910 R24nE v.15 .#* ; ■pn ■ THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY *9W O. LI3RAKY OF THE HSITYofW A- THE HORSE-SHOE FALLS, NIAGARA— VIEW TAKEN FROM GOAT ISLAND. THE EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS THE 't UNIVERSAL GEOGRAPHY • / By elisee reclus EDITED By A. II. KEANE, B.A. MEMBER OF COUNCIL, ANTHROP. INSTITUTB; COR. MEMB ITALIAN AND WASHING 1 ON ANTIIROP. SOC, ETC. VOL. XV. NORTH AMERICA ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS AND MAPS LONDON J. S. VIRTUE & CO., Limited, 294, CITY ROAD LONDON: PRINTED T.Y J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD tl^^ CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. The New "Woeld 1— 59 The Discovery, p. 2. Progress of Discovery along the Eastern Seaboard, p. 14. Discovery of the Pacific, p. IS. The North-west Passage, p. 20. Expeditions towards the North Pole, p. 26. Progress of Discovery on the Northern Continent, p. 32. Progress of Discovery on the Southern Continent, p. 34. Physical Features of the Twin Continents, p. 35. Contrasts and Analogies between North and South, p. 30. Geology of the New World, p. 38. Volcanic Systems, p. 40. Climate, Marine Currents, p. 42. Flora and Fauna, p. 46. Inhabitants, p. 47. Spread of Modem Culture in the New World, p. 48. Fate of the Aborigines, p. 49. Dominant Ethnical Elements, p. 51. European Immigration, p. 54. Decadence of the Spanish Power, p. 56. Ascendancy of the Anglo-Saxon Race, p. 57. II. Greenland 60—92 Historic Retrospect, p. GO. Progress of Discovery, p. 61. Extent, Physical Features, p. 63. Geological Formation, p. 06. The Inland Ice-Cap, p. 67. Glaciers and Icebergs, p. 70. Upheaval and Subsidence, p. 75. Marine Currents and Tides, p. 77. Fossil Remains, p. 78. Climate, p. 79. Flora and Fauna, p. 81. Inhabitants, p. 83. Topography, p. 88. III. The Arctic Archipelago Insidar Groups, p. 94. Grant and GrinneU Lands, p. 97. Baffin Land, p. 99. The Western Insular Groups, p. 101. Climate, p. 102. Flora and Fauna, p. 104. Inhabitants, p. 100. Topography, p. 110. 93—112 IV. Alaska 113 - Exploration, p. 114. The South Alaskan Coastlands and Islands, p. 116. The Alaskan Peninsula and Aleutian Islands, p. 121. The Interior of Alaska, p. 124. Rivers, p. 125. Climate, p. 130. Flora, p. 132. Fauna, p. 133. Inhabitants, p. 134. Topography, p. 140. Administration, Instruction, Trade, p. 146. ■117 V. The Dominion op Canada and Newfoundland ........ 148 — 418 V. General Considerations, p. 14S. 2. British Columbia. — Physical Features of British Columbia, p. 151. Fjords and Glaciers, p. 156. Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Islands, p. 159. Columbian Lakes and Rivers, p. 160. Flora and Fauna, p. 166. Inhabitants, p. 168. Resources of British Columbia, p. 173. Topography, p. 174. 3. Xorth-West Territory {Athabasca-Mackenzie and Great Fish Hirer Basins), p, 181. Progress of Discovery, p. 181. Physical Features, p. 1S3. Rivers and Lakes, p. 185. Climate, p. 192. Flora and Fauna, p. 193. Inhabitants, p. 195. Administration — The Hudson Bay Company -Mineral Wealth, p. 198. Topography, p. 200. A n L X "h i v CONTENTS. ■ 1! ' P. 4. Lake Winnipeg Basin and Region draining to Hudson Bay (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Auinibttia, Manitoba, Keewatin), p. 2f)2. Physical Features, p. 203. Rivets and Lak. «, p. 206. Hudson Bay, p. 21S. Climate, p. 221. Flora and Fauna, p. 22:3. Inhabitants, p. 22-"). Colonisation, p. 226. Topography, p. 2:36. 5. Basin of the Great Lakes and th St. Later, i ncet of Ontario and Quebec), p .241. Political Boundaries, p. 212. Physical Features, p. 242. Rivers and Lakes, p. 246. Lake Superior and its Affluents, p. 246. Lakes Huron and Erie, p. 250. Niagara River and Falls, p 254: Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, p. 257. The Estu- ary and Gulf of St. Lawrence, p. 263. Climate of the Laurentian Basin, p. 270. Flora, p. 272. Fauna, p. 274. Inhabitants, p. 274. French Canadians, p. 284. Topo- graphy, p. 290. Hamilton, Toronto, Kingston, p. 297. Ottawa, p. 302. Montreal, p. 308. Quebec, p. 320. Settlements on the Lower St. Lawrence, p. 326. Settle- ments in the Saguenay Basin, p. 328. Stations below Tadonseac, p. 331. The Gaspe Peninsula, p. 332. Chaleur Bay, p. 335. The Magdalen and Bird Islands, p. 337. 6. Tin Maritime Provinces (New BrunswicA -Nova Scotia -Prince Edward Island),^. 337. General Survey, p. 337. Physical Features of New Brunswick, p. 339. Physical Features of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward Island, p. 340. Rivers and Lakes, p. 342. Bay of Fundy, p. 345. Climate, p. 347. Flora, p. 349. Fauna, p. 350. Inhabitants, p. 352. The Acadians, p. 353. The English -Speaking Settlers, p. 358. Topography of New Brunswick, p. 359. Topography of Nova Scotia, p. 367. Topography of Cape Breton, p. 372. Topography of Prince Edward Island, p. 373. Sable Island, p. 376. 7. Labrador, p. 377. Geographical Research, p. 379. Physical Features, p. 380. Lakes and Rivers, p. 381. Climate, p. 385. Flora and Fauna, p. 3S6. Inhabitants, p. 387. The Moravian Missions, p. 390. The Stations of the Hudson Bay Com- pany, p. 391. Fisheries, p. 391. 8. Newfoundland, p. 393. Historical Retrospect, p. 393. Physical Features, p. 394. Rivers and Lakes, p. 397. The Bank of Newfoundland, p. 398. Climate, p. 402. Flora and Fauna, p. 403. Inhabitants, p. 404. Colonisation, p. 406. 'Fisheries, p. 108. Mineral Resources, p. 411. Topography, $11. Administration, p. 414. Saint Pierre and Miquclon, p. 415. VI. Economic Conditions of the Dominion 419 454 Population- -Immigration, p. 419. The Aborigines, p. 420. Agriculture, p. 422. The Fisheries, p. 420. Minerals, p. 428. Petroleum, p. 430. Trade, p. 431. Routes — The "Queen's Highway," p. 436. Shipping, p. 436. Canals, p. 437. Railways, p. 438. Administration; p. 442. Religion — Education, p. 447. Con- fedi ration, p. 449. Political Forecasts, p. 451. Appendix I. Statistical Tab'es 1,;, ,, II. Canadian Chronology .......... 471; ,, III. The Canadian North- West Territories 484 J LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. MAPS PRINTED IN COLOURS. Niagara Falls . .Montreal and its Environs Quebec and its Environs . PAOE 254 North-East America 312 North- West America 320 PAGE 337 48-4 PLATES. View taken Frontispiece 4 16 24 The Horse- Shoe Falls, Niagara from Goat Island View taken on the Bering Sea . To face page Salvage Rock, near Harbour Grace, Newfound- land ........ View taken in Melville Bay .... Ottawa Eiver — View taken at the Saut du Carillon St. Margaret and the Stony River, Canada A Canadian Village— Beaufort, near Quebec . View taken on the Sermitsialik Glacier, near Ivigtut, Greenland . . . En mt of the Sermitsialik Glacier General View of Uperm'vik .... Drift-Ice on the Arctic Ocean View taken on the Coast of Admiralty Island, Alaska ....... Old Bogoslov Peak, Aleutian Islands Alaskan Scenery — View taken at Juneau, Douglas Island. Tanana Station, River Yukon . General View of Sitka View of Hell-Gate Gorge, Eraser River View taken in Gardner Channel General View of Vancouver 40 44 5S 70 74 90 94 114 124 132 140 140 161 174 180 Fort Simpson, at the Mackenzie and Liards Confluence . . . To face page 202 Valley of the Bow River — Banff Hot Springs 206 A Station of the Hudson Bay Company . . 228 The Great Glacier, seen from the Railway between Banff and Hector Pass . . 236 View on the River Nipigon .... 246 Encampment of Canadian Woodcutters . .272 Fort Chambly, on the Richelieu, near Montreal 2S0 Lake Huron— View taken from French River 292 Ottawa — View taken from Parliament Terrace 302 Montreal — Ice-Block on the St. Lawrence . 314 Quebec — View taken from the Terrace in 1888 320 Ice Bridge on the St. Lawrence— View taken from Quebec . . . . . .324 Falls of the Chicoutimi, near the Saguenay Confluence 330 The Roche Pereee and Perce Village . . 334 Fishing Station on the East Coast of Labrador 392 General View of St. John's, Newfoundland . 402 Port of St. Pierre, Newfoundland . . . 414 Kicking- Horse Pass, on the Canadian Pacific Railway ....... 438 The Dominion Parliament — View taken from the Ottawa 444 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. no. 1. 3. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 11. 12. 43. 14. 45. Discoveries of the Norsemen in the New World Form of the Ocean according to Toscanelli Martin Behaim and Columbus First West Indian Islands discovered by Columbus ..... Voyages of Columbus American Seaboard discovered during the Lifetime of Columbus . Part of America known at the Close of the Sixteenth Century . . ,. . The North- West Passage . Routes of Arctic Navigators Paleocrystic Sea .... Cireumpolar Observatories American Isthmuses .... Central Waterparting of North America Isothermals of North America . Apparent Anomalies in the Surface Cm-rent of the Gulf Stream Chief Cm-rents of the American Seas Limits of Forest Vegetation in North America ..... Dominant Races in America Chief Languages of America Occupation of America by Emigrants from the Old World .... Europe and Greenland according to Lau rentius Frisius .... Expeditions into the Interior of Greenland Cape Farewell Part of Greenland free from Ice Frederikshaabs Isblink Humboldt Glacier .... Jakobshavn Glacier . Movement of the Kangerdlug-Suak Gla cier, Umanak District . Greenland Floe- Ice .... Movement of the Tidal Currents round Greenland ..... Disko Island and Nursoak Peninsula Francis Joseph Fjord Greenland Eskimo .... Julianahaab and its Fjords Godhavn and Disko Fjord Upernivik, its Isles and Glaciers Channels leading to the Paleocrystic Sea Front or the Lady Henrietta Glacier Grinnell Land .... Barrow Strait ..... Magnetic Pole Polar Scenery — Bellot Island Melville Peninsula and Neighbouring Isles, from an Eskimo Chart . Cumberland Bay .... Retreat of the Franklin Expedition . Chief Routes of Alaskan Explorers . St. Elias Range .... >AGB no 16. 9 17. 48. 10 49. 50. 13 51. 15 .52. 53. 17 .54. 21 .55. 27 56. 29 57. 30 58. 31 59. 35 60. 39 42 61. 62. 11 63. 45 64. 65. 46 66. 50 67. 53 68. 69. 55 70. 71. 62 72. 64 73. 66 74. 69 75. 70 76. 72 77. 73 78. 79. 74 SO. 76 81. 7S 82. SO 83. SI 84. 87 85. 89 86. 90 87. 91 88. 96 89. 97 101 90. 103 91. 105 92. 93. 108 94. 110 95. 111 115 96. 