1!»(>8.] PREVIOUS EXPLORATIONS LEADBEATER. (j 1 



lain Franklin to rejoin the expedition in the spring of 1827. He 

 therefore proceeded only to the west end of the portage, and return- 

 ing, commenced his journey down the Athabaska, floating down the 

 river until it set fast and finishing the journey to Fort Assiniboinc 

 on foot. Then procuring horses, he proceeded to Edmonton, where 

 he remained until March 17, when he left for Carlton House, arriving 

 there April 5, when the welcome of Doctor Kichardson caused him to 

 forget his previous hardships. 



The natural history material and notes accumulated on this expedi- 

 tion were so extensive that it was decided that they should be published 

 separately, instead of as an appendix to the narrative. The result 

 was the series of magnificent volumes, the Fauna and Flora Bore- 

 ali-Americana, in which, in addition to the material collected on the 

 Franklin expeditions, appeared the results obtained on the earlier 

 voyages of Eoss and Parry. This publication, the several volumes of 

 which treated of the mammals, birds, fishes, insects, and plants, was 

 for many years the chief source of information regarding the natural 

 history ofTiorthern North America, and continues to be a standard 

 work. 



During the early part of the last century Mr. Leadbeater, a London 

 collector and dealer in natural history specimens, obtained from time 

 to time many birds from the country controlled by the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, evidently securing them from employees of that com- 

 pany. Probably only a few of these specimens were ever made known 

 to science, but here and there are found references to interesting spe- 

 cies obtained from this source. Bonaparte, in his 'American Orni- 

 thology ' and in other articles published about the same time, records 

 four species of birds ostensibly from "Athabasca Lake," or " near the 

 Rocky Mountains," which he found in Leadbeater's collection. A 

 careful consideration of the evidence seems to show that most of 

 these specimens (and probably all of them) were really taken near the 

 sources of Athabaska River. As the species are important it may be 

 Avell to present the evidence in detail. In the Zoological Journal 

 Bonaparte recorded two specimens of ^Fringilla 'vesjyertma ' " shot 

 early in the spring on the Athapescow Lake near the Rocky Mts." 

 In 'American Ornithology ' he figures in colors one of the same 

 individuals, " shot early in the spring on the Athabasca Lake, near 

 the Rocky Mountains,"^ and gives a minute description of a speci- 

 men, evidently the one figured.^ 



A specimen of the Bohemian waxwing also is referred to by Bona- 

 parte with the remark, " inhabits near the Rocky Mountains." In 



«Zool. Joiu-n., Ill, p. 49, 1828. 

 ^Am. Oni., II, PI. XV, fig. 1, 1828. 

 ''Ibid., II, pp. 76-78, 1828. 

 <^Zool. Jouni., Ill, p. 51, 1828. 



