348 Canadian Record of Science 



discovered the Coppermine River and came within sight 

 of its mouth, accomplishing the entire journey on foot, 

 a remarkable performance occupying about two years in 

 its achievement and involving great hardships. His 

 report to the company was well received and was worked 

 up subsequently into a book, which was published in 

 1795, three years after his death, at the age of 47. The 

 "Journey to the Northern Ocean" has recently been re- 

 edited from the original quarto edition of 1795 by Mr. 

 J. B. Tyrell for the Champlain Society of Toronto 

 (1911). 



Hearne's fascinating description of the beaver com- 

 munity in the region of the Great Slave Lake finally dis- 

 posed of many grotesque stories which were current at 

 that time. It was quoted in part, though not very 

 accurately, in an appendix at the end of Lewis H. Mor- 

 gan's volume on "The American Beaver and His 

 Works" (Philadelphia, 1868). This work of Morgan's 

 contains the first description of the beaver canals, and 

 is altogether one of the best natural history monographs 

 of a mammal ever published in the English language, 

 only rivalled perhaps by Sir Emerson Tennent's mono- 

 graph of the elephant. An important chapter on the 

 beaver, based on first-hand knowledge, will also be found 

 in the first volume of Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton's 

 great work, entitled "Life-histories of Northern Ani- 

 mals" (New York, 1909). The family life of the beaver 

 in and about their houses makes the setting of steel 

 traps opposite the submerged doors of their abodes a dis- 

 tressing matter to reflect upon. Hearne says that the 

 Northern Indians captured the beavers by demolishing 

 the houses; but then some of the things those people 

 were capable of doing were almost beyond belief. 



Next to the beaver canal the most wonderful piece of 

 construction is the beaver dam, which Morgan described 

 in great detail from examples which he found in the 

 Lake Superior Iron District of Upper Michigan. The 

 dam is the most imposing, as well as the most fatal of the 



