on their route; and
when camping-time came, they were obliged to halt at a spot where
nothing but willows could be procured for their fire. They had, in fact,
arrived upon the edge of that vast wilderness, the Barren Grounds, which
stretches in all its wild desolation along the Northern half of the
American continent from the Great Slave Lake even to the shores of the
Arctic Sea on the north, and to those of Hudson's Bay on the east.

This territory bears an appropriate name, for, perhaps, upon the whole
surface of the earth there is no tract more barren or desolate--not even
the Saaera of Africa. Both are deserts of immense extent, equally
difficult to cross, and equally dangerous to the traveller. On both the
traveller often perishes, but from different causes. On the Saaera it is
_thirst_ that kills; upon the Barren Grounds _hunger_ is more frequently
the destroyer. In the latter there is but little to be feared on the
score of water. That exists in great plenty; or where it is not found,
snow supplies its place. But there is water everywhere. Hill succeeds
hill, bleak, rocky, and bare. Everywhere granite, gneiss, or other
primitive rocks, show themselves.

No vegetation covers the steep declivities of the hills, except the moss
and lichen upon the rocks, a few willows upon the banks of streams, the
dwarf birch-tree or the scrub-pines, rising only to the height of a few
inches, and often straggling over the earth like vines. Every hill has
its valley, and every valley its lake--dark, and deep, and silent--in
winter scarce to be distinguished under the snow-covered ice. The
prospect in every direction exhibits a surface of rocks, or bleak hills,
half covered with snow. The traveller looks around and sees no life. He
listens and hears no sound. The world appears dead and wrapped in its
cold winding-sheet!

Amidst just such scenes did our voyageurs find themselves on the seventh
day after parting from the lake. They had heard of the Barren
Grounds--had heard many fearful stories of the sufferings of travellers
who had attempted to cross them; but the description had fallen far
short of the actual reality. None of them could believe in the
difficulties to be encountered, and the desolateness of the scene they
were to witness, until now that they found themselves in its midst; and,
as they proceeded on their journey, getting farther and farther from the
wooded region, their apprehensions, already aroused by the wild asp