26 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1770. 



is entirely covered with low bush-wood, after they get a few miles from the fac- 

 tory. These shrubs consist of willows of many kinds, birch, juniper, goose- 

 berry, and black currants. He saw several plants, very different from any which 

 he ever saw in England. 



Mr. W. gives the following short abstract of the circumstances of their resi- 

 dence at Churchill in Hudson's Bay. They arrived at Churchill just in the 

 height of what is called the small bird season, which consists of young geese, 

 ducks, curlews, plovers, &c. This begins about the latter end of July, and 

 lasts till the beginning of September, when the greater part of these birds leave 

 that part of the country. The geese then begin to go fast to the southward, 

 and continue to do so until the beginning of October. This is called the 

 autumnal goose-season, in which every person, both native and European, that 

 can be spared, is employed ; but they seldom kill more geese at this time than 

 they can consume fresh. By the middle of October the ground is generally 

 covered with snow. The partridges then begin to be very plentiful ; and as soon 

 as that happens, the hunters repair to such places as they think most probable 

 to meet with plenty of game in. The English generally go out in parties of 3 or 

 4, taking with them their guns, a kettle, a few blankets, a buffalo, or beaver skin 

 coverlid, and a covering for their tent; which is made of deers skins, dressed by 

 the natives, and sewed together, so as to make it of a proper form and size. In 

 pitching their tents, they have an eye also to their own convenience with respect 

 to shelter from the winds, and getting of fire- wood ; which, it will easily be 

 imagined, makes a considerable article here in the necessaries of life, at this 

 season of the year. 



Much about this time, those who stayed at the factory began to put on their 

 winter rigging ; the principal part of which was their toggy, made of beaver 

 skins : in making of which, the person's shape, who is to wear it, is no further 

 consulted, than that it may be wide enough, and so long that it may reach 

 nearly to his feet. A pair of mittens and a cap, of the same, are all the extra- 

 ordinary dress that are worn by those who stay at the factory, unless we add a 

 pair of spatter-dashes, made of broad cloth, which are worn over the common 

 stockings, and 2 or 3 pair of woollen socks, for the feet. Those who go out 

 add to the fur part of their dress a beaver-skin cap, which comes down, so as to 

 cover their neck and shoulders, and also a neckcloth, or cravat made of a white 

 fox's skin, or, which is much more complete, the tails of two of these animals 

 sewed together at the stump-ends, which are full as long and thick as those of 

 the Lincolnshire wethers before they are shorn. Beside these, they have shoes 

 of soft-tanned moose skin, and a pair of snow-shoes about 4 feet, or 44 feet 

 long. Most of these articles of dress, says Mr. W. I was furnished with by 

 the Hudson's Bay company ; but my chest was broken open, after the ship came 



