176 ANAS CANADENSIS. 



interior on both sides of the mountains, as far west, at 

 least, as the Osage river, and I have never yet visited 

 any quarter of the country wherr the inhabitants are 

 not familiarly acquainted with the regular passing and 

 repassing of the wild geese. The general opinion here 

 is, that they are on their way to the lakes to breed; 

 but the inhabitants on the confines of the great lakes 

 that separate us from Canada, are equally ignorant with 

 ourselves of the particular breeding places of those 

 birds. There, their journey north is but commencing; 

 and how far it extends it is impossible for us at present 

 to ascertain, from our little acquaintance with these 

 frozen regions. They were seen by Hearne in large 

 flocks within the Arctic circle, and were then pursuing 

 their way still farther north. Captain Phipps speaks 

 of seeing wild geese feeding at the water's edge, on the 

 dreary coast of Spitzbergen, in lat. 80 27'. It is highly 

 probable that they extend their migrations under the 

 very pole itself, amid the silent desolation of unknown 

 countries, shut out since creation from the prying eye 

 of man by everlasting and insuperable barriers of ice. 

 That such places abound with their suitable food, we 

 cannot for a moment doubt ; while the absence of their 

 great destroyer, man, and the splendours of a perpetual 

 day, may render such regions the most suitable for their 

 purpose. 



Having fulfilled the great law of nature, the approach- 

 ing rigours of that dreary climate oblige these vast 

 congregated flocks to steer for the more genial regions 

 of the south. And* no sooner do they arrive at those 

 countries of the earth inhabited by man, than carnage 

 and slaughter is commenced on their ranks. The 

 English at Hudson's Bay, says Pennant, depend greatly 

 on geese, and in favourable years kill three or four 

 thousand, and barrel them up for use. They send out . 

 their servants as well as Indians, to. shoot these birds 

 on their passage. It is in vain to pursue them ; they 

 therefore form a row of huts, made of boughs, at 

 musket-shot distance from each other, and place them 

 in a line across the vast marshes of the country. Each 