118 Southern Slope of Mount St. Elias Horn of Alaska Aleutian Islands Chilkat and Chilkoot Bays Norton Bay, and Great -Bend of the Yukon Yukon Delta Isothermal Lines of Alaska Zones of Trees and Range of Chief Animal Species in Alaska . Inhabitants of AJaska Tomb of Thlinkit Chief The Seal Islands Island of St. Paul Sitka Bay . Chief Explorers of North America Boundary Line between. Canada and the United States in the San Juan Archipelago Kicking Horse Pass . Kananaskis Falls Jervis Inlet Discovery Passage Northern Bend of the Eraser Southern Bend of the Fraser Sources of the Columbia . Columbia and Kootenay Valleys View taken on the Upper Columbia Nootka Island and Inlets Old Nootka- Indian Woman Aborigines of British Columbia Victoria and Esquimalt Nanaimo .... Queen Charlotte Islands . Chimsian Island Mouths of the Fraser Disposition of the Canadian Lakes Swampy Delta of the Athabasca Peace River — View taken at Fort Dun-vegan The Mackenzie Delta Indian Trappers of the Upper Tanana Posts of the Hudson Bay Company . Cypress Hills ..... Coulees of the Great Prairie, Alberta Saskatchewan Rapids Lake Agassiz ..... Bifurcation of the Saskatchewan and Qu'Appelle Rivers Portages of the Old Routes between Lake: Superior and Winnipeg Lake of the Woods .... The Nelson Emissary Hudson Bay ..... Aia ble Lands of West Canada . Blackfoot Indian .... Indian Reserves in Manitoba and the Far- West Chief French Canadian Settlements Manitoba LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PIO. 97 9? 99. 100, 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 1C6. 107. 108. 109. 110. 111. 112. 113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118. 119. 120. 121. 122. 123. 124. 125. 126. 127. 128 129. 130 131, 132. 133, 134, 135, 136 13- page Fort Edmonton— Saskatchewan River . 231 Lands Surveyed in Manitoba and the Far West in 1886 233 Allotment of the Surveyed Lands . . 234 Route from England to Manitoba and Hudson Bay ...... 235 Cumberland House and the Lower Sas- katchewan ...... 236 Upper Banff Valley — Canadian National Park 237 Oalgary — Approach to the Rocky Moun- tains" 238 Winnipeg and its Lakes .... 239 Lake Memphremagog .... 244 Silurian Escarpment between Chicago and Niagara ...... 245 Lake Superior . ..... 248 Northern Bays of Lake Superior . . 249 Royal Island" 250 Lake Huron and Georgian Bay . . 252 Lake Erie 253 Niagara Falls and Rapids . . . 250 Thousand Islands . . . . . 25S Intermingled Sources of the Ottawa and Gatineau 261 Lake St. Peter 262 St. Lawrence and Richelieu Rivers . . 263 Lake St. John 265 Upper Saguenay and Ha-Ha Bay . . 266 Eternity Cape — View taken from Trin- ity Cape 267 Belle- Isle Strait 268 Magdalen Islands .... 269 Timber afloat at the Ottawa Saw- Mnxs 273 Indian Tribes and European Colonies at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Cen- tury 278 Chief Centres of German Immigration in Canada 282 Increase of English and French Speaking Populations in the Dominion. . . 283 Chief Centres of French-Canadian Immi- gration in New England . . . 287 Thunder Bay 291 Sault Sainte-Marie 292 Port Huron and Sarnia .... 293 Lake St. Clair 295 Most Densely Peopled Region in Ontari Isthmus of Niagara .... 297 Toronto 299 Lake Nipissing ..... 301 From Ottawa to Montreal . . . 304 Confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa .307 Growth of Montreal . . .309 MO. rAGE lis. Approximate Distribution of Nationalities in Montreal 311 139. Montreal in 1889 313 140. Icicles on the Front of a House after a Fire 317 141. Railway on the Frozen St. Lawrence 318 142. Sherbrooke and the Upper Basin of the St. Francis 31 'J 143. ••Canada" of Quebec, after a Spanish Map of the Fifteenth Cantury, repro- duced by Dui-o 321 144. Quebec 323 145. The St. Lawrence between Kamouraska and the Saguenay ..... 327 14i3. Tadoussac and the Saguenay Confluence . 330 147. Eskimo River and Bradore Bay . . 332 148. Surveyed and Arable Lands of Gaspe . 333 149. Extremity of the Gaspe Peninsula . . 334 150. Bay of Chaleur 335 151. Shippegan Peninsula and Island . . 338 152. Carboniferous Districts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick . . . .341 153. Lake of Brador 340 154. Mines Basin and Land of the Acadians . 354 155. Inhabitants of East Canada . . . 356 156. Isthmus of Chignecto . . . .361 157. Xew Bbun- pick S ;. ner y -View takes- near St. John 363 15S. St. John 364 159. Passamaquoddy Bay .... 306 100. Ship Harbour. North of Halifax . 369 161. Canso Strait 372 102. Louisbourg ..... 374 163. Charlotte-Town and Roadstead . . 375 164. Okak Island 380 165. Affluents of Melville Bay . . .382 166. Lake Mistassini 384 17. Moravian Missions on the Labrador Coa - 1 168. Placentia Bay. Newfoundland . . 395 169. The Gander Fjords 397 170. Bank of Newfoundland . . . .399 171. Icebergs off Newfoundland . . .401 172. Chief Centres of French Population in the Dominion ...... 407 173. Chief Atlantic Cables terminating at New- foundland ...... 412 174. Placentia Isthmus 415 175. Miquelon Archipelago . . . .416 176. Map of the Great Canadian Petroleum Region 432 177. Direct itoute from England to China . 437 17s. Network of the East Canadian Railway- 138 179. TransconrinentalRailwaysofNorthAmeriea 439 180. Domain of the Pacific Railway Company . 441 181. Halifax and its Citadel . . . .444 182. Ottawa. Capital of the Dominion . . 440 NOTICE TO THE READER. Volume XVI., which deals with the United States, and which should follow Volume XV. on British North America, has been deferred pending publication of the Census Returns, now being prepared by the American Government. Meantime the Author proceeds with Volume XVII., which is devoted to Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. THE UNIVERSAL GEOGRAPHY. BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, GREENLAND, ALASKA. CHAPTER I. THE NEW WORLD. NLIKE the names of the Old World continents — Europe, Asia, Africa — that of America is shrouded in no mystery. The origin of the former has hitherto been a quesjbion of pure conjecture, whereas we knew for certain that the latter, as applied collectively to the whole of the New World, dates from 1507, appearing for the first time in a publication issued in that year at Saint- Die by the " Gymnase Yosgien," a group of savants and printers constituted under the patronage of the Duke of Lorraine. It matters little whether this name, under its first form of Amerige (Amerigen), was introduced into Cosmographies Intrbductio by the French translator, Jean Basin de Sandocourt, or by the Suabian Waltzemuller (Hylacomylus) ; the fact remains that, either by one or the other, the name was inscribed in the treatise in honour of Amerigo Yespucci, one of the first explorers of the New World, but also one whose fame is lost in the dazzling glory of Columbus. The Latin text is deci- sive as to the precise meaning given to the recently discovered regions ; yet nothing can be advanced in support of the statement made so early as 1533 by Schoner that Yespucci had any direct relations with the Saint- Die Society, and that he was base enough to claim the merit of the discover} 7 by giving his Chris- tian name to the New World. So far from this being the case Yespucci, like Columbus himself and all contemporary navigators, was unaware that his explo- rations had contributed to reveal any regions except those of the Asiatic Con- tinent. VOL. XV. I! NORTH AMERICA. The Discovery. In any case the name itself came but slowly into general use. The common appellation naturally continued for some time to be that which had been propa- gated by the mistake made by Columbus regarding the true character of the lands discovered by him. Having set out to reach the Indies he supposed he had redis- covered them, and the term India consequently continued to be applied to the New World both in current literature and still more in official documents. Even after further exploration had established the vast distance separating India and China from the Columbian lands, and after a clear distinction had been estab- lished between the " East Indies," reached chiefly by the oriental route, and the " West, Indies," lying across the track of vessels sailing westwards, the Spanish Government persisted in designating as las' Indias its trans- Atlantic possessions. Even to this day the term " Indians " is that which is still most commonly applied to the American aborigines, and in regions where the Spanish language prevails they are even called Chinos, or " Chinese." On relatively few maps of the sixteenth century the new lands bear the name of America, or are even show*! to be geographically independent of Asia. The first sheet of ( ertain date on which the name itself occurs was engraved \ty Petrus Apianus in 1520, eight years after the death of Vespucci, and where the word elsewhere appears it is nearly always associated with others, such as Newfoundland, Brazil, Holy Cross, Atlantica or Atlantis, Peruvia, New Indies, and the like. It is obvious that no one designation had yet been sufficiently established to claim a decided preference on the part of cartographies. Not till the seventeenth century, over a hundred years after the discovery, did the term America acquire a definite predominance everywhere except in Spain. Its gradual adoption was clearly duo, not to official pressure or to the influence of great writers, but to popular feeling itself, nor can there be any doubt that euphony had much to do with its favour- able reception in the leading Eunvpean languages. Thanks to its felicitous form it harmoniously rounded off the enumeration of the continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, America. Thus it happened, not for the first time in the records of humanity; that alliterative cadence contributed to psrpetuate a manifest injus- tice. In the face of authentic documents there might seem to be little room for doubt on the subject under consideration. Yet there already exists a copious literature composed by writers who have vainly essayed to assign a purely local origin to the name by which the New World is now designated. AVhen certain erudite Teutons claim it as of German origin we may cease to be surprised that the Americans, on their part, feel a pleasurable gratification in researches which trace it to their native land itself. On several occasions certain resemblances have been pointed out between Vespucci's Christian name and the local designation of some American rivers or ranges, but no attempt was made to treat the question seriously till the year L875, when the geologist, Marcou, suggested that the term was derived from the Amerrique Mountains, skirting the east side of Lake Nicaragua THE NEW WORLD. 3 between the towns of Juigalpa and Libertad.