APPEXDIX 489 



with sheets of water, varying in size from mere ponds to small 

 and fair-sized lakes. In travelling north-eastward toward 

 Franklin Bay, on the Arctic coast, several dry, swampy, mossy 

 and peaty plains were passed . before reaching the Barren 

 Grounds proper. The country thence to the " height of land " 

 between the Anderson and the deep, gorge-like valley through 

 which the WHmot Horton Eiver (MacFarlane's Eiver of 

 Petitot's map) flows, as well as from the "crossing" of the 

 lakes to the high plateau which forms the western sea-bank of 

 Franklin Bay, consists of vast plains or steppes of a flat or 

 undulating character, diversified by some small lakes and gently 

 sloping eminences, not dissimilar in appearance to portions of 

 the North-West prairies. In the region here spoken of, how- 

 ever, the ridges' occasionally assume a mound-like, hilly 

 character, while one or two intersecting affluents of the Wilmot 

 Horton flow through valleys in which a few stunted spruce, 

 birch and willow 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 frequently browsed. "We met with no more spruce nor any 

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

 stragglers range beyond latitude sixty-nine 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 honeycombed appearance usually presented in 

 early spring by land which had been turned over in the previous 

 autumn. There were few signs of vegetation on these, while 

 some sandy and many other spots were virtually sterile. Traces 

 of the dark bituminous formation seen on the Lockhart, 

 Anderson and Eoss rivers, of the 1857 Eeport, no doubt exist 

 along the Wilmot Horton Eiver and the greater part of 

 Fra:nklin Bay, especially to the north of our camping point 

 (near its southern extremity) . 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 encoun- 

 tered tut on two or three occasions on the line of march from 

 the Fort to the Coast. 



E. MacFarlane. 



