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PREFACE. 



From the spring of 1861 until the present, I have been collecting 

 Canadian Musci, and in that time have traversed the continent many- 

 times. From 1861-1868, I collected in the central counties of Ontario, 

 in 1869 under the auspices of the Natural History Society of Montreal, 

 I spent nearly two months on the north and west shores of Lake 

 Superior. In 1872, I collected from Lake Superior, westward to the 

 Lake of the Woods, thence to Edmonton on - the Saskatchewan, 

 thence westward to Peace Eiver in lat. 56°, and from there to 

 Vancouver Island traversing nearly the whole length of British 

 Columbia. The spring of 1875 was spent on Vancouver Island, 

 and the summer occupied in collecting in British Columbia and along 

 the whole length of the Peace Eiver. The summers of 1879-80-81 were 

 spent in Manitoba and the prairie region where many peculiar species, 

 were gathei-ed. In 1882-83, I collected in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, 

 Anticosti and the Gasp^ peninsula. The summer of 1884 at Lake 

 Nepigon and the north shore of Lake Superior. The next summer 

 (1885) collections were made in the Eocky and Selkirk Mountains on 

 the line of the Canadian Pacific Eailway. Vancouver Island was 

 visited again in 1887, Prince Edward Island in 1888 and the summers 

 of 1889-90 and 1891 were spent making exhaustive collections between 

 the Pacific coast and the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. 



Important and interesting additions have also been made to the 

 collections by the undermentioned gentlemen, including some new 

 bpecies : — 



Dr. Eobert Bell, of the Geological Survey Department, from Hudson 

 Strait and Bay ; J. M. Macoun from the shores of Lake "Winnipeg, 

 the islands in Behring Sea, the coast of Alasi^a and British Columbia ; 

 Mr. John Moser, of Caanan Forks, Queen's County, New Brunswick, 

 from New Brunswick ; Mr. J. Dearness from around London, Ontario ; 

 Eev. Charles A. Waghorne, of New Harbor, Newfoundland, from New- 

 foundland and Labrador. 



From the foregoing it will be seen that the material for the present 

 work has been accumulating for many years. In 1861 I commenced 

 a correspondence with Sullivant, who was then working on his 

 Icones Muscorum. After some years Mr. Coe F. Austin took up the 



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