hold of this inter- 

 esting* and fascinating subject with characteristic zeal, energy, and per- 

 severance there can be little dou])t that before the close of the second 



Fig. 1. — SKETfii OF Fort Andpirsox.'-i 



decade of tiie century our great Dominion would find itself in posses- 

 sion of a collection of Canadian ol>jects and species worthy of the 

 country, and in some at least, if not in most, departments of science, 

 secontl to none in either hemisphere. 



"In till' month of Marcli, 1865, the Reverend Emile Petitot, at that time Pere of 

 the Order of tlic INIaurice Institution of the Good Hope, Mackenzie River Roman 

 CathoHc Mission, ])aid a visit to Fort Anderson, and while there made an excellent 

 winter sketch (siihsequently painted in water colors) of the establishment. I for- 

 warded till' latter to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington and Professor Baird 

 had it ri'prochiced in, I think, Frank Leslie's Weekly (ISG-t or 1867), with some rela- 

 tive information. It was on a much larger scale than this sketch co])ied from Al>be 

 Petitot's Les (Jrands Esquimaux. 



Tiie spruce [loles, .seen in the sketch, with their attached branches and sunk to the 

 bottom of tlie river through holes made in the ice soon after it set fast, formed a 



