This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1869 Excerpt: ... southern naturalist, but whose biography, in so important a point as nesting and rearing of the young, was entirely unknown. And from the growing interest felt in the study of oology, it had become very desirable to secure the eggs of such birds, which are essential for a complete understanding of the species. The eggs of several of the species, particularly of water-birds, were not to be found in any collection, nor described in any work, either in this country or in Europe. The geology of this region was nearly as little known, nor had we any means of determining how far formations, the area of which had been well-defined for our northern States, might extend to the northward. It was to solve such questions as these, and to open out a rich and almost untrodden field of research that Keimicott now resolved, in the twenty-fourth year of his age, to undertake the exploration of British and Arctic America. He was warmly encouraged in this resolve by Professor Baird, and it was mainly through the exertions of this excellent friend that the necessary funds were provided to enable him to take the field and keep it for more than three years. The contributors to these ftmds were the Smithsonian Institution, the Audubon Club of Chicago, and a few private parties who were interested in the results of the expedition. The funds were devoted entirely to the expenses of collecting, etc. Kennicott would accept nothing for himself. At Pembina, in 1857, he had learned of the practicability of penetrating northward, and of the probable co-operation of the Hudson's Bay Company in any scheme of exploration which might be undertaken. In the early spring of 1859, when it was finally decided that the exploration should be made by Kennicott, under the auspices of the Smithsonian ...