* This range, whose crests rise above 3,500 feet, forms part of the watershed between the streams flowing to Lake Nicaragua and the Blewfields river, is one of the largest in the Mosquito territory. Auriferous deposits occur in the eastern valleys of the range, which remained unknown to geographers till the year 187-1, when mention -was first made of it by the naturalist, Thomas Belt.t Marcou advances the hypothesis that, during the vovage of 1502 along the shores of the Caribbean Sea, Columbus, ever eager in the search for treasures, heard rumours of these goldfields, which lay about 100 miles inland, and which belonged to a tribe of like name, who may have traded with the coast. Amerigo Vespucci would appear to have twice visited the Mosquito seaboard, and may have also heard of the mines of the Sierra Amerrique, whose name was afterwards extended to the whole continent. But all this is pure hypothesis, although it has pleased the vanity of local patriotism, and has, in fact, been adopted bj- several American authors. One of these, however, writing under the varkms names of Hurlbut, Byrne, de Bris, and Lambert, claims for the term America a more illustrious origin, tracing it to a word in the language of the Incas, meaning the "Great Land of the Sun," or the "Holy Land."; The first discoverers, amongst whom was Yespucci himself, could scarcely avoid using the expression, " New "World," without thereby necessarily implying that America was geographically distinct from Asia. Nevertheless it is. in this latter sense that the expression has been perpetuated to the present time, nor can it be denied that it is sufficiently justified by the comparatively brief interval that has elapsed since the American populations have entered into the common history of humanity. But the same can scarcely be said of another expression, that of the " Western " World, which is also occasionally applied to the American continent, but which is purely relative and true only in a transitory sense. In many resj>ects, and especially in its relief, the form and disposition of its seaboard, America should rather be called the "Eastern " continent, for it lies east of the Old World, with which it is connected by the islands, peninsulas, marine beds, and pack ice of the Bering: Sea. Taken as a whole, the American mainland constitutes, in fact, a geographic unit, disposed in a vast semi-circle around the eastern shores of the Pacific Ocean. The Capes of Good Hope and Horn terminate on either side the immense amphi- theatre of the continents, which follow in succession round the abysmal waters, and which raise their loftiest crests in proximity to their oceanic seaboards. The main relief of the earth's crust may in a general way be regarded as disposed in a continuous semicircle, sweeping round the great marine basin of the globe, the African and Asiatic highlands constituting- the western, the American the eastern arc of this mighty curve, where the ranges of Alaska and British Columbia merely form a prolongation of those of Manchuria and Kamchatka. * "Sur 1'Origine dunom d'Amerique," in the Bui. de la Soc. de Geographic, vol. ix. t The Naturalist i» Nicaragua. I "The Origin of the Name of America," in the Bui. of the Am. Geoaraph. Soc, 1883, No. 1. 4 NORTH AMF.EL A. And within the circle of mountains now quiescent there is developed a second circle of active volcanoes, whose fiery curves arc disposed in festoons connecting the Indonesian archipelagoes with the Asiatic seaboard, and at last merging in the western coast ranges of the American highland systems. Evidently the volcanoes of the New World form part of the same " fiery circle " as the flaming craters of the Philippines, of Japan, and the Kurile Islands, of which they form in fact the eastern section. In exceptionally clear weather the most westerly headland of North America is visible from the extreme north-east promontory of Asia across the intervening strait scarcely 60 miles wide.' The Aleutian Islands also stretch from the Alaskan Peninsula for hundreds of miles towards the Asiatic mainland, while in winter the opposite shores of the two worlds are connected by irregular masses of pack or floating ice roughly thrown together by the contending currents, counter-currents, and eddies of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. Even in mid- summer steamers at times find it difficult to force' their way in the intervening strait through the drifting fragments of these glacial masses. The Bering Strait itself has an extreme depth of not more than 30 fathoms and even far from the coast whalers find good anchorage in depths of little over 20 fathoms. In the very midst of the strait itself rises the group of the Gvozdeva orDiomede islets, serving as an intermediate station for men and animals passing to and fro between the continents, from Cape East on the Asiatic to Cape West (Prince of Wales) on the American side. Hence, as already remarked by Adalbert de Chamisso, the geodetic triangles of the Old. World might easily b& connected with those of the New World, which in fact forms its eastern prolongation. On the other hand America is separated from European lands by r a space of 900 miles across the narrowest part of the North Atlantic. Nevertheless the striking analogy of the rocks between Labrador, Greenland, the northern archi- pelagoes and Norway, justifies the hypothesis that at some remote epoch all these regions formed continuous dry land. Greenland is still united with Scotland, and Cape Wrath with the Lindesnaes by a submarine bank less than 350 fathoms deep. Historically also America is largely a dependency of Asia, and should conse- quently be regarded as an eastern land. The Asiatics had no need to discover America, nor the Americans Asia, seeing that where they approach nearest the continents are visible from shore to shore. Even without the aid of kayaks (boats) the natives of both regions have been able to cross to the opposite sides of Bering Strait. South of this strait the seaboard is indented with numerous inlets as far as Oregon, all affording refuge to Asiatic craft drifting eastwards ; hence the state- ment that the American continent " turns its back on Asia " does not apply to the northern section of the New World. Although contested by Rink, Morton, and other anthropologists, the view is now generally accepted that the hyperborean populations of America are of Asiatic descent, and along both sides of Bering Strait the resemblance of physical types, speech and usages is such that their racial unity can be scarcely called in question.* Consequently those who fegard the kinship of the Eskimo and Mongoloid Siberian * Chamisso, Waitz, Poschel, Petitot, Wliympcr. ~^ 3 * ■ f I 41 4 g o E-i THE NEW WORLD. 5 as established naturally infer the western or Asiatic origin of the population occupying the northern section of North America. Polynesian influences are also recognised in the customs, structures, and ornamental work of the islanders along the north-west coast of America from Alaska to Oregon. Moreover, the " Black Stream " which traverses the North Pacific has frequently carried Japanese flotsam to the opposite seaboard ; over sixty instances of this sort have been recorded since the beginning of the seventeenth century.* The same current has even occasion- ally borne junks and shipwrecked crews from one continent to the other, as, for instance, in the year 1875. Some authorities even go so far as to assert that the Buddhist propaganda, and consequently Asiatic civilisation, exercised a direct influence on the inhabitants of Mexico and of Central ' America during the first centuries of the Christian era. Amongst the sculptures of Copan and Palenque mystic images have been found closely resembling those 'of Eastern Asia ; such especially' is the taiki, the most venerated symbol of the Chinese, which, according to Hamy, represents " the combination of force and matter, of the active and the passive, of the male and female principles." But, whatever is to be said of these pretended Buddhistic influences, there can be little doubt that the earliest transoceanic relations of the American continent must be referred, not to Europe or Africa, but to Asia, that is, to the West. The case, however, is reversed when we come to the recent history of the New World. If in remote ages the march of civilisation or immigration was from west to east, its direction has .been from east to west, from the Nile to the Mediterranean, and thence towards the ocean, and from the eastern to the western shores of the Atlantic, within the strictly historic period. Attempts have even been made to reduce this western movement of the cultured peoples to a fixed principle. " Westward rolls the star of empire," is a familiar saying amongst English- speaking nations. Anyhow, the fact remains that throughout modern times Ameriaa has been, relatively to Europe, emphatically the western world, the " West " in the simple language of British seafarers. Beyond the Mississippi the vast plains and highlands stretching away to the Pacific Ocean are also commonly designated by the name of the " Far West." Possibly at some remote epoch vessels from the eastern hemisphere may have reached this western world. Mention has been made of Phoenician navigators, and the Greek legends have been revived touching the mythical land of the Atlantes. Reference is also still made to the old Welsh traditions regarding Madoc ap Owen's discovery of the western lands wrapped in the perennial fogs of the great ocean. The Irish have similar legends, such as that associated with the name of St. Brendan ; but the marvellous accounts of their bards are unsupported by a single fact which could give them a character of certainty. The first authentic documents on the existence of a new world beyond the Atlantic date no further back than about a thousand years ago, coinciding with the epoch of the great Scandinavian migrations. Even in Italy itself, jealous of * Brooks, Comptcs Ecmhis tie la Sue. de Geographic, July, 18S6. C NORTH AMERICA. the fame of Columbus and Vespucci, no writer any longer doubts that North America was discovered by the Norse seafarers. The northern watt rs, scoured in all directions by the fearless Vikings, naturally offered the greatest facilities for exploration and conquest, for here. the opposite seaboards of the Old and New Worlds approach nearest to each other. Since the time of the Greek navigator, Pytheas, these seas were doubtless much dreaded, owing to the dense fogs moving alono- the surface like whitish walls. Seafarers also feared to penetrate through the "nostrils of the earth " amid the ice-encircled shoals and waters half solidified by those masses of unmolten snow which gave rise to the legend of a " Viscous Ocean," or " Sea of Glue." Vague reports described the northern seas as fallow