48 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



floAYers of a profusion of shrubby and herbaceous plants lend their 

 beauty to the landscape, and prove the appellation ' Barren Grounds ' 

 to be a misnomer, though in many parts, from the nature of the soil, 

 there is little plant life. Alders {Alnus alnohetxda) occur in a more 

 or less dwarfed condition in favorable places well into the treeless 

 area, and several species of willows, some of which here attain a 

 height of 5 or 6 feet, border some of the streams as far north as 

 Wollaston Land. These are the only trees Avhich occur even in a 

 dwarfed state on the Barren Grounds proper. 



The northward extension of the coniferous forest along the banks 

 of nortliAY a rd- flowing rivers has already been referred to. The most 

 remarkable example of this phenomenon is found on the Thelon, or 

 Ark-i-linik, a stream tributary to Hudson Bay. It was first explored 

 by Hanbury in 1899, and by J. A¥. Tyrrell during the following 

 season. F rom a point near latitude 62J°, which is as far south as the 

 river has been explored, and which is within the main area of the Bar- 

 ren Grounds, a more or less continuous belt of spruce borders the river 

 as far north as latitude 64J°, a distance of over 200 miles by the river. 

 A few species of woodland-breeding birds follow these extensions of 

 the forest to their limits. 



ISTo tables of temperature taken throughout the year at any point in 

 the Barren Grounds being available, remarks on climatology may be 

 confined to a few general statements and to more or less fragmentary 

 records. The winters are, of course, very long and the summers short, 

 with the intervening seasons practically wanting. A¥inter sets in soon 

 after the 1st of September and persists until May, with only a short 

 season of spring. During the short summer the progress of vegeta- 

 tion is very rapid, but the seeds and berries are scarcely ripened 

 before winter again asserts its sway. 



In the table which follows, an attempt is made to show approxi- 

 mately the conditions of temperature on the Barren Grounds during 

 the summer months. The records were taken by the expedition of 

 J. W. Tyrrell betAveen Artillery Lake and the mouth of Chesterfield 

 Inlet in the summer of 1900. From June 1 to the first week in Sep- 

 tember the party was traveling within the general limits of the Bar- 

 ren Grounds. Observations were taken every three hours from 6 a. m. 

 to 6 p. m., and the highest and lowest of these temperatures recorded 

 daily have been assumed, Avith but little probability of error, to rep- 

 resent the maximum and minimum. As no observations Avere taken 

 during the night the actual minimum Avould be lower in some cases. 

 As the observations were made in 1900, the figures, so far as they go, 

 are comparable Avith those taken during the same year in other parts 

 of the Mackenzie region. 



