INTRODUCTION, ' XKY 
Lapland woman to Linneus, when he reached her hut, exhausted by 
hunger and the fatigue of travelling through interminable marshes. 
“ O thou poor man, what hard destiny can have brought thee hither, 
to a place never visited by any one before! This is the first time I 
ever beheld a stranger. Thou miserable creature! how didst thou 
come, and whither wilt thou go*?” Parties of Indians occasionally 
cross these wilds in going from the Athapescow to Fort Churchill, but 
they almost always experience great privations, and very often lose 
some of their number by famine. Hearne, in his first and second 
journeys, traversed them in two directions ; Sir John Franklin, in his 
first journey, travelled within their western limits; and Sir Edward 
Parry, in his second voyage, obtained specimens of the animals of 
Melville peninsula, which forms the North-east corner of the Barren- 
grounds. The Chepewyans, Copper Indians, Dog-ribs, Hare-Indians, 
and Esquimaux visit them annually for a short period of the summer 
Season, in quest of caribou. 
The following quadrupeds are known to inhabit the Barren-grounds : 
Ursus arctos 2? Americanus. 
»  Mmaritimus, 
Gulo luscus. i More or less carnivorous 
Mustela (Putorius) erminea. or piscivorous. They 
me hs wigan prey much on the ani- 
Lutra Canadensis. mals in the following 
Canis lupus, et varietates ejus variz. Secon 
>> (Vulpes) lagopus. 
45 ig » var. fuliginosa. 4 
Fiber zibethicus. 
Arvicola xanthognathus. 
», Pennsylvanicus, 
>, borealis. 
. 1 7 
3»  (Georychus) trimucronatus. herbivorous. 
» S Hudsonius, 
aa ee Greenlandicus. _ 
Arctomys (Spermophilus) Parryi. 
* Lachesis Lapponica, p. 145, 
