MAMMALS OF XORTIIEnX CAXxiJJA i71 



ultimate completion of the natural Listory of continental 

 .Vretie America. As to certain brief references herein to the 

 gi-eat fur traders of the North-West and Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany of former days, as well as to some of the Arctic ex- 

 plorers, especially to those who have been engaged in the 

 Franklin search, in which the writer has always felt a deep 

 and abiding interest, he believes that these disgressions 

 will be condoned by his readers, not only by the older for 

 reminding them of the almost forgotten past, but by the 

 Yiiunger for calling their attention to the noble work accom- 

 plished by those who have gone before; and also for the 

 reason that the successful collector and naturalist must 

 necessarily be more or less imbued with an ambitious, enter- 

 prising and persevering spirit, similar to that which, without 

 doubt, actuated those men in their respectively able and 

 heroic labours for science, crown, and country. 



For items of new or corroborative information used in 

 the preparation of these Xotes, the undersigned feels much 

 indebted and obliged to Chief Traders Henry J. Moberly, 

 Pierre Deschambeault, William J. McLean; to Assistant 

 Commissioner Alexander Milne, M.D. ; to Chief Factor 

 Archibald McDonald ; and to Messrs. Colin Thomson, George 

 Deschambeault, Murdo MacLeod, Henry MacKay, Joseph 

 Hourston, and Angles McLean, of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany. 



Should this brief and far from perfect record of past 

 achievements by those mentioned therein have the effect of 

 somewhat stimulating the innate ardour of some of the 

 younger men of the Company's service, and others, to make 

 renewed and more systematic efforts than their predecessors 

 in the already referred to and much desired direction of 

 obtaining and contributing material toward the completion of 

 the natural history of the great Dominion of Canada, he 

 will consider himself well repaid for the time, labour, and 

 attention which he has here and formerly given to the inter- 

 esting and important subject in question. 



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