CHAPTER VII. 



A GREAT FROZEN LAKE. 



BEFORE leaving " Reindeer Camp " a cairn of rocks 

 was built on the top of an immense boulder, conspicu- 

 ously situated on the summit of a point reaching out 

 into the waters of Carey Lake. A record of our journey 

 to date was placed in it, and the " flag that for a thou- 

 sand years has braved the battle and the breeze," left- 

 floating overhead. 



On the 2nd of August the journey was resumed, and 

 during the day a remarkable grove was found on the 

 north shore of the lake, in latitute 62 15' north. As a 

 whole the country was now a treeless, rocky wilderness, 

 but here by a little brook grew a clump of white spruce 

 trees, perhaps thirty in all, of which the largest mea- 

 sured eight feet in circumference at two feet above 

 ground. Such a trunk would be considered unusually 

 large in a forest a thousand miles to the south, but here 

 it and its fellows stood far out in the Barren Grounds 

 with their gnarly, storm-beaten tops, like veritable 

 Druids of old. 



In this grove many varieties of plants were found 

 among others wood violets, which were here seen for 

 the last time on the trip. Not the least enjoyable fea- 

 ture of this little oasis was that it afforded us an oppor- 



