RETURN JOURNEY TO OTTAWA RIVER 143 



then roamed over. Probably there are not a thousand 

 head left in the entire country I have been treating of. 

 There are certainly none remaining in Canada proper, 

 and unless some very stringent laws are passed both 

 moose and wipiti will speedily become extinct, and the 

 black bear will go with them. How long the polar bear 

 and the cariboo will survive them is a question that may 

 be answered without any great mental strain, though, as 

 the latter wander to high boreal regions, it is just possible 

 (and no more) that the man is not yet born who will see 

 the last of them. 



With the exception of a few small birds, many of 

 which make this district the highest limit of their 

 summer migrations, and a few only partially so, nearly 

 all the animals met with in the extensive country I 

 passed over were everywhere of the same species. I never 

 remember, in all my extensive travels, to have passed 

 over such vast tracts without meeting with a much 

 greater change in the character of the fauna. Deer, 

 bears, foxes, wolves, small mammals, birds of prey, grouse, 

 &c., were everywhere the same. The most prominent 

 exceptions were in species in which I should have least 

 expected to find a change, viz. ducks, geese, and fish, 

 and, as I have said, small birds. The latter is not a 

 strange circumstance. 



Certain species of ducks were found in all parts at 

 the proper season ; but the Canada goose, the brent 

 goose, the wild swan, and one or two species of ducks 

 were more or less local. As for the fish, those of the 

 Western rivers contained species which I never saw east 

 of about the 86th longitude; notably the " golden- eye," 

 which seems to be a perch. Unfortunately I cannot 

 specifically designate the fish, it being impossible to bring 

 away specimens ; but I noticed a difference in those 

 inhabiting the waters of both rivers and lakes, east and 

 west of the degree I have named, which I should not 

 have expected to find. But it must be understood that 



