doubt that the great mass of the grey geese pass their winter to the south of the Platte waters, in the swamps of Florida and the Lower Mississippi, and on the waters of the western side of the continent, towards their outlets into the Pacific. Now that the rifle and fusee have been introduced so plentifully into California and Oregon, it is to be feared that the numbers of the larger wild fowl will decrease rapidly. The bow and arrow formerly thinned them considerably; now the gun, with an increasing population, will have more fatal effect. The lesser grey goose, (Bernicla Hutchinsii,) arrives in subarctic. regions later than the other, and about the same time or shortly before the snow goose, (Anser hyperboreus.) They are shot occasionally in the interior when they alight, and in considerable unmbers at Albany, and elsewhere along the coast of James's and Hudson's Bays. Unlike the large grey goose, it can scarcely be said that they incubate in a scattered and detached manner over the whole extent of the wooded country. They rather proceed in large and united bands, keeping a lofty flight, and making few stoppages until they reach the coast. On arrival there, about the beginning of May, they immediately commence feeding in the salt marshes, on the soft white rooted grasses, continuing to do so for a fortnight or three weeks, and at last becoming quite plump, and capital subjects for the table. When fully in good plight, they take their departure for more arctic regions,at nearly the same time as the snow geese, not to appear again until they return with their young broods in the month of September. These smaller grey geese are killed in fewer numbers than the larger species, on their passage to Hudson's Bay, which may be accounted for by their higher and more continuous flight, but once they settle upon their feeding grounds the tables turn upon them, and the slaughter committed in their ranks is wonderful, and would sate the greatest Nimrod that ever waded swamp. The Brant goose (Bernicla Brenta,) the Calliwappemaw of the coast Crees, is but little looked after or cared for in Hudson's Bay, being a small species, keeping out to sea on the shoals, and towards lowest watermark, and affording a dish not in high estimation. Their arrival in the north is later than most of the waders and palmipedes. The snow goose, (Anser hyperboreus,) although it plays a less conspicuous part in the interior of the country, where it seldom alights except along the margins of the larger lakes and streams, becomes, from its consolidated numbers, the first and greatest object of sport after the flocks alight in James's Bay. The havock spread throughout their ranks increases as the season advances, and their crowds thicken, and even the Indian becomes fatigued with the trade of killing. In the fall of the year, when the flocks of young "wewais" or wavies as they are called are numerous and on the wing between the low tide mark and the marshes, or are following the line of coast southerly, it is no uncommon occurrence for a good shot,between sunrise and sunset,to send to his lodge above a hundred head of game. In such cases the hunter is stationed in what is called a stand-a space from four to five feet square,enclosed by willow twigs and long grass stalks-from which he fires, with forms of geese or "decoys" set up a short distance in his front. The geese fly towards these, when he gives out their peculiar call, and frequently he has his wife or son, or grownup daughter, to load the discharged gun for him, while he fires with the loaded. These wavies or white geese form the staple article of food, as rations to the men in James's Bay, and are the latest in leaving the coast for southern climes-an event which takes place towards the end of the month of September, although some weak broods and wounded birds linger behind until the first or second week in October. They are deliberate and judicious in their preparation for their great flight southwards, and make their arrangements in a very business-like manner. Leaving off feeding in the swamps for a day or more, they keep out with the retreating ebb tide, retiring, unwillingly as it were, by steps at its flow, continually occupied in adjusting their feathers, smoothing and dressing themselves with their fatty oil, as athletes might for the ring or race. After this necessary preparation the flocks are ready to take advantage of the first north or north-west wind that blows, and when that sets-in, in less than 24 hours the coast that had been covered patch-like by their whitened squadrons, and wildly resonant with their petulant and incessant calls, is silent as the grave -a deserted, barren, and frozen shore. The friendly intercourse that exists between these geese and the blue wavies, (Anser or Chen cœrulescens) has induced some to suppose that they were merely varieties, which is a mistake. The young white wavies arrive from the north with their parents without mixture of other geese, and they have nearly the same white garb as the old birds, but with their heads of a dirty red dish tinge, exactly as if they had been rubbed by the hair-dresser with the red rust of iron; and the bill, as is always the case with the young of the feathered race, is tender, soft, and compressible. On the other hand the A. cœrulescens comes down upon the Eastmain coast, also in perfectly distinct flocks, the young of a more diffused blue colour, as well as being of smaller size. The fullgrown blue wavy is besides somewhat larger than the white, and has its flesh most decidedly of a much fairer hue. In the spring, James's Bay is frequently crossed by both species, as far north as Capes James and Henrietta Marie, and occasionally two or three of the blue may be observed in a large flock of the white on the Albany or west shore. White again are seen mixed up to a certain extent with the full flocks of blue on the Eastmain. This is not singular, their cry being almost the same and their habits similar, and they are, it must be allowed, closely allied species. According to Indian report, a great breeding ground for the