140 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



days more entered what I supposed to be the upper part 

 of the Albany ; but on the 1 6th we found this stream to 

 run into a lake of such dimensions that we could not see 

 across it. According to our Indian guides, who still 

 remained with us, we might now easily, in another three 

 days, reach the Company's post, Osnaburgh House. I 

 agreed with them to proceed with us so far, as neither of 

 my companions knew this part of the country, and they 

 were very useful fellows at the paddles. 



The remainder of our journey to Fort Albany is 

 almost without incident. I therefore propose to pause 

 here to say something of the natural history of this 

 region ; and, to commence with, I may say that the 

 great snowy owl was the most numerous of any bird of 

 prey seen throughout the entire journey. I do not think 

 that we failed to see one or more each day since leaving 

 Fort Severn. About the Fort itself they were very 

 numerous, but always singly or in pairs. As far as it 

 was possible for me to ascertain in so short a stay, I 

 think I may safely say that, as with so many other birds 

 of prey, each pair had a territory which they jealously 

 guarded from the intrusion of others, and that they also 

 kept the smaller hawks at a distance. For its size, how- 

 ever, which is often equal to that of an eagle, it is not a 

 courageous bird, and a hawk a fifth of its size is more 

 than a match for it. Other owls, however, are in abject 

 terror of it, though I have not often seen the snowy owl 

 chasing them, but this may be accounted for by the 

 fact that other species are far more nocturnal than the 

 snowy. 



At the period of which I am writing all the big game 

 found in Canada and the North- West was abundant in 

 the area of the big island I have described ; but, of 

 course, the same must be said of all the adjacent districts, 

 for there was nothing to prevent the animals crossing the 

 rivers at almost any point. But I was not the first to 

 discover that this was a favourite haunt of deer, moose. 



