CANADA GOOSE. 
75 
quarter of tlie country where the inhabitants are not familiarly 
acquainted with the regular passing and repassing of the wild 
geese. The general opinion here is, that they are on their 
way to the lakes to breed ; but the inhabitants on the confines 
of the great lakes that separate us from Canada, are equally 
ignorant with ourselves of the particular breeding places of 
those birds. There, their journey north is but commencing; 
and how far it extends it is impossible for us at present to as- 
certain, from our little acquaintance with these frozen regions. 
They were seen by Hearne in large flocks within the Arctic 
circle, and were then pursuing their way still farther north. 
Captain Phipps speaks of seeing wild geese feeding at the 
water’s edge, on the dreary coast of Spitzbergen, in lat. 80° 27'. 
It is highly probable that they extend their migrations under 
the very pole itself, amid the silent desolation of unknown 
countries, shut out since creation from the prying eye of 
man by everlasting and insuperable barriers of ice. That 
such places abound with their suitable food, we cannot for a 
moment doubt ; while the absence of their great destroyer, 
man, and the splendours of a perpetual day, may render such 
regions the most suitable for their purpose. 
Having fulfilled the great law of nature, the approaching 
rigours of that dreary climate oblige these vast congregated 
flocks to steer for the more genial regions of the south. And 
no sooner do they arrive at those countries of the earth in- 
habited by man, than carnage and slaughter is commenced on 
their ranks. The English at Hudson’s Bay, says Pennant, 
depend greatly on geese, and in favourable years kill three or 
four thousand, and barrel them up for use. They send out 
their servants as well as Indians, to shoot these birds on their 
passage. It is in vain to pursue them ; they therefore form a 
row of huts, made of boughs, at musket shot distance from each 
other, and place them in a line across the vast marshes of the 
country. Each stand, or hovel, as they are called, is occupied 
by only a single person. These attend the flight of the birds, 
and, on their approach, mimic their cackle so well, that the 
