| 
| 
NORTHERN OCEAN. 
tude; and from Eaft to Weft is upward of five 
hundred miles wide. It is bounded by Church- 
ill River on the South; the Athapufcow Indians’ 
Country on the Weft; the Dog-ribbed and Cop- 
per Indians’ Country on the North; and by Hud- 
fon’s Bay on the Eaft. The land throughout 
that whole track of country is fcarcely any thing 
but one folid mafs of rocks and ftones, and in 
moft parts very hilly, particularly to the Weft- 
ward, among the woods. The furface, it is very 
true, is in moft places covered with a thin fod of 
mofs, intermixed with the roots of the Wee-fa-ca- 
pucca, cranberries, and a few other infignificant 
fhrubs and herbage; but under it there is in ge- 
neral a total want of foil, capable of producing 
any thing except what is peculiar to the climate. 
Some of the marfhes, indeed, produce feveral 
kinds of grafs, the growth of which is amazingly 
rapid ; but this is dealt out with fo fparing a hand 
as to be barely fuflicient to ferve the geefe, {wans, 
and other birds of paflage, during their migrati- 
ons in the Spring, and Fall, while they remain 
in a moulting ftate. | 
The many lakes and rivers with which this part 
of the country abounds, though they do not fur- 
nifh the natives with water-carriage, are yet of 
infinite advantage to them; as they afford great 
numbers of fifth, both in Summer and Winter. 
The only fpecies caught in thofe parts are trout, 
tittameg, (or tickomeg,) tench, two forts of bar- 
ble, (called by the Southern Indians Na-may-pith, ) 
burbot, 
327 
