PREFACE 



T7ARLY in 1891, Professor Arthur G. Smith and the writer 

 -*— ' planned to undertake a journey, during the summer 

 months, to the northern shores of Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba, 

 for the purpose of collecting ornithological specimens. Just 

 before our departure in June, we were joined by Professor C. 

 C. Nutting, who, eminently fitted by his experience as a 

 naturalist, became the leader of the expedition, which was 

 thereafter conducted in the interests of the Museum of the 

 State University of Iowa. During the summer two stations 

 were occupied; the first, near Lake Winnipeg, at the Grand 

 Rapids of the Saskatchewan River; the second, sixty miles 

 above, where the River debouches into Cedar Lake. The 

 results of our explorations have been embodied in a report by 

 Professor Nutting. 1 



While at the mouth of the Saskatchewan I met Mr. R. Mac- 

 Farlane, the ornithologist, who, during a residence in the Fur 

 Country of nearly half a centur)', had made extensive and 

 very valuable collections of natural history specimens. His 

 enthusiastic descriptions of the field, as yet almost unex- 

 plored, roused in me a strong desire to visit the Far North. 

 Professor Nutting, also becoming interested, after our return 

 laid the matter before the Board of Regents of the University 

 and eventually secured their approval of the plan to send me 

 northward to obtain specimens of the larger arctic mammals, 

 especially musk-ox, and, incidentally, "to pick up everything 

 else that I could lay my hands on." 



1 Natural History Bulletin, State University of Iowa, Voi. II, No. 3. 



