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ANAS CANADENSIS. 
interior on both sides of the mountains, as far west, at 
least, as the Osage river, and I have never yet visited 
any quarter of the 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 ascertain, from our little acquaintance with these 
frozen regions. They were seen by Hearne in large 
fiocks 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 approach- 
ing 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 inhabited 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 
