244 THE ARCTIC PRAIRIES 



ulating their ways, though they themselves were the 

 not truly mosses at all. 



I never before saw such a realm of exquisite flowers 

 so exquisitely displayed, and the effect at every turn 

 throughout the land was colour, colour, colour, to as 

 far outdo the finest autumn tints of New England as 

 the Colorado Canyon outdoes the Hoosac Gorge. 

 What Nature can do only in October, elsewhere, she 

 does here all season through, as though when she set 

 out to paint the world she began on the Barrens with 

 a full palette and when she reached the Tropics had 

 nothing left but green. 



Thus at every step one is wading through lush grass 

 or crushing prairie blossoms and fruits. It is so on 

 and on; in every part of the scene, there are but few 

 square feet that do not bloom with flowers and throb 

 with life; yet this is the region called the Barren Lands 

 of the North. 



And the colour is an index of its higher living forms, 

 for this is the chosen home of the Swans and Wild 

 Geese; many of the Ducks, the Ptarmigan, the Lap- 

 longspur and Snowbunting. The blue lakes echo with 

 the wailing of the Gulls and the eerie magic calling of 

 the Loons. Colonies of Lemmings, Voles, or Ground- 

 squirrels are found on every sunny slope ; the Wolver- 

 ine and the White Wolf find this a land of plenty, for 

 on every side, as I stood on that high hill, were to be 

 seen small groups of Caribou. 



This was the land and these the creatures I had 

 come to see. This was my Farthest North and this 

 was the culmination of years of dreaming. How very 



