Vegetable Productions Hudsoids Bay Countries. 199 
rendered useless soon after leaving York Factory ; so that I can 
only state in general terms, that, from the* shores of Hudson’s 
Bay to the Rocky Mountains, (a continuation of the Andes), the 
ascent appears to be gentle, most rapid, however, about ^fty 
miles from Hudson’s Bay, where the rivers, in crossing a ridge 
of primitive mountains, form a quick succession of cascades and 
rapids. 
Carlton House, the south-west limit of our journey, I estimate 
to be 1000 feet above the sea of Hudson’s Bay, From this 
spot, our route to the north lay nearly parallel to the Rocky 
Mountain chain. 
The summit of Portage La Loche or Methy Portage, which 
lies in 5B" 43' N. Lat., and 109° W. Long., and is about 
250 miles from Carlton House, I estimated at 1500 feet. Me- 
thy Lake, the commencement on the south of this portage, of 
the water communication with Hudson’s Bay, at 1000 feet, and 
Clearwater River, which flows from the north side of the por- 
tage uninterruptedly to the Arctic Sea, under the names of 
Athabasca, Slave River and Lake, and Mackenzie’s River, at 
800 feet. Slave Lake at 400 feet above the Arctic Sea. The 
height of land to the north of Fort Enterprize, from whence 
the descent of the Coppermine River to the Arctic Sea, is gra- 
dual, at 900 feet. The data from which these altitudes have 
been deduced are not precise enough to be worthy of detail ; 
but the results, imperfect as they are, may be sufficient to shew 
that the elevation alone of these districts is not great enough to 
give a decided character to their vegetation. 
The peculiarities of the Hudson’s Bay climate, which have a 
more marked influence on the vegetable productions, may be, in 
some measure, collected from the following tables, and the re- 
marks appended to them. The tables are formed on the model 
of those given by Humboldt, and the deeply interesting me- 
moir of that illustrious man on the Distribution of Heat^ pu- 
blished in the Memoir es d'’Arcueil, or its translation in the 3d, 
4th, and 5th volumes of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 
may be referred to, for the original views which prompted the 
formation of such tables, and the many interesting deductions 
that may be made from them. 
