tribes, living far apart, few in numbers, subsisting by
the chase, and half starving for at least a third part of every year!
In truth, the territory can hardly be called "inhabited." There is not
a man to every ten miles; and in many parts of it you may travel
hundreds of miles without seeing a face, red, white, or black!

The physical aspect is, therefore, entirely wild. It is very different
in different parts of the territory. One tract is peculiar. It has
been long known as the "Barren Grounds." It is a tract of vast extent.
It lies north-west from the shores of Hudson's Bay, extending nearly to
the Mackenzie River. Its rocks are _primitive_. It is a land of hills
and valleys,--of deep dark lakes and sharp-running streams. It is a
woodless region. No timber is found there that deserves the name. No
trees but glandular dwarf birches, willows, and black spruce, small and
stunted. Even these only grow in isolated valleys. More generally the
surface is covered with coarse sand--the _debris_ of granite or
quartz-rock--upon which no vegetable, save the lichen or the moss, can
find life and nourishment. In one respect these "Barren Grounds" are
unlike the deserts of Africa: they are well watered. In almost every
valley there is a lake; and though many of these are landlocked, yet do
they contain fish of several species. Sometimes these lakes communicate
with each other by means of rapid and turbulent streams passing through
narrow gorges; and lines of those connected lakes form the great rivers
of the district.

Such is a large portion of the Hudson's Bay territory. Most of the
extensive peninsula of Labrador partakes of a similar character; and
there are other like tracts west of the Rocky Mountain range in the
"Russian possessions."

Yet these "Barren Grounds" have their denizens. Nature has formed
animals that delight to dwell there, and that are never found in more
fertile regions. Two ruminating creatures find sustenance upon the
mosses and lichens that cover their cold rocks: they are the caribou
(reindeer) and the musk-ox. These, in their turn, become the food and
subsistence of preying creatures. The wolf, in all its varieties of
grey, black, white, pied, and dusky, follows upon their trail. The
"brown bear,"--a large species, nearly resembling the "grizzly,"--is
found only in the Barren Grounds; and the great "Polar bear" comes
within their borders, but the latter is a dweller upon their sh