An Expedition down the Begh-ula. 53 



affluents of the Wilmot Horton flow through valleys in 

 which a few stunted spruce, birch and willows appear at 

 intervals. On the banks of one of these, near its mouth 

 we observed a sheltered grove of spruce and willows of 

 larger growth, wherein moose and musk oxen had fre- 

 quently browsed. We met with no more spruce nor any 

 traces of the moose to the eastward, and I doubt if many 

 stragglers range beyond Lat. 69° North. 



The greater part of the Barren Grounds is every season 

 covered with short grasses, mosses and small flowering 

 plants, while patches of sedgy or peaty soil occur at longer 

 or shorter distances. On these, as well as along the smaller 

 rivulets, river and lake banks, Labrador tea, crow-berries and 

 a few other kinds of berries, dwarf birch, willows, etc., grow. 

 Large flat spaces had the honey-combed appearance usually 

 presented in early spring by land which has been turned 

 over in the autumn. There were few signs of vegetation on 

 these, while some sandy and many other spots were virtu- 

 ally sterile. * * * Traces of the dark bituminous 

 formation seen on the Lockhart, Anderson and Ross rivers, 

 of the 1851 report, no doubt exist along the Wilmot Horton 

 River and the greater part of Franklin Bay, especially to 

 the north of our camping point [near its southern extre- 

 mity.] The foregoing Barren Grounds are chiefly composed 

 of a peaty, sandy, clayey or gravelly soil, but stones are 

 rare, and rock in situ (limestone ?) was encountered but 

 two or three times on the line of march from the woods to 

 the coast. • 



