that ostentatious and vulgar world in which they longed to
play apart. Tt was this inroad which led to the entrance of
the authority of the Queen—the Kitchi Okemasquay—not
ao mueh to preserve order, where, without the law, the
natives had not unwisely governed themselves, ag fo prepare
them for the incoming world, and to proteet them from a
new aggressor with whom their rude tribunals were Incom-
petent to deal, To this end the Expedition of 1899 was sent
by Government to treat for the transfer of their territorial
rights, to aseertain, as well, the numbers and holdings of
the few white or other settlers who had made a start at
farming or stock-raising within its borders, and to clear the
way for the Incoming tide of settlement when the time
became ripe for its extension to the North This time is
rapidly approaching, and when it comes the primitive hfe
and methods of travel depieted will pass away forever. Ih
is important, therefore, that as many descriptive records as
possible, and at first-hand, should be preserved. Though
the following account is but one of many experiences in
remote Athabasea, it may claim some special value as a
record of the Great Treaty by which that vast territory was
ceded to the Crown; a territory equal in area to a group of
Enropean kingdoms or of American states, and whose
resourees, as yet comparatively unknown, are arousing eager
surmise and conjecture in all directions.

Whilst putting on record the methods and hardships of
travel during a singularly adverse season, the negotiations
with the Indians and hali-breeds, and the superficial features
of the country passed through, the writer was also aware of
the fact that much information of great scientific value
regarding the fauna of the North, collected by his friend,
Roderiek MacFarlane, Esq., for many years a chief-factor
of the Hudson’s Bay Company, had been hitherto withheld
from the general public. This keen observer's “ Notes on
Mammals, with Remarks on Explorers and Explorations of