lagoons, or even nothing more than vast morasses, or else Troldboten, or a region of magicians haunted by supernatural monsters. Nevertheless, a belief also prevailed that beyond this world of spirits there stretched the shores of continuous land. On all the charts inspired by the geography of Homer the great " Ocean Stream " is represented as encircled by a narrow margin of coastlands. But, whether the land designated by the ancients by the name of Ultima Thule is to be identified with Iceland or the Faroe Islands, there can be no doubt that this familiar station had long been known as a natural starting-point for the discovery of the western continent. The Irish monks, settled in Iceland towards the end of the eighth century, were followed a hundred years later by the Scan- dinavian Gardas, from whom the island received its present name. At that time two-thirds of the extreme northern waters had already been traversed, and here the Norse mariners also possessed the intermediate stations of the Shetland, Orkney, and Faroe archipelagoes. Navigators frequenting the seas between these insular groups could scarcely fail sooner or later to reach the shores of Greenland, driven westwards by storms or mai-ine currents. As early as the year !i?7 Gunnbjorn sighted from a distance the snowy crests of a western land, and gave his name to some rocky heights or headlands projecting from the shores of the New World." Five years later Erik the Eed, banished from Iceland for murder, sailed in the dii'ection of those remote mountains of Mid-Jokul, and on a sub- sequent voyage built himself a fortified dwelling on the coast of the west, beyond the Ilvarf or southern point of the great land. Although not yet identified, the ruins of this stronghold of Brattahlida may one day perhaps be found on the Igaliko fjord, erected here over nine hundred years ago. Ever since the arrival of Erik Greenland has always had inhabitants of European origin, and direct relations have been maintained at various epochs between the Scandinavian settlers in the west and the mother country. The Christian commu- nities administered by the See of Greenland were even tributary to Rome, and the ecclesiastical annals make mention of furs and walrus ivory regularly shipped to Europe in payment of the " Peter's Pence." The Crusades themselves were preached in these Arctic lands,* and even after the occupation of the West Indies and mainland by the Spaniards the Norse bishopric of Gardar continued to be maintained in Greenland. Nevertheless, during the course of centuries the rela- * P. Riant, Expeditions ei P&lerinaffes (Us tieandinaves. THE NEW WORLD. 7 turns became constantly less frequent between the opposite coasts of the North Atlantic. For some time after the discovery the spirit of adventure and conquest was kept alive amongst the intrepid Norse seafarers. Impatient of control the young men took to the high seas in order to escape the oppression of their rulers, and in their turn to found new states on those distant shores. But in the year 1261 Greenland fell under the direct political sway of the king of Norway ; trade became a royal monopoly ; expeditions across the Atlantic consequently grew less frequent, until at last both the Danes and Norwegians completely neglected those transmarine colonies which had been acquired by their enterprising forefathers. South Greenland had not been the only western region discovered by the Norse explorers. Various expeditions had coasted the west side of the great island beyond 72° north latitude to the points where were found the human habitations lying nearest to the piole. But their voyages of discovery were directed chiefly to the south of Greenland. Even before the year 1000 Bjarn Hcriulfson, who was sailing towards Greenland, had taken a too southerly course, thus sighting some forest-clad hills, which probably formed part of the American continent, but which he did not venture to approach. He was followed by Leif, son of Erik the Red, who first discovered the desolate ice-bound stony region of Hellu-land, which should probably be identified -with the Labrador coast, although referred by most Scandinavian writers to the island of Newfoundland. He then pushed farther southwards to a wooded coast, which he named Markland, and which is suj^posed by Rarn, Kohl, and others to be the seaboard of Acadia or Nova Scotia. This view has been generally accepted by the commentators on the Norse Sagas, who identil'v the present Rhode Island between 41'"' and 42° north latitude with the Yineland also discovered by Leif at the end of the year 1000. An " inscribed stone " is even shown on the banks of the Taunton River opposite the village of Dighton in Massachusetts, which the interpreters tell us relates the conquest of the Surrounding territory by Thorfin of Iceland.* It is obvious, however, that a passage in the old Norse texts referring to the length of the day in Yineland has been interpreted by Rafn in a sense too favourable to the importance of the discoveries made by his fellow-countrymen on the east coast of North America. All things considered, the Vineland of the Norse records should more probably be placed about the northern limit of the range -of the wild vine, that is, in Nova Scotia or New Bruns- wick, where also grows the " wild wheat " (zizania aquatica), mentioned in the same records, t But however this be, the fact is placed beyond all doubt that the Scandinavians founded regular colonies on the American mainland, the annals of which cover a period of from a hundred to a hundred and thirty years. After taking possession of the land hj kindling great bonfires, which proclaimed their arrival far and wide, it was their custom to set their mark on the trees and rocks, to plant their arms on the'headlands and to erect strong houses and outposts at their stations. The Sagas also speak of children born in these settlements, as well as of conflicts and of * Rafn, AntiqiiititU's Americancp. + Haliburton, Proceedings of the'R. Geo. Soc, January, 1885. 8 NORTH AMERICA. warriors killed in battle; graves also arc amongst the remains of the old structures attributed to these Norsemen. Like all subsequent European invaders, the Vikings massacred the natives for the sole pleasure of shedding blood, so that the work of extermination began with the first arrival of the whites. The old accounts, how- ever, which were handed down from mouth to mouth, diversely intermingled truth and legend, and many stirring episodes appear to have been inspired only by the love of the marvellous. One of the northern regions discovered by the Vikings, and since rendered uninhabitable by the cold, bears the name of Furdustraudir ("Wonder-strand"), so named from the strange visions conjured up by the evil genii of the place. According to tha legend, the new arrivals had to contend not only with the Skrallinger — a general name indifferently applied to all the aborigines whether Eskimo or Redskins — but also with white populations, or peoples " dressed in white," that is, certain Irish Christians living on the southern coastlands, or in the interior towards the west. To this region, placed somewhere on the- New England seaboard, was given the name of Hvitramannaland ("White Men's Land") or Irland it Mikla (" Great Ireland "*). But if the Sagas that have been handed down to our time contain much that is marvellous, they probably comprise but a small part of the real history of the Scandinavians in America. It is at least possible that a strain of Norse blood may still survive, even beyond Greenland, amongst the indigenous populations of the New World. After the Scandinavian explorations in the northern waters, the attention oftbe South European seafarers was mainly directed to the temperate and tropical regions bevond the Atlantic. The memory of the earlier expeditions appears never to, have been entirely lost, or rather became intermingled with traditions of diverse origin. Like the Welsh and Irish, the Arabs had also their legendary navigators, the eight Almagruritti, or " Wandering Brothers," who had sailed from Lisbon in the year 1170 under a vow never to return xmtil they had reached the remote isles beyond the seas. Other "brothers," Frisians by .birth, were rumoured to have soon after embarked at Bremen, and to have reached Greenland. Towards the end of the, fourteenth century two Venetians, the brothers Zeni, visited the same region, by them called " Engroneland," and the particulars recorded by them, as well as certain details of their charts, leave scarcely any doubt regarding the truth of their narrative. Lastly, the Pole, John of Szkolno was sent straight to Greenland in the year 1476 for the express purpose of reopening the communications that had so long been interrupted. ■ Undoubtedly the report of all these voyages had spread from seaport to seaport, as attested by the contemporary marine charts, on which coastlines, although traced at haphazard, were at least justified by popular report. Moreover, the recent discoveries of Madeira, the Canaries, and the Azores in the Atlantic south- west of Europe, had been more or less confused in the imagination of seafarers with the ancient traditions regarding the "Fortunate Islands," and with the Christian myths about other islands inhabited by saints. All these scattered • Bcauvois, La JJicomcrlc ilu Xouveau MonA par les Irlandaia, LEGENDARY LANDS. archipelagoes could not fail to awaken visions of other still more remote islands, all the more that unknown plants, berries, and other flotsam were brought with the currents and cast ashore at various points. At Flores were thus stranded two dead bodies, whose features in no respect resembled those of the inhabitants of the Azores. One of these visionary lands, compared by Columbus himself to " the illusion of a mirage," was the island of Saint Brendan, which was sought in every part of the Atlantic, and even in the Indian Ocean itself. Then the Sete Cidades, or island of the "Seven Cities," colonised by the followers of the seven legendary bishops, who had been expelled by the Moors from Portugal, had at last been identified with San Miguel, largest member of the Azores, where is now to be seen the lagoon or " cauldron" of the seven cities. Antilia, another holy island, regarded Fig. 1. — Discoveries of the Norsemen in the New World. Scale 1 : 60,000,000. i \ Gunnbj5rngakar(") *^-*^ f'.'.