s, transformed into its own white flesh, becomes the
food of the Arctic fox. The herbage, sparse though it be, does not grow
in vain. The seeds fall to the earth, but they are not suffered to
decay. They are gathered by the little lemmings and meadow-mice, who, in
their turn, become the prey of two species of _mustelidae_, the ermine
and vison weasels. Have the fish of the lakes no enemy? Yes--a terrible
one in the Canada otter. The mink-weasel, too, pursues them; and in
summer, the osprey, the great pelican, the cormorant, and the
white-headed eagle.

These are the _fauna_ of the Barren Grounds. Man rarely ventures within
their boundaries. The wretched creatures who find a living there are the
Esquimaux on their coasts, and a few Chippewa Indians in the interior,
who hunt the caribou, and are known as "caribou-eaters." Other Indians
enter them only in summer, in search of game, or journeying from point
to point; and so perilous are these journeyings, that numbers frequently
perish by the way. There are no white men in the Barren Grounds. The
"Company" has no commerce there. No fort is established in them: so
scarce are the fur-bearing animals of these parts, their skins would not
repay the expense of a "trading post."

Far different are the "wooded tracts" of the fur countries. These lie
mostly in the southern and central regions of the Hudson's Bay
territory. There are found the valuable beaver and the wolverene that
preys upon it. There dwells the American hare with its enemy the Canada
lynx. There are the squirrels, and the beautiful martens (sables) that
hunt them from tree to tree. There are found the foxes of every variety,
the red, the cross, and the rare and highly-prized silver-fox, whose
shining skin sells for its weight in gold! There, too, the black bear
yields its fine coat to adorn the winter carriage, the holsters of the
dragoon, and the shako of the grenadier. There the fur-bearing animals
exist in greatest plenty, and many others whose skins are valuable in
commerce, as the moose, the wapiti, and the wood-bison.

But there is also a "prairie" district in the fur countries. The great
table prairies of North America, that slope eastward from the Rocky
Mountains, also extend northward into the Hudson's Bay territory. They
gradually grow narrower, however, as you proceed farther north, until,
on reaching the latitude of the Great Slave Lake, they end altogether.
This "prairie-land" has its peculiar anima