186 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



the vegetable kingdom. Cultivation is entirely 

 confined to a few small gardens at the fur-posts ; 

 and the only .mode in which the arts and customs 

 of the natives affect the vegetable kingdom, is by 

 their setting fire to the forests. These fires 

 spread rapidly in summer, and are only extin- 

 guished by heavy rains. Years elapse before 

 anything grows in the places thus laid waste. 

 The branchless trunks of the burnt trees are in a 

 season or two stripped of their bark and bleached, 

 if not sooner thrown down by the wind. The 

 surface of the ground in time acquires a little 

 verdure from a few mosses and lichens ; other 

 vegetables take root ; and, at last, the place 

 where a pine forest had been, is occupied by 

 dense thickets of slender aspens. The growth 

 of this tree, instead of a renewal of the pine 

 forest, which might have been expected, is a 

 curious circumstance, and can be attributed only 

 to its winged seeds favouring their dispersion. 



I hope what I have written will amuse you, as 

 in your last letter you wished to hear something 

 of the discoveries made by Captain Franklin's 

 party. 



Sth. I have much to tell you, dear Mamma, 

 of all that we have seen and done this day ; 

 some of it quite out of our usual course, for we 

 went to see a magnificent place, about nine miles 

 from hence, belonging to Lord S . My 



