in the North- West Territories of Canada. 395 



to the present time Doobaunt Lake, the largest of the many hitherto 

 unexplored lakes through which we passed, Ij'ing in North Latitude 

 63° and West Longitude 102°, and with an elevation of about 500 

 feet above the sea, seems to be always more or less completely 

 covered with ice, for during the ten days which we spent on it — 

 from August 7th to August 17th — we were obliged to travel in a 

 narrow lane of water between the solid ice covering the main body 

 of the lake and the shore, and in two places this channel was blocked 

 by the ice resting against the beach. 



In general physical features the "Barren Lands" often closely 

 resemble the great plains west of Manitoba along the line of the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway, being undulating grass-covered country, 

 underlain by Till more or less thickly studded with boulders ; but a 

 hard granite knoll projecting here and there serves to remind one 

 that the Till is not here resting on soft cretaceous shales and sand- 

 stones, and at once accounts for the much greater abundance of 

 boulders. 



In some places the surface is composed entirely of large sub- 

 angular boulders, without any matrix of sand or clay, while the 

 shores of Chesterfield Inlet, and part of the north-west coast of 

 Hudson Bay, are bold and rocky. 



A particularly noticeable feature of the '' Barren Lands " is the 

 absence of valleys for the rivers. The Telzoa River, probably the 

 largest stream in all that country, is, through the greater part of its 

 course from Daly Lake to the head of Chesterfield Inlet, merely a 

 succession of lakes of larger or smaller size, lying in original 

 depressions in the Till or rock, connected by stretches of rapid, 

 water flowing in one or more shallow, tortuous, and often ill-defined 

 channels frequently choked with boulders. Although the long 

 winter and the ever-frozen ground would prevent very rapid erosion, 

 it is evident that this river has been but a short time cutting out 

 its channel. 



Throughout the whole region the rock has everywhere been 

 strongly glaciated, leaving the exposed portions rounded and often 

 polished and striated. Most of the prominent knolls show clearly 

 the direction of glaciation by the rounded stoss and broken lee 

 sides, but in cases where two or three different glaciers have scored 

 records on the small rocky knolls, all sides may be well smoothed, 

 rounded, and scored. 



The accompanying map shows the general directions in which 

 the glacial grooves and stri^ are trending, deduced from several 

 hundred observations. As is there shown, the direction of glacial 

 movement on the upper Churchill River is south or a little west of 

 south, or parallel to the long axis of the lake ; on Chipman River 

 and the head of Telzoa River south-west; on Doobaunt Lake and the 

 river in its vicinity west. Some of these last striations are crossed 

 by an earlier set of strise coming from the north. 



On Telzoa River, between Doobaunt and Baker Lakes, the 

 direction of striation is north-westward, the course being clearly 

 shown by the stoss and lee surfaces, boulder trains, and the 



