Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1902, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, 
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1902 
( VOL. LVIII.-No. 24. 
| No. 346 Broadway, New York 
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RICHARDSON IN THE NORTH. 
By far the most important of the earlier works on 
the natural history of northern North America is the 
Fauna Boreali-Americana; or the Zoology of the North- 
ern Parts of British America: by John Richardson, 
M. D., assisted by William Swainson, and the Rev. Will- 
iam Kirby. It is in two volumes, quarto. The first 
volume, occup3 r ing nearly 300 pages, deals with the 
mammals, and is by Dr. Richardson alone. It was 
published in 1829. The second, treating of the birds, 
is by William Swainson and John Richardson, and was 
published in 1831. 
Richardson, an eminent man, and a member of many 
scientific societies, was surgeon and naturalist to the ex- 
pedition headed by Sir John Franklin. He passed over 
a great area of the northern country that had never pre- 
viously been visited by a trained naturalist, and made 
vast collections in natural history, a large part of which 
were lost by the incidents of travel, and the hardships 
to which the collectors were exposed. 
When it is remembered that the collecting of natural 
history material was only a subordinate object in an ex- 
pedition like that of Sir John Franklin, we may well feel 
astonished at the importance of the work which Richard- 
son carried through. 
No one was more sensible than the author of the dif- 
ficulties under which he worked, and the failures he 
made, and while the title page of the work bears the 
word "Fauna," Richardson, in his introduction, declares 
that it might more properly be called, "Contributions to 
the Fauna of the British American Fur Countries." 
These fur countries comprising that portion of America 
which lies to the north of the forty-ninth parallel of 
latitude, and to the east of the Rocky Mountains. 
The expedition landed in New York, journeyed up the 
Hudson to Albany and Niagara, and reached the north- 
east arm of Lake Huron in the month of April, and 
York Factory, in Hudson's Bay, in August, 1819. They 
wintered at Cumberland House, and in June, 1820, set 
out by canoe for Fort Chepeyan, which they reached in 
July, 1820; thence, descending the Slave River, they 
crossed Great Slave Lake, and ascended the Yellow 
Knife River, reaching there in August. There, they 
wintered in buildings, named Fort Enterprise, and in 
June, 1821, started northward. Baggage and canoes 
were dragged over ice and snow, for a hundred and 
twenty miles, when they came to the Coppermine River, 
on July 1, and floating down it, reached the Arctic Sea 
on the 21st. A rapid voyage along the coast brought 
them to Point Turnagain, in August, when the approach 
of winter obliged them to set out to return to Fort 
Enterprise, Early in September winter overtook the 
party, which suffered all the horrors of cold and famine, 
and a majority of them perished. Those who survived 
were saved by the appearance of Indians, bringing sup- 
plies of provisions, who conducted them to Fort Provi- 
dence, the nearest Hudson's Bay Company post. 
Practically, all the collections made on this expedition 
were abandoned. The winter of 1821 and 1822 was 
passed at Fort Resolution, on the south side of Great 
Slave Lake; and in the summer of 1822 they returned to 
York Factory, where they embarked for England. 
The second, or last northern land expedition, left 
Penetanguishene, on Lake Huron, the same point from 
which the other had started, in April, 1825. It proceeded 
along the northern shore of the Lakes, to Fort W»U>am» 
011 Lake Superior, and thence in a westerly direction to 
Rainy Lake, Lake of the Woods, Lake Winnipeg, and 
up the Saskatchewan; then by the route already de- 
scribed, 1o Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake. 
At Cumberland House, however, Mr. Drummond, the 
assistant naturalist of the expedition, was sent up the 
Saskatchewan, to examine the plains and eastern slopes 
of the Rocky Mountains, near the sources of Peace 
River. Dr. Richardson, with the main expedition, went 
down the Mackenzie River as far as Great Bear Lake, 
where buildings were erected, called Fort Franklin. 
Explorations were made on the Mackenzie and about 
Great Bear Lake, so long as the water was open, but 
on September 5, the whole party were assembled at 
their winter quarters. 
In June, 1826, winter quarters were left, and the 
Mackenzie .was followed down to the sea. Here the 
party divided; Sir John Franklin proceeded to the west- 
ward, and Dr. Richardson to the eastward as far as the 
mouth of the Coppermine River. There, Richardson 
left his boats, and traveled on foot to the northeast end 
of Great Bear Lake, and proceeded thence, by canoe, to 
Fort Franklin. The party returned to Canada and New 
York in 1827. . 
The ground covered by the expedition, including Mr. 
Drummond's journey to the Rocky Mountains, Sir John 
Franklin's voyage down the Mackenzie to the sea, and 
the tour of Great Bear Lake, by Dr. Richardson, ex- 
ceeded 6,060 miles. 
The side trip made by Mr. Drummond covered the 
country from Cumberland House to Edmonton House, 
thence to the Rocky Mountains, where he passed the 
winter, enduring a great deal of hardship. The follow- 
ing summer he went to the head of Peace River, and in- 
tended to cross the mountains to the banks of the 
Columbia, when he was recalled by letters from Sir John 
Franklin. 
Dr. Richardson's introduction to the volume, on 
mammals gives a very concise, yet complete, description 
of the country over which he passed, and the list of the 
various mammals which inhabit them. At that time 
the sole white inhabitants of the region under discussion 
were the few Hudson's Bay factors and traders, engaged 
in collecting, and shipping toward the sea-coast, the 
furs gathered by the Indians. Travel, except ' in the 
Saskatchewan country, was by canoe in summer, and 
dog-sledge in winter. If journeys had to be made on 
foot, the amount of provisions, or other baggage, was 
limited to what a man could carry on his back. In many 
places game was abundant; in others, it was not be de- 
pended on; and, since means of transportation were often 
lacking, starvation was a danger that might have to be 
faced at any time. 
