18 NOBTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No, 22, 



Various ducks and marsh sparrows and the elusive yellow rail find 

 here a congenial habitat, and liere, during their semiannual migra- 

 tions, the various geese, ducks, and shore birds which breed in 

 myriads to the northward stop for rest and food. Mosquitos 

 become more abundant as the Bay is neared and are extremely 

 troublesome at this point. 



During our sta}^ at York Factory — July 11 to 17 — collecting was 

 difficult, owing to the almost incessant rain. More time was needed, 

 but the short season and the distance still to be covered impelled us to 

 proceed. Temporarily abandoning our canoe, therefore, we left in a 

 sailboat for Fort Churchill, 150 miles up the coast. 



Contrary winds and periods of calm conspired to delay us, and the 

 trip occupied six days. On the afternoon of the second day, being 

 unable to proceed, we pushed in as far as possible toward the shore 

 at high tide, and during the ebb were able to go ashore by taking a 

 3-mile walk over the bouldery, weed-strewn beach, whei-e, on every 

 hand, flocks of shore birds of various species were hastily seeking a 

 feeding place on the broad expanse left bare by the ebbing tide. On 

 reaching the shore we found the Barren Grounds on a small scale 

 lying before us. Gravelly ridges, the remains of old sea beaches, 

 extended in various directions at a few feet above the general level, 

 the intervening depressions occupied by small ponds or marshes. Oc- 

 casional stunted spruces on the ridges and dwarf birches and straggling 

 willows on the lower ground were the only fair-sized shrubs, though 

 vai'ious small shrubby plants were abundant. Hundreds of curlews, 

 godwits, phalaropes, plovers, and sandpipers of different species swam 

 or waded about the shallow ponds in their never-ending search for 

 food. A den on a gravelly hillock a foot or two higher than the gen- 

 eral level was occupied by a litter of half -grown Arctic foxes, and not 

 far away was seen a pair of willow ptarmigan with young just able 

 to fly. 



These patches of tundra are found all along the coast between 

 York Factory and Fort Churchill. They seem to be roughly semi- 

 circular in shape, the woods that bound them extending much nearer 

 the coast on the banks of the rivers than elsewhere. At the point 

 where we landed, between Stony and Owl rivers, the forest was just 

 visible from the shore of the Bay. Similar conditions are said to exist 

 farther south toward the Severn, though in all probability fewer 

 Barren Ground animals are found in that region. 



No other stop was made until we reached the mouth of Churchill 

 Kiver. Kere the physiographic conditions are different from those 

 found at any other points visited on the shore of the Bay. A ridge of 

 greenish-gray sandstone or quartzite (PI. XI, fig. 1) extends to the 

 coast on each side of Churchill River, and on the eastern side stretches 

 eastward along the coast several miles toward Cape Churchill. These 