-i ''Hh ^/frifn* mu ring fen J 70° West oF Gr •ich .50' 4-0' 1,200 Miles. at one time as distinct, at another associated either with Saint Brendan or the Seven Cities, continued to shift from place to place until it eventually gave its name to the Antilles. Lastly, beyond the island of Brazil (isofri de Brazi), supposed to have been found in the Azores, where a hill in Terceira still bears the name of Brazil, search continued to be made for the land of Verzin, or " Brazil Wood," a term which was universally applied to the vast region of Santa Cruz soon after its discovery. The mathematicians on their part also endeavoured to penetrate the mystery of the equatorial seas by attempting to define the limits of the space comprised between the western shores of the Old World and the eastern seaboard of China. Thus, eighteen years before the discovery of the "West Indies" by Columbus, the VOL. XV. C 10 NORTH AMERICA. Florentine astronomer, Toscanelli, was requested by a person at the court of Affonso V., Kin» of Portugal, to prepare a nautical memoir, according to which the city of Quinsay (Hangcheu), capital of the powerful empire of Cathay (China), was situated only 130° of west longitude from Lisbon. Between these two points the Atlantic and the sea now known as the Pacific Ocean were merged in a common marine basin. Off the east coast of China this space was further diminished at least 25° by the great insular kingdom of Zipangu (Japan), a wrong interpretation of a passage in Marco Polo having enormously exaggerated the width of the strait flowing between China and the Japanese Archipelago. The Chinese miles (li) of the text had been changed to Italian miles, and Zipangu was thus removed east- wards to the position really occupied by California, or even still farther east to the Kocky Mountains. Toscanelli's now lost chart, which doubtless differed little from that of Martin Behaim still extant, also indicated the island of Antiglia as a station lying midway Fig. 2 —Form of the Ocean according, to Toscanelli, Martin Behaim and Columbus. on the ocean route, which route might be further diminished by taking one of the western Canaries as the starting-point, as, in fact, was done by Columbus. Nay, more, contemporary astronomers held different opinions regarding the exact size of the degree comprised between two meridians, and, according to most of them, this space was considerably smaller than the determination made by Eratosthenes seventeen centuries previously. One of the chief authorities quoted by Columbus in justification of his' daring enterprise was the apocryphal book of Esdras, according to which the sea covered only a seventh part of the planet. The vast expanse of waters between Europe and Asia had obviously shrunk to very small proportions in the eyes of contem- porary navigators, and herein lies the explanation of Columbus's remark: "El munch es poco ! " " The earth is small ! " Fortunately ignorant of its real size he dared to sail, as he thought, for India, " seeking the east by the way of the west." He would doubtless have shrunk from the enterprise had he known that the actual THE GEE AT DISCOTEEY. 11 distance from Lisbon to Zipangu by this western route was some 210° of longitude, that is, far more than half the circumference of the globe. In the language of d'Anville, " the greatest of errors led to the grandest discovery." Still this event would have in any case been delayed but a few years longer, for Alvarez Cabral, following the track of Vasco de Gama towards East India, unexpectedly struck the Brazilian seaboard in the year 1500. But the failure of Columbus to reach the goal he had proposed to himself helped only to enhance the greatness of his glory. For he thus discovered a new world, and as he said himself when relating a dream, " he took the keys of the heavy chains which held the sea imprisoned." The world hitherto supposed to be flat he proved to be round, and thereby opened the modern era of history. His rivals overwhelmed him with outrages, he was treated as a vain boaster, an impostor (homem fallador), " whose words were idle " ; then his enemies charged him with treason and brought him back in chains across the very ocean which he had been the first to traverse. But after his death a reaction set in, and by a natural tendency in the mind of man numerous writers attributed the exclu- sive glory of the discovery to the daring genius of Columbus. But despite all exaggeration his genius was still shown to be of the first order bv his manv observations on the winds, the marine currents, the declination of the compass, and the confidence with which he had boldly plunged into the unknown " sea of darkness." Nevertheless, the prominent part taken by Columbus in the progress of his times should not blind us to the merits of so many other fellow-workers ; least of all should it induce us to discover in him every virtue under the sun, as if breadth of intellect and fortune's favours were still accompanied by all the higher qualities of the heart. Amongst the less fortunate contemporary navigators some might perhaps be mentioned who were fully equal to Columbus in scientific knowledge, and others who were certainly actuated by more disinterested motives. But it ever happens that, where multitudes of men contribute wittingly or unwittingly to one great result, some one favoured person arrives at the right moment and resumes in himself all the merit of the common work. Thus in the present case amid numerous competitors the name of Columbus stands out conspicuously as summing up his epoch, and the year 1492 is henceforth regarded as the parting- line between two eras of human progress. At first the arrival of Columbus's caravals in a roadstead of the Xew "World seemed but slightly to affect the political and social relations of the civilised peoples. On the other hand great events, such as the fall of the Eastern Empire, the artistic and literary triumphs of the Renaissance, the invention of printing, the circumnavigation of Africa, were also facts of vital importance, largely con- tributing to the evolution of thought which brought mediaeval times to a close. But among all these indications of the profound change then taking place there was not one whose significance was more marked or richer in future promise than the fortunate voyage of the Genoese navigator. Thenceforth the Old "World, itself not yet entirely discovered, ceased to constitute the whole inheritance of c2 12 NORTH AMERICA. man. Civilisation, which, from the early empires grouped round the converging point of Europe, Asia, and Africa, had hitherto spread almost exclusively along the Mediterranean seaboard, and thence to the inlets and islands of Western Europe, now, at last, possessed the whole surface of the globe as its proper sphere of action. The sum of knowledge and, consequently, the domain of thought had been enlarged ; history, till then fragmentary, began to assume a universal character ; the still distant days that shall witness the alliance of all the peoples in a common humanity were already foreshadowed in the dim future. Such was the more or less clearly perceived source of the joyous emotion which filled all hearts at the news of the great discovery. The beauty, the rich vegetation, the climate of the recently revealed lands also largely contributed to lend additional lustre to the great event. If the voyages of the Norsemen to Greenland, Markland, Vineland, had already been forgotten outside scientific circles, while the first sight of the Antilles has remained in the memory of the nations as the only true discovery of the New "World, must not the contrast be in a measure attributed to the lovely skies of the tropics? Compared with the marvellous southern isles, of what account were the ice-bound lands of the polar circle and the snow-clad northern rocks wrapped in eternal fogs ? During his first explorations Columbus failed to reach the mainland of the New "World. The first islands sighted by the Europeans in 1492 after a journey of thirt} T -four days from Gomera, one of the Canaries, was a mere coralline plateau, whose native name, Guanahani or Guanahanin, was re-named San Salvador by Columbus's associates "saved" from the abyss. But this name was again changed either to Great Turk Island, or Cat Island, or Hayaguana, or more probably AVatling Island, for it is still somewhat uncertain what was the first land actualty reached by Columbus after his memorable journey.* In any case he afterwards discovered several other members of the Bahama chain, besides a large part of the north coast of Cuba, and the harbours on the north side of Haiti, or Espanola, that is, " Little Spain," as it continued to be called during the centuries of Spanish ride. But Columbus himself supposed that this island was Zipangu, that is, Japan, while Cuba was taken for a peninsula of Cathay, or China. During the voyage the admiral made his arrangements for submitting to the Great Khan of Tartary the letters of friendship and exhortation to receive the Christian faith which had been entrusted to him by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Some doubts, however, may perhaps have arisen amongst his followers, for he immediately announced his arrival in " Asia " by an official document threatening all gainsayers with a heavy fine, excision of the tongue and the lash. Satisfied with having reached this east coast of Asia, and with the discovery of gold and slaves in Espanola, Columbus made no effort to push farther towards the west. Even his second voyage the following year was limited to revisiting Cuba and Espanola, and surveying the coasts of Jamaica, Puerto-Rico, and the northern section of the Antilles. At last on his third voyage in 1498 he reached the main- * II. Harrisse, Notes on Columbus; Ad. deVarnhagen, La Ycrdadcra Guanahani de Colon; Beeher, The Landfall of Columbus ; Major, Journal of the li. Geo. Soc, 1871. THE VOYAGES OE COLUMBUS. 