the Barren Grounds in being well wooded. It is bounded to the eastward by a narrow strip of limestone, beyond which there is a flat, swampy, and partly alluvial district, forming the western shores of Hudson's Bay. This tract, from the western border of the low primitive tract just mentioned to the coast of Hudson's Bay, has been named the Eastern District, and presents us with several animals unknown to the higher latitudes.

The Eastern District is bounded to the westward by a flat limestone deposite; and a remarkable chain of lakes and rivers, such as the Lake of the Woods, Lake Winipeg, Beaver Lake, and the central portion of Churchill or Missinnippi, all of which lie to the southward of the Methye Portage, marks the line of junction of the two formations. This district, which Dr Richardson has named the Limestone Tract, is well wooded, and produces the fur-bearing animals in great abundance. The white or Polar bear, the Arctic fox, the Hudson's Bay lemming, and several other species disappear, while their places are filled up by bisons, bats, and squirrels, unknown to the other regions.

Intermediate between the limestone tract and the foot of the Rocky Mountains, there occurs a wide expanse of what is called in America prairie land. So slight are the inequalities of its surface, that the traveller, while crossing it, is obliged to regulate his course either by the com pass or the observation of the heavenly bodies. The soil is tolerably fertile, though for the greater proportion dry and rather sandy. It supports, however, a thick grassy sward, which yields an abundant pasture to innumerable herds of bison, and many species of deer; and the grizzly bear, the fiercest and most powerful of all the North American land-animals, properly so called, inhabits various portions of this wide-spread plain. Prairies of a similar aspect, and still greater extent, are known to border the Arkansa and Missouri rivers. They are said to become gradually narrower to the northward, and in the southern portion of the fur-countries they extend for about fifteen degrees of longitude, from Maneetobaw, or Maneetowoopoo, and Winipegoos Lakes, to the base of the Rocky Mountains. These magnificent plains are partially intersected by ridges of low hills, and also by seve

66

ral streams, of which the banks are wooded; and towards the skirts of the plains many detached masses of finelyformed timber, and pieces of still water, are disposed in so pleasing and picturesque a manner, as to convey the idea rather of a cultivated English park than of an American wilderness. There is, however, so great a deficiency of wood in the central parts of these plains, that "the hunters," says Dr Richardson, are under the necessity of taking fuel with them on their journeys, or in dry weather of making their fires of the dung of the bison. To the northward of the Saskatchawan, the country is more broken, and intersected by woody hills; and on the banks of the Peace River the plains are of comparatively small extent, and are detached from each other by woody tracts: they terminate altogether in the angle between the River of the Mountains and Great Slave Lake. The abundance of pasture renders these plains the favourite resort of various ruminating animals.”*

The preceding summary brings us to the base of that vast and continuous chain already so often mentioned under the name of the Rocky Mountains. It is inhabited by many singular animals, some of which do not occur among the lower grounds on either side of the range. We have already stated our opinion regarding the character and physical influence of this extended group, and as we shall ere long describe the most remarkable of its zoological productions, we shall in the mean time request the reader to descend with us towards the western or Pacific shores. There we find several interesting tracts of country, with the natural history of which we are, however, more imperfectly acquainted than we should desire.

The countries between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific are in general of a more hilly nature than those already described to the eastward; but the upper branches of the Columbia are skirted by extensive plains, which present the same general character as those of the Missouri and Saskatchawan. New Caledonia extends from north to south about 500 miles, and from east to west about 350 or 400. Its central post at Stewart's Lake is placed in north latitude 544, and west longitude 125 degrees. According to Mr Harmon, it contains so many

* Fauna Boreali-Americana, vol. i., Introduction, p. 29.

lakes that about one-sixth of its entire surface is under water. The weather here is much milder than on the eastern side of the mountains,-an amelioration which is no doubt owing to the comparatively narrow extent of land which intervenes between the mountains and the sea.* However, for a few days during the depth of winter it must be "pretty considerably" cold, as the thermometer is said to descend for a time to about thirty-two degrees below zero of Fahrenheit. Snow generally falls about the 15th of November, and disappears by the 15th of May;t from which the winter may be fairly inferred to be of shorter duration by about one-third than it is in some places situated under the same latitude on the other side.

The only remaining district of North America to which we need here allude, as falling within the scope of the present volume, is that forlorn region in the north-west corner of the continent, which forms the terminating portion of the vast Russian dominions. Its shores have been coasted by Cook, Kotzebue, and Beechey; but of its interior nature and productions we are more sparingly informed. Dr Richardson, indeed, reports, from information given by the few Indians of Mackenzie's River who have ever crossed the range of the Rocky Mountains in that northern quarter, that on their western side there is a tract of barren ground frequented by rein-deer and musk-oxen; and it may also be inferred, from the quantity of furs procured by the Russian Company, that woody regions, similar to such as exist to the eastward of the mountains, also occur in this north-west corner of America.

Edinburgh Review, No. 106, p. 355.

+Journal of Voyages and Travels in the Interior of North America, between the forty-seventh and fifty-eighth degrees of latitude, by Daniel William Harmon, a partner in the North-West Company. Andover, 1820.

CHAPTER VI.

The Quadrupeds of the Northern Regions of America. Inaccuracies of some Historical Writers-No Monkeys in North America-Bats-Shrewmice-Genus Scalops, or Shrewmole -Other Moles of America-The Star-nose-Various BearsDifferent Digitated Quadrupeds-The Canada Otter-The Seaotter-The Dogs and Wolves of America-The Foxes-The Beaver-The Musk-rat-Meadow Mice and Lemmings-The Rocky Mountain Neotoma-The American Fieldmouse-The Marmots-The Squirrel Tribe-The Canada Porcupine-The American Hare-The Polar Hare-The Prairie Hare-The Little Chief Hare-Genus Cervus-The Elk, or Moose-deerThe Rein-deer-The Woodland Caribou-The Rocky Mountain Sheep-The Rocky Mountain Goat-The Bison, or American Buffalo-The Musk-ox.

HAVING in the preceding chapter exhibited a general sketch of some of the prevailing features in the physical geography of the northern countries of America, we shall now proceed to a more detailed and systematic account of their natural history. But, in the first place, we may notice a slight inaccuracy which prevails in regard to the comparative size of the ferine inhabitants of the Old and New World. "Nature," says Dr Robertson,* " was not only less prolific in the New World, but she appears likewise to have been less vigorous in her productions. The animals originally belonging to this quarter of the globe appear to be of an inferior race, neither so robust nor so fierce as those of the other continent. America gives birth to no creature of such bulk as to be compared with the elephant or rhinoceros, or that equals the lion and tiger in strength and ferocity. The tapir of Brazil, the largest quadruped of the ravenous tribe in the New World, is not larger than a calf of six months old. The puma and jaguar, the fiercest beasts of prey, which Eu

• In his History of America.