Being well assured that several learned and curious gentlemen are in possession of manuscript copies of, or extracts from, my Journals, as well as copies of the Charts, I have been induced to make this copy as correct as possible, and to publish it; especially as I observe that scarcely any two of the publications that contain extracts from my Journals, agree in the dates when I arrived at, or departed from, particular places. To rectify those disagreements I applied to the Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company, for leave to peruse my original Journals. This was granted with the greatest affability { ix} and politeness; as well as a sight of all my Charts relative to this Journey. With this assistance I have been enabled to rectify some inaccuracies that had, by trusting too much to memory, crept into this copy; and I now offer it to the Public under authentic dates and the best authorities, however widely some publications may differ from it.
I have taken the liberty to expunge some passages which were inserted in the original copy, as being no ways interesting to the Public, and several others have undergone great alterations; so that, in fact, the whole may be said to be new-modelled, by being blended with a variety of Remarks and Notes that were not inserted in the original copy, but which my long residence in the country has enabled me to add.
The account of the principal quadrupeds and birds that frequent those Northern regions in Summer, as well as those which never migrate, though not described in a scientific manner, may not be entirely unacceptable to the most scientific zoologists; and to those who are unacquainted with the technical terms used in zoology, it may perhaps be more useful and entertaining, than if I had described them in the most classical manner. But I must not conclude this Preface, without acknowledging, in the most ample manner, the assistance I have received from the perusal of Mr Pennant's Arctic Zoology, which has enabled me to give several of the birds their proper { x} names; for those by which they are known in Hudson's Bay are purely Indian, and of course quite unknown to every European who has not resided in that country.