13 land at the Orcnoco delta and the peninsula of Paria. On this occasion he had sailed far to the south, acting on the advice of the Jew, Moses Jacob Ferrer, who had induced him to hope for richer treasures in gold and precious stones under a more southern latitude, " where the people have a black skin." Although rightly concluding from the great volume of its waters that the Orenoco was fed by a vast continental basin, Columbus made no delay to explore the surrounding coastlands, but hastened towards Espanola, attracted by the gold mines which were to yield him enough to levy " an army of 4,000 horse and 50,000 foot and deliver the Holy Sepulchre." lie was at once the first European to visit the New World, and the first planter to enslave the natives and cause them to perish in his service. But he had rivals in this fatal work, and it was the jealousies of others who had also Fig. 3. — First West Indian Islands discovered by Columbus. Scale 1 : 0,000,000. :" ca, \ V; $W?t//s>g-/ste~eS ^t^ZZ^Afayagc/cMci ' Peque/7,3 /rr&guBf. , Gran //7&gi/ji ■ - -~C&''cos • S---- /u/-A •/■sfenc/ 78" 'West oF Gr-eenv 300 Miles. received concessions of mines and Indians that brought about revolts, intestine strife and at last the recall of Columbus ignominiously laden with chains. Eefore his third voyage he had secured the monopoly of exploration for himself and his posterity,* so that all independent expeditions had been interdicted except from the port of Cadiz under burdensome conditions. This provision, however, was not enforced, and several illegal journeys would appear to have taken place to avoid paying the fiscal charges on the products of the gold mines. Even while Columbus still governed Espanola two vessels, under his enemy Hojeda and the two famous pilots, Juan de la Cosa and Amerigo Yespucci, touched secretly at the island, and resumed their voyage without waiting for the governor's visit. These seafarers had also seen the mainland, coasting the seaboard for a far greater * Herrera, Indias Oecidentales. li NOirm AMERICA. distance than Columbus, from the low-lying shores of Surinam to the Cabo de la Vela, northern extremity of the Goajiros Peninsula between the coasts of Venezuela and New Grenada. In the same year, 1490, a part of the Cumana country had already been sur- veyed by Peralonso Nino and Guerra ; in 1500 Bastidas de Sevilla completed a first exploration of all the southern shores of the Caribbean Sea as far as the Gulf of Uraba, while Vincente Pinzon coasted the east side of the continent beyond Cape St. Boque as far as the point where now stands the city of Pernambuco, and on his return traversed the " Freshwater Sea," formed at its mouth by the Amazons river. A few weeks later these waters were again visited by Diego Lepe, and in the same year, 1500, a Portuguese fleet of thirteen vessels, under Alvarez Cabral, reached the supposed island of Santa Cruz, which was in reality the mainland of Brazil, about the southern part of the present province of Bahia. Lastly, Amerigo Vespucci, piloting another Portuguese flotilla, pushed still farther southwards, surveying the whole seaboard of Brazil as far as the Gulf of Cananea in the south temperate zone. From this point he appears to have sailed south- eastwards without again sighting land, except a remote coastline about 52° south latitude. The Austral Island of New Georgia would seem to correspond best with the position indicated in the great navigator's report. Avast stretch of seaboard some 6,000 miles in extent had thus been opened up by the European seafarers since Columbus had penetrated into the " Dragon's Mouth," and surveyed the Orenoco Delta. lie had hoped to cover himself with fresh glory, and to close his career by the discovery of a passage leading to the Indies properly so called; he had even provided himself with an Arab interpreter, and when he struck the Honduras coast he supposed he had reached Ptolemy's Golden Chersonesus, that is, the southern peninsula of Indo-China. He failed, how- ever, to turn its southern extremity, the isthmus in question forming continuous land with the continental seaboard. But in the neighbourhood of the Chiriqui Islands, where the land is already contracted to a very narrow width, he heard of another ocean lying a little farther south, and forthwith concluded that here he was within " ten days' voyage of the Ganges." Nevertheless, he vainly sought the looked-for outlet, and had to retrace his steps after rounding Cape San Bias, close to the spot where hopes are now entertained of excavating the channel which he failed to discover. After a futile attempt to found a station to work the gold mines on the coast of Veragua he set sail for Europe, dying in 1506, two years after his return. Progress of Discovery along the Eastern Seaboard. The exploration of the east coast of North America had begun before that of the southern continent had been revealed by Columbus. In 1494, Gaboto, or Cabot, another Genoese navigator, had rediscovered the shores already visited by the Norsemen. After becoming a Venetian citizen, Cabot, one of the best pilots of the age, had removed witli his whole family to Bristol. Although his name is not actually mentioned it is sufficiently indicated by the expression, " the most skilful VOYAGES OF THE CABOTS. 15 mariner at that time in all England," who, in 1480, sailed from Bristol in search of the " island of Brazil," and who returned, two months later, to an Irish seaport after having found the island in question. At least d'Avezac thinks it probable that the pilot so described was Cabot himself. In 1491, and again in 1492 and 1493, he made fresh expeditions to the western seas, and at last, in June, 1494, he discovered a " Land first sighted," and another neighbouring land, as is expressly indicated on a chart prepared fifty years later by his son, Sebastian Cabot. This " Prima Vista " was at first supposed to be the headland of Bona Vista on the north side of Trinity Bay, south-east coast of New- foundland. But, according to Sebastian's chart, the north-east point of the island of Fig. i. — Voyages of Columbus. Scale 1 : 90,000,000. West'oP Greenwich 1,800 Miles. Cape Breton was the first land sighted, the navigators passing thence between the present mainland of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward's Island.* Resinning 1 the " Newfoundland navigations " in 1497 Cabot coasted the main- land for about 300 leagues, planting en the headlands at intervals a large cross with the English and Venetian flags. Next year Sebastian Cabot set sail alone and followed the coast northwards to 56° or 58° north latitude, that is, to North Labrador, thence returning southwards to the shores of the present Virginia, perhaps even to those of Florida. Thus, before the close of the fifteenth century the North American seaboard was known in its salient features for a space of over * Halton and Harvey, Newfoundland. 10 NORTH" AMERICA. 1,200 miles. English mariners continued to visit the same coastlands, and references occur to voyages accomplished by them in the years 1-501 and 1504.* On their part the Portuguese, long in possession of the Azores in the centre of the Atlantic, naturally sought to share in the work of discovery in this part of the New World. In 1464 Joao Vaz Cortereal, Governor of Terceira, had already visited a Terra do Bacalhao, that is, "Land of the Cod," either Iceland or New- foundland. In 1500 his son, Gaspar, also set sail from Terceira towards the northern waters, where he claimed to have discovered a " Green Land." But this very name, applied to such an inhospitable region as the present Green- laud, is sufficient proof that the old Norse navigators had not yet been entirely forgotten, and even still served to direct the later seafarers on their voyages of discovery. The following year Gaspar Cortereal reached Newfoundland, traversed its rich fishing-grounds, and pushed northwards along the Labrador coast till arrested by the increasing numbers of icebergs. Certain authorities have argued that the Portuguese navigator had endeavoured to penetrate into the northern channels for the purpose of discovering the "North- West Passage " round North America. But this view is far from probable, as at that time all those coastlands were still described as belonging to "Tartary." These northern regions were by the Portuguese collectively named the country "Dos Cortercals," in honour of Gaspar and his brother Miguel, both of whom perished in the American waters. But to the mariners, who began to be attracted in large numbers by the abundant fisheries, they were more commonly known as the Terra de Bacalhaos, " Land of the Cod." Either about that time, or at some previous epoch, the Breton or Basque fishers gave its present name to the island of Cape Breton, possibly suggested by the province of Brittany, but more probably by the town, which at that time stood on the mouth of the Adour. Tradition, unsupported, however, by any extant documents, is unanimous in attributing to the famous Basque whalers of Saint Sebastian, Pasages, Zarauz, Ciboure, Saint-Jean de Luz, and Cape Breton, the discovery of those remote lands of the cod. The name is even mentioned of one Juan de Echaide, a Navarrese, who would appear to have penetrated farther than any other European navigator in the north-eastern waters. Nevertheless, the Basque word bacallcm ("cod") is really of Dutch origin, already occurring under the form of Jcaieljau in the language of the northern seafarers in the thirteenth century. During the same period the French were also trading with the coast of Brazil, and in 1504 de Gonneville reached the Bay of Santa Ca- tharina, coasting thence northwards in the direction of Bahia. Vessels from Dieppe, St. Malo, and other French seaports also frequented the same waters about that time. Thus, in this year 1504, when Columbus left the New World for the last time, the eastern seaboard of both continents was known to a very large extent, while the West Indian waters, the first to be discovered, were explored only in their southern parts. For a quarter of a century after the discovery of the Bahamas by Colum- * Biddle, A Memoir on Sebastian. n z p o h Z o o o RARY SVERSi I PROGRESS OP DISCOVERY IN THE ANTILLES. 17 bus, no Spanish vessel had penetrated into the Gulf of Mexico except during the circumnavigation of Cuba. This neglect was due to the fact that the Spaniards were not concerned with any systematic exploration of the shores of the New World so much as with the discovery of seas abounding in pearls, or of lands rich in gold and slaves. In 1508 Vicente Pinzon skirted the Honduras coast as far as Belize, and five years later Ponce de Leon, with his pilot, Alaminos, approaching the Gulf from another direction, west of the Bahamas, discovered the peninsula of Florida, which they coasted northwards to Saint- Augustine Bay, and again south- wards to Cape Florida and the chain of the Cayos (Keys or "Beefs"). The object Fig 6.