214 Dr Richardson’s Remar'ks on the Climate and 
The Prunus Virgimana was not observed to the north of Slave 
Lake ; and the Pinus halsamea also terminates there ; although, 
farther to the westward on Mackenzie’s River, it is said to attain 
a higher latitude. The Popidus halsam^era sends straggling 
trees as far north as Lat. 63° ; and the Popidus trepida grew in 
pretty large clumps half a degree farther north, beyond which, 
however, it was not seen. The Popidus balsamifera forms a 
large proportion of the drift-timber observed on the shores of 
that part of the Arctic Sea which we visited, and is supposed to 
come principally from the south branch of Mackenzie’s River, 
named also Rimere aux liards. 
Remarks upon the Climate of Fort Enterprize. 
Fort Enterprize (now dismantled) stood in a district of primi- 
tive rocks, about 2J° N. of Slave Lake, and 3J" south of the Arc- 
tic Sea, above which it was supposed to be elevated about 800 
feet. The banks of Winter River, upon which it was built, are 
ornamented with groves of the white spruce-tree ( Pinus alba j, 
and flanked on each side by an irregular marshy plain, va- 
rying in breadth from one to three or four miles, somewhat 
broken by abrupt elevations of coarse gravel, and bounded 
by an amphitheatre of disconnected hills. The summits of 
these hills generally consist of naked, smooth, rounded masses 
of gneiss : their sides are very thinly covered with a loose 
gravelly soil, and frequently exhibit accumulations of large cu- 
bical fragments of gneiss, which are the debris of mural preci- 
pices of various heights. In the upper parts of the inclined 
valleys, at the bases of the hills, there is commonly a thin stra- 
tum of mountain peat, but the bottom of almost every valley is 
occupied by a lake. Many of these lakes are of a considerable 
depth, but a large proportion of them are entirely land-locked, 
communicating with each other only when flooded by the melted 
snow. Winter River is merely a succession of small rapids, con- 
necting lakes of various magnitude with each other. This is 
the case with all the rivers that traverse the barren grounds ; 
and the features of the description here given are characteristic 
of the whole district. The sides of the hills, and all the drier 
spots of the valleys, are clothed with a beautiful carpet of the 
lichens, which form the favourite food of the rein-deer, amongst 
