156 THKOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



Liverpool Bay, latitude 70° north, has its sources in the 

 Reverend Abbe Petitot's " Ti-Degale " (Erost-hardened 

 Mountain), lying at some "little distance" to the north of 

 Great Bear Lake. Eor this exploration and the recovery in 

 June, 1862, of the dispatches delivered to the Eskimos by 

 Gapt. Robert McClure, of Her Majesty's Arctic search-expe- 

 dition ship Investigator, when off Cape Bathurst in the month 

 of August, 1850, for transmission to England by way of 

 Eort Good Hope and other Hudson's Bay posts, the British 

 Admiralty (through the good offices of Lord Strathcona and 

 Mount Royal, G.C.M.G.) were recently pleased to award 

 me the Queen's Arctic medal. When Sir Leopold McClin- 

 tock returned to England from his expedition of 1857-1859, 

 which ascertained the fate of Sir John Franklin and his 

 companions, an octagonal form of the medal was struck for 

 presentation to several of his officers and crew who had not 

 received the round service medal of 1818-1855 previous to 

 the latter date. 



Although these Notes chiefly relate to the collections 

 made by the writer within the above-defined region, and at 

 two or three other points, yet many incidental references 

 were deemed necessary in respect to northern mammals 

 obtained and observed by officers of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany and others in the Mackenzie River District and else- 

 where. It was also considered advisable to refer to similar 

 work perfornjed by officers of some of the British Govern- 

 ment's Arctic exploring and search expeditions which win- 

 tered in Dominion Polar Sea lands. Brief extracts have 

 also been made from Gen. A. W. Greely's " Three Tears of 

 Arctic Service," and from other land and water exploring 

 publications, while the explanatory remarks, called for under 

 each species of animal entered in the Company's catalogues 

 of their annual London fur sales, practically include every 

 noticeable vantage point of observation throughout the vast 

 domain in which their trade and commercial business has 

 been conducted, particularly during the last eighty-seven 

 vears. 