— Amebican Seaboard discovered during tub Lifetime of Columbus. Scale 1 : 90,000,000. C.C. Christopher Columbus. of this expedition was no longer gold, but that marvellous " fountain of rejuve- nescence," which restores strength and beauty to old age. The astounding discoveries made during recent years had, as it were, intoxicated the men of that period, to whom everything now seemed possible, and who began to fancy that the myths of their childhood had already been half realized. Columbus, navigating the brackish waters of the Orenoco estuary, claimed to have seen the river that descends from the " earthly Paradise." In the same way Ponce de Leon went in quest of the water that gives youth and everlasting health. But in none 18 NORTH AMERICA. of the islands, not even in Bimini, said to contain the sacred spring itself, did he find aught but limestone or brackish waters. Nor were those expeditions more fortunate which were afterwards conducted by Pamphilo de Narvaez, Fernando de Soto, and Moscoso in search of gold and silver store. Alvar Nunez, however, one of Narvaez's followers, nicknamed Cabeza de Vaca (" cow-head "), reached Culiacan in Mexico, after a residence of eight years amongst the savages. Discovery of the Pacific. The same year that saw the discovery of the coasts of Florida by the Spaniards witnessed an event of supreme importance in the history of geography. Nunez de Balboa, who, like Columbus, had long been familiar with reports of the neigh- bouring ocean, at last crossed the Isthmus of Darien, and from the brow of a hill beheld at his feet the Gulf of San Miguel and the boundless expanse of the Pacific waters. In an ecstacy of joy he rushed down to the shore, waded into the water up to his middle, and armed with buckler and sword, took possession of the great sea in the name of the King of Spain. But two years elapsed before the founda- tion of the first European settlement on the shores of the Pacific, near the peaiT fisheries of Panama, and in 1517 Espinosa launched the first vessel on its blue waters, navigating them from the Isle of Pearls to Nicoya Bay. The name of " South Sea," given by Balboa to the Pacific, and still current amongst seafarers, was due to the position of the Isthmus of Darien, running in the direction from west to east. Thus, for Balboa, the Caribbean was the " North Sea," while the inlets discovered by him on the opposite side belonged to the " South Sea." Protracted efforts were made to find the passage supposed to connect the two oceans, and in 1523 Charles V. again instructed Cortez diligently to search for this channel which had escaped the attention of Columbus. During a slave-hunting expedition to the coast of Honduras in 1517, the slave- dealer, Hernandez de Cordova, discovered the north side of Yucatan, where he came upon the first civilized populations found in the New World. Next year Juan de Grijalva, guided by Alaminos, the best pilot of the age, pushed farther to the west and north, coasting the Mexican seaboard as far as the river Jatalpa. The fame of the treasures of Mexico was immediately spread throughout the Spanish Antilles, attracting seafarers and conquerors from all quarters. Monte- zuma was soon replaced by Cortez as ruler of the empire, and the explorations, hitherto mainly confined to the coastlands, began to spread their network throughout the interior of the continent. The outlines of the Anahuac plateau were soon clearly traced between the regular curve of the Gulf of Mexico and the straight coastline of the seaboard watered by the Pacific. But although the " South Sea" was known and had already been navigated by Spanish mariners, the passage leading from one ocean to the other had hitherto been sought for in vain. In 1509 Vicente Pinzon and Diaz de Solis had pushed southwards to the vast estuary of the Bio de la Plata, and perhaps even beyond that point. Six years later Diaz de Solis had been commissioned to round the VOYAGE OF MAGELLAN. 10 whole American continent as far as the waters discovered by Balboa ; but he was killed by the natives en the banks of the Plate river itself, in which he supposed he had found the looked-for interoceanic passage, and the honour of the discovery thus fell to Magellan. Contemporary geographers justly pointed out that the South American seaboard gradually declined westwards under the Austral latitudes just as the African is deflected eastwards, thence arguing that the New World, like the old, terminated in a point, that it also had its " Cape of Good Hope." But America penetrates much farther into the Austral Seas than Africa. Hence to reach its farthest point, and to plunge into the maze of savage fjords indenting its southern extremity, needed the indomitable energy and almost superhuman will of a Magellan. The two great navigators who gave to Spain the foremost rank in the history of discoveries, were both aliens, one an Italian, the other a Portuguese, and of the two the latter accomplished the greater work, a work of geographical exploration absolutely unrivalled. Not only did Magellan discover the passage from sea to sea, but his vessel was also the first to circumnavigate the globe. He " lifted the earth from the shoulders of Atlas and set it spinning in the free ether."— (J. Gr. Kohl.) Although Magellan Strait was named the " Spanish Highway," in contradis- tinction to the " Portuguese Highway" around Africa, the Spanish seafarers them- selves scarcely made any use of this route between the two oceans. Nevertheless, a vessel, detached by a storm from Loaysa's squadron in 1526, after clearing the Strait, was driven back to the American coast, and thus reached a Mexican port near Tehuantepec. But this vessel, commanded by Guevara, never from first to last sighted the western seaboard of the southern continent. All the discoveries along this seaboard were made by the route across the Isthmus. In 1522 Andagoya coasted southwards to the river Biru, a small stream whose name does not appear on the charts, but which suddenly assumed great importance in the eyes of gold-hunters, thanks to the glowing accounts of the natives about the treasures of the south. Two years later was founded the famous " Company of the Biru," or " Peru," between Pizarro, Almagro, and Hernando de Luque, an association which undoubtedly resulted in the acquisition of vast treasures, but which also brought about the extermination of whole populations, and the thraldom of all those that the fire and sword had spared. The limi ts of the explored regions coincided with those of the reduced lands, and the Spaniards never crossed the river Maule in the southern part of Chili. Here, at the very gate of the Araucanian territory, Gomez de Alvarado, one of Almagro's lieutenants, was arrested, and beyond this point no explorer has yet succeeded in making his way overland to Magellan Strait. The coastlands have been surveyed only from the sea, the first time in 1540 by Alonzo de Camargo, who sailed from Seville through the Strait directly to Callao. In 1579 the same route was traversed in the opposite direction by Sarmiento. But to Cook was reserved the distinction of making the first complete circumnavigation of the globe by a course contrary to that followed by his great Portuguese predecessor. The extreme point of the New World south of the Fuegian Archipelago may 20 NORTH AMERICA. possibly have been sighted in 1526 by one of Loaysa's companions. Other mariners, such as Drake and Sarmiento, also verified the insular character of the lands skirting the south side of the strait, and in 1G16, nearly a century after the time of Magellan, Cape Ilorn was at last doubled by the Dutchmen, Lemaire and Schouten. A Mexican port on the North American seaboard had already been chosen by Cortez as the starting point for the flotillas of the Pacific. Nevertheless, the exploration of the coast-lands in this region made less progress than elsewhere. In 1533 Grijalva sighted the Revillagigedo Islands and the southern point of the Californian peninsula ; soon after Cortez and other navigators penetrated into the Gulf of California, or " Vermilion Sea," and in 1542 Cabrillo reached as far north as Cape Mendocino, beyond 40° north latitude. This is usually supposed to have been exceeded during the same century by only one other voyage, that of Drake, who struck land some 3° farther north, and thence coasted the Cali- fornian seaboard in a southerly direction. But another long-doubted maritime exjiedition appears to have also taken place, although no mention is made of it in the annals of Castile.* The details, in fact, given by the navigator himself scarcely leave any room for doubt on the subject. This seafarer, the Greek, Apostolos Valerianos, who claimed to have served on board a Spanish flotilla under the name of Juan de Fuca, states that a wide breach occurs on the seaboard " between 47° and 48° north latitude, "t where a strait, sheltered by a large island, communicates with marine passages opening in various directions, north-west, north-east, east, and south-east. This fjord really exists, although it is not, as supposed by Juan de Fuca, the " Gate of Anian," affording a passage round the north part of the American con- tinent. By a strange coincidence this term Anian, perhaps the same that had been used by Marco Polo to indicate the Indo-Chinese kingdom of Annam, had been transferred by ignorant commentators to a marine passage supposed to skirt the north side of America. In the same way Zipangu came to be applied at once both to Japan and Cuba. The North-west Passage. On a map published in 1542 'by Sebastian Munster, the legend "Here is the route of the Moluccas" designates either a strait in the north-east of America or else a river such as might answer to the St. Lawrence. Navigators have taken three centuries and a half to discover this " North-west Passage ; " nor has anyone yet succeeded in completely circumnavigating the double continent of America. The discovery has, in fact, been made piecemeal by fragmentary expeditions. Sebastian Cabot, who was himself perhaps preceded by the Cortereals,J advanced in the direction of the Arctic Seas in the hope of finding the famous China * Relation del Vm/'r hecho por laa Golelas, Sutil ij Mejicana, 1792. t The entry to the Juan de Fuca Strait really lies some 30 miles farther south. + Burney : Voyages ut the South Sea. THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 21 passage. He reached 07° 30' north latitude, and meeting open waters to the north-west, firmly helieved in the possibility of sailing right through to China by this polar route, which woidd have been three times shorter than that of a Panama Strait. But he was compelled by the faintheartedness of his companion, Sir Thomas Pert, to give up the attempt, and it remains doubtful whether the route followed was that of Hudson or Davis Strait. According to Piddle and the Fig. 6.