the winter is intensely cold, and the ground is frozen for a considerable depth downwards, all the year round, there are still great forests; and a white and Amerindian population find it possible to live there all the year round, while animal life is extremely abundant.  On the other hand, a good deal of the territory between Mackenzie River and Hudson’s Bay is almost uninhabitable, except during the summertime, owing to the depth of the snow and the bare rocky nature of the ground.

The treeless area north of Lake Athabaska (the “barren lands” of the Canadian Dominion) seems to consist of nothing but slabs of rock and loose stones.  Yet this region is far from being without vegetation.  The rock is often covered with a thin or thick sod of lichen ("reindeer moss”, in some districts three feet deep) intermixed with the roots of the wishakapakka herb (Ledum palustre, from which Labrador tea is made), of cranberries, gooseberries, heather (with white bell flowers), and a dwarf birch.  This last, in sheltered places where a little vegetable soil has been formed, grows into a low scrubby bush.  As to the gooseberries—­here and farther south—­Hearne describes them as “thriving best on the stony or rocky ground, open and much exposed to the sun”.  They spread along the ground like vines.  The small red fruit is always most plentiful and fine on the under side of the branches, probably owing to the reflected heat of the stones.  In the bleaker places a hard, black, crumply lichen—­the “Tripe de roche” of the French Canadians (Gyrophoreus) grows on the rocks and stones, and is of great service to the Amerindians, as it furnishes them with a temporary subsistence when no animal food can be procured.  This lichen, when boiled, turns to a gummy consistence something like sago.  Hearne describes it as being remarkably good when used to thicken broth; but some other pioneers complained that it made them and their Indians seriously ill.  Another lichen, “reindeer moss” (Cladina), is also eaten by men as well as deer.  The muskegs, or bogs and marshes, produce in the summertime a very rapid growth of grass (as well as breeding swarms of mosquitoes!), and thus furnish food for the geese and swans which throng them between June and October.

In the summertime all these northern territories of Canada—­from the basin of Lake Winnipeg, with its white pelicans, to the Arctic circle—­swarm with birds, wild swans, geese, ducks, plovers, grouse, cranes, eagles, owls of several kinds—­especially the great snowy eagle-owl—­red-breasted thrushes, black and white snow-buntings, scarlet grosbeaks (the female green and grey), crested jays, and ravens “of a beautiful glossy black, richly tinged with purple”, but smaller in size than those of Europe.

This is also the country for bears.  Some grizzlies still linger here.  Their range at one time extended to near the Arctic circle.  In Alaska (British as well as United States) there is an enormous chocolate-coloured bear, the biggest in the world.  The Polar bear, usually creamy white along the seacoast, is stated to range inland during the summer over the “barren grounds”, and to develop either a permanent local variety or a seasonal change of coat, which is greyish-brown or blue-grey.