NO. 1405. 2MA M3rA LS OF NOR TIT WEST TERRITORIES— MA CFA RLA NE. 733 



I'sting to Canadians. General Sabine, who revised the same, wrote as follows: "I 

 found the work in a state of such complete pre[)aration that the alterations whicii 1 

 saw any occasion to maiie were very few indeed, and these chiefly of a verbal nature. 

 It impressed me with an additionally high respect for your brotlier's memory, that 

 he shonld have drawn up the narrative of the expedition on the spot in such a com- 

 jilete manner that it might quite well have been printed verbatim." On the tlth of 

 June, 1S40, Simpson, who had returned to Fort Garry on the preceding 2d of Feb- 

 i-uary, after an absence of three years and two months, marked by toils, perils, and 

 privations such as have seldom been en(hir'ed, set out for England by crossing the 

 prairies to St. Peter's (St. Paid and Minneapolis were not in existence then), and 

 thence to New York. lie pursued his journey with much rapidity, li'ft the main 

 body of buffalo hunters with whom he started, and in company with four men went 

 on ahead. On a chart which was found among his other papers after his death his 

 last recorded day's march (June 11) was 47 miles in a direct line. After that date 

 every circumstance is involved in mystery. He had evidently turned back, and all 

 that can be ascertained with certainty is that on the afternoon of the 13th or 14th of 

 June he shot two of his men, and that the other two mounted their horses and 

 rejoined the large brigade of hunters. A party of them went to the scene of the 

 shooting next moining, where his death took jjlace. Whether he shot the two 

 men in self-defense, and was subsequently killed by their com]>anions, or whether 

 the severe stretch to w liicli his mental faculties had been subjected for several j^ears 

 brought on a temporary aberration of mind, under which the melancholy tragedy 

 took place, is known only to God and the surviving actors therein. 



"Man is a har[), whose churds elude the sight, 

 Each yielding harmony dis|)osed aright; 

 The screws reversed (a task which, if he please, 

 God in a moment executes with ease). 

 Ten thousand thousand strings at once go loose. 

 Lost, till he tune them, all their j)ower and use." 



Thus perished, before he had completed his thirty-second year, Thomas Simpson, 

 a man of great ardor, resolution, and perseverence, one who had already achieved 

 nnich, and has left a name which will be classed by i^osterity with that of (-ook. 

 Parry, i.ander, Franklin, Rae, Ross, McClintock, and others of a later date. The 

 Royal (ieographical Society presented to him in 1839 their founder's gold medal, 

 which, however, never reached him. It was not until October, 1841, that the 

 remains of Simpson were sent for fi-om where he fell and brought to Fort (iariy foi' 

 interment. 



RODENTIA. 



BUSHY-TAILED WOOD RAT. 



Neotoma drumrnondi (Richardson). 



Chief Trader W. ,J. McLean informs me that Fort Liard, Mackenzie 

 River District, where he was [)()st manager from LSOo to 1872, is the 

 only place in the northern departmiMit of the company where he has 

 seen a few examples of this rat. This post is situated in latitude (about) 

 ()0^^ north and lono-itude 124 ' west. In New Caledonia District, British 

 Coluiubia, however, it is quite common, and individuals are sometimes 

 secured in native and other building-s. At present, Fort Liard may be 

 considered the eastern i-ange limit and the northern as well; but it is 

 probably a more northerly resident on the west side of the Rocky 

 Proc. N, M. vol. xxviii— 04 47 



