Note CJ — {358} CHAP. X.[124]

Besides the birds already mentioned, which form a constant dish at our tables in Hudson's Bay, during their respective seasons, Mr. Jérémie asserts, that during the time he was Governor at York Fort, the bustard was common. But since that Fort was delivered up to the English at the peace of Utrecht in 1713, none of the Company's servants have ever seen one of those birds: nor does it appear by all the Journals now in the possession of the Hudson's Bay Company, that any such bird was ever seen in the most Southern parts of the Bay, much less at York Fort, which is in the latitude 57° North; so that a capital error, or a wilful design to mislead, must have taken place. Indeed, his account of the country immediately where he resided, and the productions of it, are so erroneously stated as to deserve no notice. His colleague, De le Potries, asserts the existence of the bustard in those parts, and with an equal regard to truth.

[This is explained by the fact that the early French writers referred to the Canada goose under the name Outarde.]