Richardson's volumes were of the very highest im- 
portance, and Dr. Coues, speaking only of the birds, 
says: "The influence which this work exerted cannot 
well be overstated." The same is true of the volume on 
the mammals. It has always been the work most quoted 
on the fauna of the northern country. The work is rather 
scarce, and while found in very large libraries, is not ac- 
cessible to most readers. For this reason we have thought 
that Richardson's comments on some of the larger mam- 
mals of the country he traversed would be welcomed by 
our readers; and in our Natural History columns to-day 
we begin the publication of a series of extracts from the 
volumes. 
A BETTER WAY. 
With each new year an increasing host is learning a 
better way of spending the summer months. The time 
was not so long ago that the elders may not recall it when 
there was no general summer visits from town to coun- 
try. Then came the era of summer hotels and board- 
ing houses and farmhouses temporarily converted into 
stuffy dormitories for the outpouring multitudes from 
the city. This has grown to enormous proportions and 
will last. But a new mode of summer living is rapidly 
coming into favor, and has already reached such propor- 
tions that it may have recognition as one of the well- 
defined social customs of the times. The new way is to 
have one's own summer home in tent or shack or cot- 
tage under conditions which will secure the maximum 
freedom from care, and yet have such provision for 
comforts as to avoid at once the burden of housekeep- 
ing and t&e hardship of roughing it People are learn- 
ing more and more fully and appreciatively the fact that 
there is satisfaction in getting nearer to nature — return- 
ing, that is to say. not only to the open air country sur- 
roundings, but to the simpler and more primitive modes 
of living of the natural man. 
Go where we may over the broad land — in the moun- 
tains, by the lakes, on the coast, in the very heart of the 
forest — we shall find these summer homesteaders in snowy 
tent, log cabin and cottage, delighting the eye with the 
beauties of the outdoor world, delighting the ear with 
the song of bird, and the lapping of the wave on the 
shore, and delighting their souls with the restfulness and 
repose and quiet joy of a return to nature. 
As sportsmen who thus find our wilderness invaded, our 
favorite camping sites pre-empted, ourselves shut out 
from the Edens we had fondly imagined our own, we 
may protest against the new order, even though with more 
generous instinct we must applaud it. Only a dog-in-the- 
manger spirit could resent the sharing thus of nature's 
blessings, which in the sharing do not grow less. For 
us remains the proud consciousness that to the men of 
the rod and the gun belongs the credit of having been 
the pioneers first to make discovery of what the forests 
and the streams hold in store for those who may seek 
them out. 
FORESTRY INTERESTS IN CONGRESS. 
As the end of this session of Congress approaches, in- 
terest is strong in the two forestry measures, one to set 
apart the Appalachian National Forest Reserve, and the 
other to make certain of the present forest reserves game 
preserves, and to place them under the control of the 
Department of Agriculture. 
The bill relating to the Appalachian Reserve was advo- 
cated in the Senate last Saturday in a set speech by Sena- 
tor Depew of New York, who said that the proposed 
setting apart of the area was an undertaking that inter- 
ests many States, and in a large sense concerns the whole 
people of this country. Senator Hale also made an intelli- 
gent argument in favor of the bill. 
The forest reserve bill came up in the House on Mon- 
day of this week, when Mr. Lacey made a strong plea 
for its adoption as a measure embodying the growing 
public interest of the country in game and fish preserva- 
tion, and the conservation of the forests as storages of the 
water supply. Opposed to the bill were Mr. Mondell, of 
Wyoming, who objected to the transfer of the forest re- 
serves from the Interior Department to the Agricultural 
Department as being likely to lead to friction between the 
two departments. Mr. Shafroth, of Colorado, also spoke 
in opposition, basing his objection upon the allegation 
that the Forestry Bureau of the Agricultural Department 
had no practical experience in the management of forest 
reserves. Mr. Bell, of Colorado, contended that the adop- 
tion of the bill would work injury upon thousands of 
homesteaders, who had taken up land in the vicinity of 
the forest reserves, because there they could secure 
free grazing for their cattle and horses. Mr. Kleberg, of 
Texas, spoke in favor of the measure; and the debate was 
closed by Mr. Perkins, of New York, who declared that 
the opposition came almost entirely from cattlemen, who 
wanted to use the forest reserves for free pasturage. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
When the District of Columbia fishing law was amended 
some time ago, the 29th day of May was named as the last 
day of the close season for black bass, in order that on 
Decoration Day, May 30, "laboring people, who have but 
little opportunity for recreation" might have the privilege 
of fishing in the Potomac on that holiday. By some error 
this provision was omitted from the law as worded; and 
now a bill is before Congress to restore the Decoration 
Day fishing. The District Fish and Game Association 
favors the change, and there is every reason why it should 
be made. 
•6 
Mr. Samuel L. Boardman, of Bangor, Me., is engaged 
in the preparation of a memoir of the late George A. 
Boardman, the Maine naturalist, and invites from the 
friends and correspondents of Mr. Boardman remi- 
niscences of him, and letters written by him, to be copied 
and returned. The memoir will be printed as an intro- 
duction to Mr. Boardman's lists of Maine birds, .f^e^ 
reptiles and, mammals, j 
