154 THKOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN" 



existence of new species and the geographical distribution 

 of others, but also in obtaining specimens to fill up the many 

 gaps in the catalogues of well-kno-wn animals which are still 

 unrepresented in their national maiseums. 



In its immense Northwest Territories, situated on both 

 sides of the Eocky Mountains, and in the wilds of Quebec, 

 Ontario, Labrador, and Hudson Bay, but especially in the 

 " Great Mackenzie Basin," the Dominion of Canada pre- 

 sents an indubitably rich and varied field for scientific inves- 

 tigation. For many years to come there should be ample 

 room within its continental boundaries (without reference to 

 the important outlying Arctic islands and lands which extend 

 almost to the North Pole) not only for her own and other 

 British explorers, but also for like-minded brother-workers 

 from the great neighbouring Republic, to make large and 

 valuable acquisitions in all branches of natural history; and 

 if the former would only take hold of this interesting and 

 fascinating subject with characteristic zeal, energy, and per- 

 severance there can be little doubt that before the close of 

 the second decade of the century our great Dominion would 

 find itself in possession of a collection of Canadian objects 

 and species worthy of the country, and in some at least, if 

 not in most, departments of science, second to none in either 

 hemisphere. 



The scope of country embraced by the following Notes 

 is, in the main, the same northern section of the Mac- 

 kenzie River District referred to in the aforesaid paper on 

 Arctic birds and eggs. It is bounded on the north by the 

 Polar Sea, to the outlet of the Mackenzie River; on the 

 east, by the coast of Franklin Bay, from Cape Bathurst to 

 its depth in Langton Harbour; on the west, by the Lower 

 Mackenzie River ; and, on the south, by the sixty-seventh 

 parallel of north latitude to its intersection with longitude 

 124° west. The period diiring which the collections herein 

 mentioned were made extended from the beginning of the 

 year 1861 to the end of July, 1866. Fort Anderson (about 



