s 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 land-locked, 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 shores alone, and
finds his food among the finny tribes of the seas that surround them. In
marshy ponds, existing here and there, the musk-rat builds his house,
like that of his larger cousin, the beaver. Upon the water sedge he
finds subsistence; but his natural enemy, the wolverene, skulks in the
same neighbourhood.

The "Polar hare" lives upon the leaves and twigs of the dwarf
birch-tree; and thi