10 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



regions), the interior region richly repaid an examination of its 

 zoological wealth. As is often the case, the desire for the promotion 

 of trade, here evidenced by the long search for a feasible Xorthwest 

 Passage, played an important part in the exploration of the region. 

 In the narratives of the hardy pioneers of the North are recorded 

 many observations on the native animals, enabling the later student 

 to compare the present and former status of many species. 



The first white man to enter the Mackenzie region was Samuel 

 Hearne, of the Hudson's Bay Company, who in the years ITTO and 

 ITTI made a journey on foot from Fort Prince of Wales (now 

 Churchill) on Hudson Bay, to the mouth of Coppermine River. 

 Nearly twenty years elapsed before another explorer penetrated be- 

 yond Great Slave Lake. In 1789 Alexander Mackenzie, of the North- 

 west Company, an early rival of the Hudson's Bay Company, fol- 

 lowed to its mouth the great river which now bears his name, thus 

 being the second white man to set eyes on this part of the Arctic 

 Ocean. Following his notable exploration was a period of thirty 

 years, during which our knowledge of the geography and natural 

 history of that part of Arctic America remained at a standstill. Then, 

 with the first journey of Franklin, in 1820, began a series of explora- 

 tions which extended over a period of about thirty years, in connec- 

 tion with which the study of the natural history and geography of 

 the country was carried on as systematically as the time and resources 

 of the explorers allowed. During these various journeys, the zoologi- 

 cal results of which were published both in systematic works and in 

 the narratives of the various explorations, the sum of knowledge con- 

 cerning the natural history of the region was greatly increased. 



In 1859 Robert Kennicott visited the Mackenzie region and re- 

 mained three years. That gifted naturalist, sent north in the interests 

 of science by Professor Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, so im- 

 pressed the various officers of the Hudson's Bay Company with whom 

 he came in contact that they forthwith became zoological collectors, 

 and during the next few years sent to the Smithsonian Institution 

 thousands of mammals, birds, eggs, and other specimens, in this brief 

 period probably adding more to our knowledge of the natural history 

 of this part of the great Northland than had been accumulated since 

 it was first entered. Unfortunately Kennicott Avas called to other 

 fields, where he died in 1866, and no report on this work was ever 

 published. Still, during the thirty-odd years since these collections 

 were made, many additions to knowledge have resulted from the 

 elaboration by others of the extensive material thus accumulated. 



Although much had been accomplished, yet at the close of the nine- 

 teenth century much remained to be done. The unprecedented activ- 

 ity in the stud}^ of the geographic distribution and variation of 

 animals, the migration of birds, and the economic relations of the 



