74 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



The immense amount of labor involved in these trips may be 

 imagined when it is considered that all the baggage, in addition to 

 the collections, had to be carried on the backs of the party through 

 woods and sw"amj)S, across streams and around lakes, over hills and 

 mossy plains, regardless of the vicissitudes of an Arctic climate. A 

 short account of his first visit to Anderson River, containing a few 

 notes on the fauna and flora, was published by MacFarlane in 1890. 

 He published also, about the same time, an annotated list of the birds 

 and eggs obtained in the Anderson River region, and more recently a 

 similar paper on the mammals of the north. 



B. R. Ross, at that time in charge of the Mackenzie district, also 

 made large collections, mainly at Fort Simpson and Fort Liarcl, and 

 published a number of articles on the natural history of the region. 

 Of the others, Lockhart collected mainly on the Yukon and about 

 Great Slave Lake ; Clarke at Fort Rae ; Hardisty about Great Slave 

 Lake ; Reid at Big Island ; Gaudet at Peel River ; Jones on the Yukon 

 and at Lesser Slave Lake ; Sibbiston at La Pierre House ; Mackenzie 

 about Great Slave Lake ; and Brass at Fort Halkett. 



The extensive collections thus brought together w^ere unfortunately 

 never published as a whole, though they contributed material for 

 mam^ general works and were distributed among several museums. 



LATER EXPEDITIONS, 1862-1907. 



Between 1862 and 1883 Emile Petitot, a French missionary, was 

 stationed in various parts of the Mackenzie region and visited many 

 districts which were previously unknown except to the natives. 

 Some of his journeys were made by canoe, but most of his trips A^ ere 

 made in winter on snowshoes. Immense areas north of Great Bear 

 Lake and the lower Mackenzie, and between Great Bear and Great 

 Slave lakes, were first explored by him and are still mainly known 

 from his labors. In 1875 he published a treatise on the geography 

 of the Athabaska -Mackenzie region. Betw^een 1883 and 1893, after 

 his return to France, he published five books, which contained the 

 narratives of his many journeys. In addition he wrote many shorter 

 articles on geography and anthropology. His books of travel, in 

 i:)articular, contain a great many notes on the fauna of the regions 

 traversed. 



In 1875 Dr. A. R. C. Selwyn, of the Canadian Geological Survey, 

 examined the upper part of Peace River as far down as the mouth of 

 the Smoky. Thence he returned westward, while John Macoun, 

 botanist to the expedition, descended the Peace to Athabaska Lake, 

 and, ascending the Athabaska and ClearAvater, reached Winnipeg by 

 the Saskatchewan Plains. The report of the expedition comprises 

 a detailed geological and physiographical account of the routes 



