Notes on Mammals 



Among the reasons which led me to prepare this list and 

 relative notes, together with the paper on the birds and eggs 

 collected by me and under my direction in Arctic America, 

 recently published by the Historical and Scientific Society 

 of Manitoba, and by the U.S. Xational Museum at Wash- 

 ington,^ the following may he mentioned : First, I desired 

 thus to set an example to the fur-trade officers of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company, which some of them could well follow, 

 to furnish similar experiences of their own. Secondly, I 

 further desired to incite the ambition of others, especially 

 the younger men of the service, stationed at posts on the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, on the sea-coasts of Labrador, Hudson 

 Bay, and the North Pacific, aniid the fertile prairies and 

 great forests, and on the banks of numerous rivers and lakes 

 of the vast interior of Old and isew Canada, to resume and 

 continue making important additions to the Company's offi- 

 cers' well-known interesting contributions to the natural 

 history of their former chartered, licensed, and still occupied 

 trade territories. Thirdly, I wished that the Smithsonian 

 Institution might appoint an agent for the purpose of per- 

 sonally reviving the grand work begun by Robert Kennicott, 

 in 1859, and afterwards followed by others, under the aus- 

 pices of the lamented Spencer FuUerton Baird. Lastly, but 

 not least, I trust that both papers may eventually aid in 

 arousing the naturalists of Canada to exert themselves more 

 fully than ever, not only in the way of ascertaining the 



* Proceedings United States National Museum, XIV, 1892, 

 pp. 413-446. 



153 



