Journals, стр. 119

a regular process to form salt from them. Along the west banks of the former is to be seen, at intervals, and traced in the line of the direction of the plains, a soft rock of limestone, in thin and nearly horizontal stratas, particularly on the Beaver, Cedar, Winipic, and Superior lakes, as also in the beds of the rivers crossing that line. It is also remarkable that, at the narrowest part of Lake Winipic, where it is not more than two miles in breadth, the west side is faced with rocks of this stone thirty feet perpendicular; while, on the east side, the rocks are more elevated, and of a dark-grey granite.

The latter is to be found throughout the whole extent north of this country, to the coast of Hudson’s Bay, and as I have been informed, along that coast, onwards to the coast of Labrador; and it may be further observed, that between these extensive ranges of granite and limestone are found all the great lakes of this country.

There is another very large district which must not be forgotten; and behind all the others in situation as well as in soil, produce, and climate. This comprehends the tract called the Barren Grounds, which is to the north of a line drawn from Churchill, along the north border of the Reindeer Lake, to the north of the Lake of the Hills and Slave Lake, and along the north side of the latter to the Rocky Mountains, which terminate in the north Sea, latitude 70° north, and longitude 135° west; in the whole extent of which no trees are visible, except a few stinted ones, scattered along its rivers, and with scarce anything of surface that can be called earth; yet, this inhospitable region is inhabited by a people who are accustomed to the life it requires. Nor has bountiful nature withheld the means of subsistence; the reindeer, which supply both food and clothing, are satisfied with the produce of the hills, though they bear nothing but a short curling moss, on a species of which, that grows on the rocks, the people themselves subsist when famine invades them. Their small lakes are not furnished with a great variety of fish, but such as they produce are excellent, which, with hares and partridges, form a proportion of their food.

The climate must necessarily be severe in such a country as we have described, and which displays so large a surface of fresh water. Its severity is extreme on the coast of Hudson’s Bay, and proceeds from its immediate exposure to the northwest winds that blow off the Frozen Ocean.

These winds, in crossing directly from the bay over Canada and the British dominions on the Atlantic, as well as over the eastern states of North America to that ocean, (where they give to those countries a length of winter astonishing to the inhabitants of the same latitudes in Europe), continue to retain a great degree of force and cold in their passage, even over the Atlantic, particularly at the time when the sun is in its southern declination. The same winds which come from the Frozen Ocean, over the barren grounds, and across frozen lakes and snowy plains, bounded by the Rocky Mountains, lose their frigid influence, as they travel in a southern direction, till they get to the Atlantic Ocean, where they close their progress. Is not this a sufficient cause for the difference between the climate in America, and that of the same latitude in Europe?

It has been frequently advanced, that the clearing away the wood has had an astonishing influence in meliorating the climate in the former: but I am not disposed to assent to that opinion in the extent which it proposes to establish, when I consider the very trifling proportion of the country cleared, compared with the whole. The employment of the axe may have had some inconsiderable effect; but I look to other causes. I myself observed in a country, which was in an absolute state of nature, that the climate is improving; and this circumstance was confirmed to me by the native inhabitants of it. Such a change, therefore, must proceed from some predominating operation in the system of the globe which is beyond my conjecture, and, indeed, above my comprehension, and may, probably, in the course, of time, give to America the climate of Europe. It is well known, indeed, that the waters are decreasing there, and that many lakes are draining and filling up by the earth which is carried into them from the higher lands by the rivers: and this may have some partial effect.

The climate on the west coast of America assimilates much more to that of Europe in the same latitudes: I think very little difference will be found, except such as proceed from the vicinity of high mountains covered with snow. This is an additional proof that the difference in the temperature of the air proceeds from the cause already mentioned.

Much has been said, and much more still remains to be said on the peopling of America.⁠—On this subject I shall confine myself to one or two observations, and leave my readers to draw their inferences from them.

The progress of the inhabitants of the country immediately under our observation, which is comprised within the line of latitude 45° north, is as follows: that of the Eskimo, who possess the sea coast from the Atlantic through Hudson’s Straits and Bay, round to Mackenzie’s River (and I believe further), is known to be westward; they never quit the coast, and agree in appearance, manners, language, and habits with the inhabitants of Greenland. The different tribes whom I describe under the name of Algonquins and Knisteneaux, but originally the same people, were the inhabitants of the Atlantic coast, and the banks of the River St. Lawrence and adjacent countries: their progress is westerly, and they are even found west and north as far as Athabasca. On the contrary, the Chipewyans, and the numerous