Extermination of the Native Animals. 39 



once realized is never forgotten, and if pursued for a length 

 of time creates a desire to be away from, at all events, the 

 centres of civilization, so much so that of the two states of 

 existence, we learn to prefer that which seems to have been 

 the original of man. In fact, is this not an instance of a 

 reversion or throwing back, as Mr. Darwin calls it, to the 

 traits of a common progenitor ? 



Referring to the gradual extinction of the larger quadru- 

 peds of the region, it may be stated that the walrus, once very 

 plentiful on the shores of the province, has now been repelled 

 to the Frozen Ocean. It was common in the Gulf of the St. 

 Lawrence as late as 1770, where important stations, such as 

 Point Miscou, owe their former notoriety entirely to the 

 walrus hunting : indeed, since the commencement of the 

 present century there appears no record of the animal having 

 been seen in Canadian waters ;* but what is of more singular 

 import, and far less explicable, is the disappearance of the bird 

 commonly known as the Labrador duck (C. Labradorius), 

 from the Bay of Fundy and other portions of the adjoining 

 coast. I give this on the authority of my friend Mr. Board- 

 man, whose extensive acquaintance with American ornitho- 

 logy, and more especially of the region I am considering, 

 entitle his opinions to every consideration. He assures me 

 that the pied duck was very plentiful up to late years in 

 many of the bays along the New Brunswick coast, and also 

 in the New York market, but has now become very rare, so 

 much so, that its name is recorded among the desiderata of 

 the Smithsonian Institute. It is very unlikely that this 

 migratory bird has been exterminated by man ; the causes of 

 the extinction of the great auk, which could not fly, and the 

 persecution of the walrus, beaver, etc., with all the odds 

 against them, are evident ; but the causes of the extinction 

 of certain shell fishes and the duck are not so apparent. 



* See Gilpin, Trans, of Nova Scotia Inst, of Nat. Science, vol. ii., 

 p. 126. 



