XxXi1V INTRODUCTION. 
the district are primitive, and in one or two places only do they rise:so 
as to deserve the name of a mountain-ridge, their general form being 
that of an assemblage of low hills with rounded summits, and more or 
less precipitous sides separated by narrow valleys. The soil of the latter 
is sometimes an imperfect peat earth, and in that case it nourishes a 
few stunted willows, glandular dwarf-birches, black sprice-trees, or 
larches ; but more generally the soil consists of the debris of the rocks, 
which is a dry coarse quartzose sand, unfit to support any thing but 
lichens. All the larger valleys have a lake of very transparent water, 
often of great depth in their centre, and occasionally these lakes are 
perfectly land-locked, though they all contain fish. More generally one 
lake discharges its waters into another, through a narrow gorge, by a 
rapid and turbulent stream, and most of the rivers which flow through 
the Barren-grounds are little more than a chain of narrow lakes con- 
nected in this manner. The small caribou or rein-deer, and the musk- 
ox, are the principal and characteristic inhabitants of these lands, and . 
the description by Linneeus, of the Lapland deserts frequented by the 
rein-deer, applies with perfect accuracy to this corner of America. 
“ Nullum vegetabile in tota Lapponia tanta in copia reperitur ac hee 
Lichenis species, (Cenomyce rangiferina) et quidem primario in sylvis, 
ubi campi steriles arenosi vel glareosi, paucis Pinis consiti; ibi enim 
non modo videbis campos per spatium unius hore, sed sape duorum 
triumve milliarium*, nivis instar albos, solo fere hocce lichene ob- 
ductos.” “ Hi Lichene obsiti campi, quos ¢erram damnatam diceret 
peregrinus, hi sunt Lapponum agri, hec prata eorum fertilissima, adeo 
ut felicem se preedicet possessor provinciz talis sterilissime, atque 
lichene obsite.” Being destitute of fur-bearing animals, no settle- 
ments have been formed within the Barren-grounds by the traders, 
and a few wretched families of Chepewyans, termed, from their mode 
of subsistence, “ Caribou eaters,’ are the only human beings who 
reside constantly upon them. Were any one to penetrate into their 
lands, they might address him with propriety in the words used by the 
* The Swedish mile is 53 English miles. 
