MOOSE-HUNTING IN CANADA 123 



or breadth. There has been a good deal of dis- 

 cussion as to the origin of these " barrens." It 

 appears to me that they must have been originally 

 lakes which have become dry by the gradual 

 elevation of the land, and through the natural 

 processes by which shallow waters become choked 

 up and filled with vegetable debris. They have 

 all the appearance of dry lakes. They are about 

 the size of the numerous sheets of water that are 

 so frequent in the country. The forest surrounds 

 them completely, precisely in the same way as it 

 does a lake, following all the lines and curvatures 

 of the bays and indentations of its shores ; and 

 every elevated spot of dry solid ground is covered 

 with trees exactly as are the little islands that so 

 thickly stud the surfaces of the Nova Scotian lakes. 

 Most of the lakes in the country are shallow, and 

 in many of them the process by which they become 

 filled up can be seen at work. The ground rises 

 considerably in the centre of these barrens, which 

 is, I believe, the case with all bogs and peat 

 mosses. I have never measured any of their areas, 

 neither have I attempted to estimate the extent 

 of the curvature of the surface ; but on a barren 

 where I hunted last year, of about two miles 

 across, the groiind rose so much in the centre 



