782 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxviii. 



musk oxen or reindeer, by their great size afford .sufficient compensa- 

 tion; the carbonaceous element of the food (fat), the great supporter 

 of respiration and life, being so largely supplied." 



HARBOR PORPOISE. 



Phocxna phocmia (Liniifeus). 



In the oft-referred-to statement of London fur sales, half skins of 

 the porpoise appear without a break from 1856 to 1869, inclusive (I 

 can not say if any were previously secured for export); then we have 

 the columns for 1870 and 1873 blank, while the catch varied between 

 ■4 (the lowest) in 1862, 5 in 1863, 6 in 1864, and the highest (2,278) 

 in 1865. The total sales for the twenty years amount to 14,048 half 

 skins — equal to, I presume, 7,024 killed porpoises. As neither Dr. 

 Robert Bell nor Mr. Preble mention this animal, it is probably not an 

 inhabitant of the waters of Hudson Bay, and must, therefore, be 

 considered as a product of Labrador seas. 



The discoverer of the great Mackenzie River, which figures so frequently in these 

 notes, and from which a large amount of material was forwarded to the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and which has also for a long time been, and still is a valuable and rich 

 fur preserve, surely deserves some notice, especially by a later fellow-townsman. The 

 celebrated fur trader and explorer, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, was a native of Storno- 

 way, Lewis, Scotland, who emigrated to Canada in 1779, and soon after engaged in the 

 fur trade, and in time became a partner and leader in the Northwest Company. In 

 17S9 he discovered and descended the Mackenzie River to its outlet in the Arctic Ocean. 

 In 1793, by way of Peace River, he was the first white man, with matchless prudence 

 and fortitude, to force his way across the Northern American continent, and there, 

 in latitude 52° 20^ north, left his mark on a rock by the seaside bearing the inscrip- 

 tion: "Alexander Mackenzie from Canada by land the twenty-second of July, one 

 thousand seven hundred and ninety-three." Mackenzie's discoveries added new 

 regions to the realms of British Empire and commerce, and in doing so extended the 

 boundaries of geographical science. He did much more, and but for his labors it is 

 doubtful if any part of that country would to-day be a portion of the Canadian 

 Dominion. Mackenzie is described as "possessed of a vigorous intellect and a fine 

 physique, of medium stature, square, muscular build, very strong, lithe, and capable 

 of enduring great fatigue. He was a remarkal)ly fine-looking man, firm and digni- 

 fied, refined and noble in thought, with a mind and energy bent on enterprise, and 

 filled with zeal for the benefit of his partners in trade, and with a desire for the well- 

 being of mankind in general." He died in Scotland on the 12th of March, 1820. 



Another great explorer and trader of the Hudson's Bay Company, the notable 

 Chief Trader Thomas Simpson, likewise calls for some proper reference herein. He 

 was a native of Dingwall, in the county of Ross, North Britain, and entered the 

 service of the company as secretary to his relative, the resident "emperor-governor," 

 Sir George Simpson. He left Fort Garry, Red River, on December 1, 1836, for Fort 

 Chipewyan, whence he was to set out in company with the prudent, capable, and 

 experienced Chief Factor Peter Warren Dease (the builder and provider of Fort 

 Franklin, on Great Bear Lake, where Sir John Franklin passed the winter after his 

 return from his second overland expedition to the northern coast in 1826), in order 

 to complete the exploratory work of that party west and east of the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie River. All know how well these officers performed the duties intrusted 

 to them. A perusal of Simpson's narrative of their explorations should prove inter- 



