14 ONE OF CANADA S EXPLORERS. 



away regions, and has made extensive zoological and botanical 

 collections and observations on a variety of subjects. He has 

 a rare genius for telling his experiences, and although he has 

 never written them out from his field notes, the original records 

 in his possession would fill many most entertaining and useful 

 volumes. As the author of this running biographical sketch 

 I am proud of the distinction of first making public this record 

 of marvelous achievements. 



[The mere enumeration of his surveys and explorations, 

 covering forty-five years of time and extending over half a 

 continent, cannot convey to the mind any adequate con- 

 ception of the vast amount of geographical work which has 

 been accomplished, especially as it was done in wild and little 

 known regions. Think of the enormous labor, to say nothing 

 of the privations, hardships, and dangers involved in accom- 

 plishing any one of the many important undertakings which 

 have been incidently mentioned, as for example those of Lake 

 Nipigon, which is seventy miles across with numerous long 

 bays and large islands; Lake of the Woods almost equally 

 large ; the Albany River, 600 miles long, with large branches 

 some of which were also surveyed ; the Attawapiskat, 400 

 miles long; the basin of Moose River measuring about 300 

 miles in every direction and with an area greater than that of 

 England ; the Noddaway River and its branch, the Bell River, 

 both instrumentally surveyed, as well as other rivers and some 

 large lakes tributary to these and draining an area also as 

 large as England ; the Churchill River, as large as the 

 Rhine; the Nelson, one of the five great rivers of North 

 America ; Hayes River and its branches ; Winnipeg River and 

 some of its principal tributaries, including the English River 

 and Long Lake (100 miles) ; Great Slave Lake as long as 

 Lake Superior ; much of the shore line of Hudson Bay, which 

 is nearly half the size of the Mediterranean ; part of Baffin- 