blue wavy is the country lying in the interior of the north-east point of Labrador, Cape Dudley Digges. Extensive swamps and impassable bogs prevail there; and the geese incubate on the more solid and the driest tufts dispersed over the morass, safe from the approach of man, or any other than a winged enemy. Neither fox nor wolverine can penetrate to them, nor pass over the deceitful quick bogs to disturb their quiet. The Anser Gambelii, or white fronted goose, called by some the laughing goose, is seldom seen in the southern part of Hudson's Bay. At York Factory they are less rare, but at Churchill frequent enough. I am disposed to believe that this goose is more an inhabitant of Central and Western America during the winter months than of the eastern board. Proceeding northwards, therefore, in the end of April and early part of May, it comes upon the coast of Hudson's Bay towards York Factory, and is scarcely seen in James's Bay. I have not been able to ascertain whether any detachments are met with on the Atlantic coast of Labrador. Do they not feed on the productions of dry downs, and barren and rocky country, in preference to the swamp grasses and algæ? On the Lower Columbia, and in Oregon or the Willamette valley, they abound with other geese, sometimes in nearly equal proportions, and the snow goose still delighting to keep the sea coast, while the A. Gambelii and the grey geese take to the rivers and lakes of the interior. These are seldom frozen to the southward of latitude 45°, and very severe weather only requires from this kind of game in that quarter a slight removal of one or two degrees to the southward. Of all the geese I have enumerated, the Anser cærulescens, or blue wavy, appears to be the least known in the settled and civilized portions of North America. In May it frequents only James's Bay and the Eastmain of Labrador, and it is probably the case that its hatching ground is on the north-west extremity of that peninsula, and the opposite and scarcely known coast of Hudson's Straits. In the autumn their bands, increased six or sevenfold by the young, return by the same route, but where they winter is the query. I have not seen them on the Columbia nor on the north-west coast. Do they adopt the seaboard on a lower latitude? Are they to be found in winter retreat in Southern California and Mexico? It is very difficult to form anything like an accurate idea of the numbers of the various species of geese that have just been passed under review. Of the quantity shot at particular points where they become an article of provisions, we may arrive at a wide but still a better estimate. Seventeen to twenty thousand geese are sometimes killed by the Albany Indians in the autumn or fall of the year, and ten thousand or more in the spring, making a total for these coast Crees alone of at least.... ... 30,000 Not speaking so certainly of other natives, I would place the Moose Indians as killing at all seasons...... Rupert's River natives.... Eastmain and to the north, including Esquimaux..... 10,000 8,000 6,000 The Severn coast I cannot compute as yielding less than. 10,000 The York Factory and Churchill Indians, with Esquimaux beyond, must dispose of...... 10,000 Making a total of geese killed on the coast of........... 74,000 As many geese must die wounded, and others are got hold of by the foxes and wolverines, we may safely allow the total loss to the flocks while running the fiery gauntlet as equivalent to 80,000. I was at one time inclined to believe that two-thirds of this number was, or might be, the proportion for the autumn hunt, but it is probably nearer three-fourths, and we have thus 60,000 in round numbers brought down from the newly-fledged flocks, as they pass southernward along the bay. I have lately been informed by an old and experienced hunter, that he believes that for every goose that is killed, above twenty must leave the bay without scaith, as although there is sometimes destruction dire among some lots that approach the gun, and that feed in quarters frequented by hunters, yet innumerable families of them alight on remote and quiet feeding ground, remain there unmolested, and take wing when the cold sets in, with their numbers intact. I must allow the correctness of this remark, and the deduction to be drawn from it is, that 1,200,000 geese leave their breeding grounds by the Hudson's Bay line of march for the genial south. Of the numbers to the westward along the arctic coast, that wend their way to their winter quarters straight across the continent, we can form but a very vague opinion, but computing it at twothirds or more of the quantity supposed to leave the eastern part of the arctic coast, we cannot have less than two millions of geese, composing the numerous battalions which pass over the continent between the Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains, borne aloft generally like the scud, and as swiftly hastened on, by the force of the boreal blast. I ought to observe that the Brant geese, Bernicla Brenta, are not included in the above estimate. They are pretty numerous on the Atlantic coast, but are quite neglected by the Indians in general of Hudson's Bay. Two small species of south-west habitat, the Dendrocygna Autumnalis and D. fulva never come north, as far as I know. I have never seen the first, but have shot one out of a pair of the latter on the banks of the Columbia, above Okanagan. This I daresay is usually its limit to the north, and I believe it has never been seen to the eastward of the great stony ridge. Neither of these elegant little geese ever visit Hudson's Bay. ARTICLE XXV-On the occurrence of Graptolites in the base of the Lower Silurian. By E. BILLINGS, F.G.S., Geological Survey of Canada. In an excellent work upon the Lower Silurian rocks of Ehstland in Russia, by M. FRIEDRICH SCHMIDT,* the following groups are made out and well authenticated by copious lists of fossils from every division. * Untersuchungen über die Silurische Formation von Ehstland NordLivland und Oesel. Von Mag. FRIEDRICK SCHMIDT. 8vo. pp. 250. With maps. Dorfrat, 1858. |