LET US GO AFIELD 



There are thousands of miles of mountains in 

 that country, hundreds of thousands of miles of 

 forests, and thousands of miles of flat barren soil. 

 Every one of these miles is to be subtracted from 

 the acreage of the potential breeding grounds of the 

 mythical North, regarding which our information 

 has been so vague. 



Off to the east of the Mackenzie River, east of 

 Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake, in the Bar- 

 ren Grounds country, and between that and Hudson 

 Bay, there is a vast region of which little is known. 

 Reports coming from Indians or others do not in- 

 dicate that it swarms with wildfowl; in fact, we 

 found the greater part of the country through which 

 we traveled on foot in those upper latitudes to be 

 covered not with marshes but with tundra. The 

 tundra covers the foothills and the mountain slopes, 

 and the flats along the rivers as well. 



In brief the tundra is moss that grows in tussocks 

 or niggerheads tetes des femmes, the French call 

 them. These womanheads rise out of the icy mire 

 or cold water; or the solid covering of the moss 

 rests practically on ice that does not melt. A few 

 shrubs grow up through this moss. The tundra is 

 a good place for rabbits or caribou or other rumi- 

 nants, but is useless for wildfowl. 



And it must be remembered that when they go 

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