4 4 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Therefore in the northern hemisphere we see an island-continent, 

 with its southern extremity in the same parallel as the Shetlands, 

 Bergen, Christiania, and St. Petersburg, remaining under the 

 most stupendous process of glaciation, extending fifteen hundred 

 miles further towards the Pole, and yet the glaciation of Cape 

 Farewell, its southern extremity, is as complete as at its northern 

 apex, between the eighty-third and eighty-fourth parallels of 

 latitude. 



This astonishing development of glaciation we know to be 

 due to the encircling of Greenland by cold arctic currents, and 

 not to its geographical position alone. Are the advocates of 

 glacial epochs prepared to prove that the glaciation of Scotland, 

 England, Iceland, the Faroes, and Norway was ever more com- 

 plete or excessive than that now existing in Greenland ? 



Until this is proved, I think we as zoologists should, with 

 the knowledge we possess of terrestrial animal life in Greenland, 

 be extremely cautious in supposing that even during the period 

 of greatest ascendancy of the glacial epoch in the northern 

 hemisphere, the terrestrial fauna and flora, of those regions 

 possessed of a sea coast, were entirely removed by glaciation of 

 the land surfaces, for in glaciated Greenland we find a con- 

 siderable terrestrial mammalian fauna inhabiting its entire 

 extent of shore. 



NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF NORTH-WESTERN CANADA. 



By D. L. Thorpe. 



Communicated by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson. 



[This paper, draughted from the notes and letters of Mr. 

 Thorpe, supplies the gist of his observations on a visit to the 

 North- West in 1891. Mr. Thorpe left England on the 8th May, 

 and reached his headquarters at Dalesbro' about the end of the 

 month. Dalesbro' is situated some 400 miles south-west of the 

 city of Winnipeg. Thanks to the kindness of my friend Mr. 

 Miller Christy, in furnishing an introduction to Mr. Ernest 

 Thompson, of Toronto, Mr. Thorpe found full instructions for 

 his work awaiting him at Dalesbro'. Unfortunately, Mr. Thorpe 

 sacrificed much valuable time in assisting his hosts in their 

 farming operations, his good nature succumbing to their pressing 





