Bulletin from the Laboratories of Natural History of the State University of Iowa (Volume 2) (Paperback)

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. 1893. Excerpt: ... REPORT ON ZOOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS ON THE LOWER SASKATCHEWAN RIVER. By C. C. NUTTING. During the months of July and August, 1891, the writer, accompanied by?.Iessrs. Frank Russell and A. G. Smith, was engaged in collecting and studying the animals, particularly mammals and birds, of the lower Saskatchewan River. Few persons who have not visited that region have an accurate conception of the extent of the water systems in British America. Here is a river, navigable for fourteen hundred miles, emptying into a lake nearly three hundred miles long, and both are little more than names to most people. Lake Winnipeg receives most of its waters from two sources, the Red River of the North flowing from the south into its southern end, and the Saskatchewan River, flowing in an easterly direction from the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains to the northern end of the lake, a distance of almost two thousand miles, as the river winds. Lakes Winnipegosis and Manitoba, a short distance to the west of Winnipeg, are connected with each other by the Waterhen River, and with Lake Winnipeg by the Little Saskatchewan River. Lake Winnipeg is connected with Hudson's Bay by Nelson River, the whole forming a water system of vast extent, draining a region from the Rocky Mountains to Hudson's Bay; a system almost comparable in extent to that of the Mississippi River. From the Saskatchewan River to the Polar Sea is one inextricable maze of lakes, rivers and marshes, one of the greatest palustral regions in the world, perhaps, and the breeding place of.most of our migratory birds. The American Continent, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean, offers no barrier to distribution or migration, thus presenting an exceptional opportunity for the study of geographical distribution unimpe...