ect
of the country, grew stronger and stronger. They began to entertain
serious fears, for they knew not how far the barren tract extended along
their route.

On calculation they found they had provisions enough to last them for a
month. That in some measure restored their confidence; but even then,
they could not help giving way to serious reflections. Should they get
lost or retarded in their course by mountains, or other obstacles, it
might take them longer than a month to reach some place where game was
to be met with. Each day, as they advanced, they found the country more
hilly and difficult. Precipices often bounded the valleys, lying
directly across their track; and as these could not be scaled, it was
necessary to make long _detours_ to pass them, so that some days they
actually advanced less than five miles upon their journey.

Notwithstanding these impediments, they might still have got over the
Barren Grounds without further suffering than the fatigue and necessary
exposure to cold; but at this time an incident occurred, that not only
frustrated all their calculations, but placed them in imminent danger of
perishing.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE BARREN GROUNDS

The Barren Grounds are not entirely destitute of animal life. Even in
winter--when they are almost covered with snow, and you would suppose
that no living creature could procure subsistence upon them--even then
they have their denizens; and, strange to say, there are many animals
that choose them for their home. There is no part of the earth's surface
so sterile but that some animated being can find a living upon it, and
such a being Nature adapts to its peculiar situation. For instance,
there are animals that prefer the very desert itself, and would not
thrive were you to place them in a country of mild climate and fertile
soil. In our own species this peculiarity is also found--as the
Esquimaux would not be happy were you to transplant him from his icy hut
amid the snows of the Arctic regions, and give him a palace under the
genial skies of Italy.

Among other creatures that remain all winter upon the Barren Grounds are
the wolves. How they exist there is almost a question of the
naturalists. It is true they prey upon other animals found at times in
the same district; but wolves have been met with where not the slightest
traces of other living creatures could be seen!

There is no animal more generally distributed over the earth's surface