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CHAPTER XIV. 



JOURNEY TO THE BARRENS ROCK CREVICES MINERAL WEALTH 



UNUSUAL CONFIDENCE OF THE WILD ANIMALS ECONOMY IN THE 



USE OF AMMUNITION LAST NIGHT IN CAMP AGAIN EN ROUTE 



TIMBER A BEE-TREE MY COMPANION BEE-HUNTERS PTARMI- 

 GAN ADVENTURE WITH A GLUTTON. 



WHILE here, I was induced to visit a locality which 

 some of the trappers spoke of under the name of 

 the Barrens, situated a journey of two days off, and 

 which I performed alone. 



The appearance of the country in that neigh- 

 bourhood is remarkable, differing from all the 

 localities I had previously seen. Here rocks crop 

 up in abrupt piles, and in the most unaccountable 

 manner, through the surface of the soil, while the 

 crevices between them are filled with pebbles of 

 various dimensions and shapes. The apparent 

 disorder impresses the traveller so forcibly with 

 the idea of mismanagement, that he cannot help 

 imagining that this part of the earth must be of 

 later construction than other portions, and that 

 the necessary materials having become scarce, all 

 the rubbish that could be collected was thrown 

 together in one common jumble. Many of these 

 rocks are furrowed with deep seams, produced, one 



