﻿322 CLUMP OF TREES. Sept. 



gladly encamped, at two o'clock, on coming to a 

 clamp of stunted white spruce trees, where we 

 arranged a comfortable bivouack, by placing small 

 branches between the frozen ground and our 

 blankets. In the existence of many scattered 

 stumps of decayed spruce fir trees, and the total 

 absence of young plants, one might be led to infer, 

 that of late years the climate had deteriorated, and 

 that the country was no longer capable of support- 

 ing trees so near the sea-coast as it had formerly 

 done. Many plants of different species of Pyrola 

 grow on the sea-shore; and as these are most 

 abundant in forest lands, it is possible that they 

 may be the memorials of ancient woods. The 

 largest tree in the clump in which we bivouacked 

 had a circumference of thirty-seven inches at the 

 height of four feet from the ground. Its annual 

 layers were very numerous and fine, and indicated 

 centuries of growth, but I was unable to reckon 

 them. This place lies in lat. 67° 22' N. 



The evening proving fine, Mr. Rae and Albert 

 went out to hunt, and both had the pleasure of 

 seeing the musk-ox, for the first time in their lives. 

 The uming-7nak is known by name and reputation 

 to all the Eskimo tribes ; but as it does not exist 

 in Greenland, or Labrador, nor in the chain of 

 islands extending north from that peninsula along 

 the west side of Davis Straits, Albert, who was a 



