16 " THE BARREN GROUNDS" 



in the turbid stream, it rolls madly along, piling vast 

 blocks along the banks, and tearing from their founda- 

 tions huge boulders, and uprooting trees, which are 

 splintered like matchwood by its resistless force. Bar- 

 riers of ice-blocks sometimes bridge the stream across, 

 and check the movement of the ice-floe. But the 

 confined waters surge wave on wave, rising to the 

 height of forty feet, and with their accumulated pres- 

 sure again force a passage with a thunderous roar 

 which can be heard for miles. 



The destruction occasioned by these floods can easily 

 be imagined. Forests are levelled with the ground ; and 

 even the trading-posts of the Fur Company, although 

 placed for safety on the higher grounds, do not always 

 escape. Fort Good Hope, situated about one hundred 

 and twenty miles south of Fort Simpson, was swept 

 away some years since by a flood, and the inhabitants 

 had only just time to leap into a boat which, provi- 

 dentially, happened to be at hand. 



On the north-east of the Territory, on the western 

 shores of Hudson Bay, lies a country extending over 

 several thousand square miles, called " The Barren 

 Grounds." The rock formation is primitive, and the 

 soil sterile. It is a country of rugged eminences and 

 numerous valleys, each of which has its stream and 

 lake. Vegetation is scanty and poor: a few brakes 

 of willows, with an occasional clump of dwarf pines 

 in the valleys, and several species of lichen on the 

 stony hills, constitute almost the only vegetation. 



