Page:The Passenger Pigeon - Mershon.djvu/253

 218 It will be noted that the wild pigeons began to be "much diminished" even at that early date.

The following extract is from the journal of the voyage of Father Gravier in the year 1700:

"Through the Country of the Illinois to the Mouth of the Mississippi."

Under date of October 7th he says:

"Below the mouth of the Ouabache (meaning the Wabash River), we saw such a great quantity of wild pigeons that the air was darkened and quite covered by them."

The journal of Alexander Henry, the younger, written in August, 1800, states that large numbers of wild pigeons were seen and used for food by his party. This was at a point on the Red River not far north of what is now Grand Forks, N. D.

The Passenger Pigeon found a place in a book called "Quebec and Its Environments; Being a Picturesque Guide to the Stranger." Printed by Thomas Cary & Co., Freemasons' Hall, Buade Street, 1831. A rare copy was found in the library of the late Charles Dean, having been purchased by him while visiting Quebec in 1841. It is now in the possession of Ruthven Deane of Chicago. I quote from this old guide-book as follows:

"At one period of the year numerous and immense flights of pigeons visit Canada, when the population make a furious war against them both by guns and nets;