132 THE GREAT NORTHWEST 



surely will not be by Indian or half-breed. I have heard 

 a different account of the Esquimaux of the extreme 

 North-West, but it is rare for a white to venture among 

 them. 



I did not make a prolonged stay at Fort Severn. We 

 arrived on the 22nd of April, and left again on the 27th. 

 I had formed the resolution of coasting round Hudson 

 and James Bays as far as the mouth of the Abbitibbe 

 River, but we found the shore fringed with ice as I might 

 have known it would have been, and ice blocks were still 

 flowing down the rivers and streams, and these were all 

 carried inshore by the tide on reaching the sea. A 

 voyage on the bay would not have been possible in our 

 frail canoe, and I was told that probably many weeks 

 would elapse before it would be ; besides which Achil 

 and Tom absolutely refused to venture on the briny 

 element at all. So I was reduced to the necessity of 

 returning the way we came. 



I explored the shores of Hudson Bay for many miles 

 on both sides of the Severn during the four days we were 

 there. It was everywhere a marine marsh, flat as a pan- 

 cake, covered with reeds and rushes, and a few scattered 

 willow trees. I could see no other trees in any direction, 

 not even inland ; and the country in the latter direction 

 appeared to be a level, grass-covered plain, with mostly a 

 very barren look about it. The gardens at the Fort were 

 the only patches of cultivated ground, and those looked 

 as if they produced little or nothing, at this time of the 

 year at all events. 



There were already ducks and geese in the marshes, 

 although these birds are only found in the summer 

 months. The geese, in pursuit of which I tramped many 

 a weary mile in the abominable slushy mud, notwith- 

 standing the short time of our stay, were of a different 

 species from those inhabiting the Winnipeg district. These 

 were brent geese, Bcmicla brenta var. glaucogaster. The 

 Canadian goose, Bernida Canadensis, previously described. 