— Paet of America known- at the Close of the Sixteenth Centum. Scale 1 : 120,000,000. .1,800 Miles. indications recorded in the chart of Ortelius, the two navigators took the Hudson passage, which was thus discovered long before the voyages of Frobisher and Hudson. Over fifty years elapsed before Sebastian's track was again followed, nor did his successors at first reach such high latitudes. Estevan Gomez, a deserter from Magellan's expedition, appears to have got no farther than the Bay of Fundy, the 22 NOETH AMEEICA. name of which, despite its present English form, is none the less of Spanish origin. Verrazano, a Florentine, who visited the shores of the New World by order of Francis I., made no important discovery beyond the entrance to the Hudson, while doubt has been thrown on the voyage said to have been under- taken by the Portuguese Alvarez to the St. Lawrence river in 1521. Jacques Cartier appears to have been the first to recognise in 1535 the fluvial character of the waters which prolong the estuary opening west of Newfoundland and of the insular groups at its entrance. The great value of Cartier's expedition in the history of geographical progress is due to the fact that it forms the starting-point of the voyages of discovery in the interior of the continent as far as the Mississippi Delta, the Rocky Mountains, and the Frozen Ocean. Contemporary geographers fancied there must be some sort of balance in the form of the various continental masses. As they believed in the existence of an Austral world corresponding in the Oceanic regions to the lands of the Northern Hemisphere, they also supposed that to Magellan Strait, at the southern extremity of the New World, there must correspond another in the northern continent ; in fact, that " Gate of Anian," which Juan de Fuca pretended to have traversed all the way to the Atlantic. Nay, more, to them it seemed that the attenuated form of South America must be reproduced in the north ; hence the hope of discovering towards the extremity of Labrador a short passage leading directly from ocean to ocean. English navigators claimed an almost exclusive monopoly of exploration in these northern waters. The " Portuguese " route by the Cape of Good Hope as well as the " Spanish" by Magellan Strait being closed to them, they naturally sought to strike out a " British " highway in the far north. In this spirit, Willoughby and Chancellor attempted the " North-east " Passage with the view of reaching China by coasting round the north of Russia. In the same way, Frobisher endeavoured in 1576 to force the "North-west" Passage by following the course indicated by Sebastian Cabot. After penetrating far into a channel flowing, as he supposed, between America and Asia, this daring pioneer returned to announce the news in England. But in two subsequent voyages he failed to get beyond the Met a Incognita, or " Unknown Limit," that is, the peninsula of Einguait, by which his western horizon had been closed in. Then Frobisher was diverted by the quest of gold from more speculative enterprises. Having discovered certain black stones supposed to be very rich in ores, but from which the chemists vainly attempted to extract the precious metal, he sailed in 1578 with a fleet of fifteen vessels, for the purpose of shipping cargoes of these useless blocks, and erecting forts to guard the mines from foreign nations. But so uncertain was the position of the region discovered by him that it was long sought in the eastern parts of Greenland ; nor have modern metallurgists yet succeeded in identifying those black stones which gave rise to so many costly expeditions. In 1585, Davis * resumed the work of exploration, penetrating far into the broad channel which stretches east of the polar archipelago, and which now rightly bears his name. He also discovered in the western lands a winding fjord, * See life of this illustrious navigator by Clements R. Markham, 1889. THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 23 the ^Northumberland Inlet, another of those passages which it was hoped might communicate with the China waters ; hut after surveying this opening in 1587, he found the Atlantic here also barred by impassable rocks and islands. The famous pilot, Hudson, then in the service of England, hoped to be more successful in 1610, when, after coasting the whole of the Labrador peninsula, he perceived between two islands the open sea stretching away to the south and south-west. Under the impression that this must surely be the Pacific, he sailed exultingly southwards, but his career came to a sudden end before he could be undeceived. Overpowered by his mutinous crew, he was placed with some companions in a small boat, and left, almost without provisions, to perish no one knows where. In death he may at least have had the consolation of fancying that he had solved the great geographical problem. Other navigators penetrated after him into the inland sea which now bears the name of Hudson Bay. But it was soon found that this vast basin was closed on all sides, except towards the north and north-east, and the pilot Baffin at last announced in 1616 that all hope must be given up of reaching the China seas by this route, and that the passage must be sought farther north. Accordingly, under the orders of Bylot, he pushed towards the Pole through Davis Strait to its north- west prolongation, the present Baffin Bay, reaching as high as 77° 30' north latitude in Smith Sound, which for two hundred and fifty years from that time remained unvisited by any navigator. Towards the west, Baffin observed two broad openings — Jones Sound, obstructed with ice, and Lancaster Sound, into which he cautiously penetrated. On his return to England, his verdict was, " There is no Nbrth-TTest Passage." This verdict was accepted as final, and all farther research in that direction was almost entirely abandoned. The Hudson Bay Company also, which was founded in 1669, and to which Charles II. granted vast privileges, possessions, and exclusive trade rights, jealously guarded its monopoly of that region. A few London merchants thus became masters, not only of the coastlands round the land-locked basin, but of the whole of Arctic America, warding off all rivals who might encroach upon their trade in peltries. All exploration of the seaboard was forbidden ; all non- authorised discoveries were buried in secret archives; false reports on the difficulties of the navigation were spread abroad, all with a view of securing to the directors the undisturbed enjoyment of their commercial privfeges. To the posthumous influence of the now extinct Company have even been partly attributed the pre- judices which have hitherto prevented the settlement of the coastlands round the southern shores of Hudson Bay. But while all progress was suspended throughout the eighteenth century in the north-east, the north-western parts of the continent continued to emerge from the obscurity from which the great epoch of Spanish enterprise had failed to rescue them. The Russians now made their appearance in this field, ushering in their operations with the all-important discovery of the strait separating the two worlds. Henceforth America could no longer be regarded as a geographical dependency of China or "Tartajy." In 1725 Bering rounded the extreme eastern headland 21 NORTH AMERICA. of Asia, passing through the strait which now bears his name ; he failed, how- ever, to descry the opposite or American side of the strait, which was seen from a distance by Gvozd'ev five years later. This eastern land had already long been reported by the Chukches to the Russian Cossacks, who called it by anticipation Bolshaia Zeml'a, or the " Great Land." Its existence was, however, abundantly attested by the driftwood, the sculptured blocks, the cetaceans bearing embedded in their flesh harpoons of strange form, and the Cossacks themselves had met natives of that remote region in the Chukche camping-grounds. In 1741 Bering and Tchirikov struck the American coast near the point dominated by Mount St. Elias, thence coasting westwards, and so discovering the southern part of Alaska and the Aleutian Archipelago. After the death of Bering on the island now known by his name, other daring seafarers, fishers, hunters, and traders continued the work of exploration on the " Great Land." But the real form of the coastline was first revealed in 1778 by Cook, who penetrated into the Bering Sea through an opening in the Aleutian chain, sailing from headland to headland across the strait properly so called, and coasting the American side north- eastwards. Here his attempt to force the ice and thus reach England by the direct north-east passage was frustrated by a continuous mass of pack-ice at Icy Cape. The farthest point reached by Cook in these waters was not exceeded till the present century ; his immediate successors, Laperouse and Vancouver, surveyed that part only of the seaboard which lies south of Alaska. No further attempt was made till after the wars of the Empire to force the polar ice in search of the north-west passage. But now the effort was renewed with a far nobler rmrpose than that by which the early explorers were animated. The English, who had undertaken this mission as a sort of national duty, no longer aimed at collecting auriferous shingle, or even at discovering some shorter trade route between west Europe and China. Their object was rather to complete the geographic survey of the northern hemisphere, to observe all the phenomena of polar life, to study the populations scattered over those snowy or storm-tossed regions — in general, to increase the sum of human knowledge. For the purposes of this great undertaking, needing all the highest qualities of courage, steadfastness, and devotion, appeal could be made only to the best wherever to be found. Nevertheless the work was begun by an act of injustice, the Government rejecting Scoresby because he had the misfortune not to belong to the Royal Navy, although his previous career, as well as public opinion, pointed to him as the Arctic explorer in a pre-eminent sense. But despite this mistake the history of the " North-West " navigations abun- dantly attests the rare skill and daring of the men employed in these missions, both as seafarers and scientific explorers. In volunteering to take part in such enterprises they resigned themselves beforehand either to the slow corruption of scurvy, or to a living tomb in some Arctic snowstorm, or else to being crushed between two blocks of ice. In any case they could not hope to escape passing many dreary winters far from their homes, without the possibility of communi- cating with their friends, constantly exposed to a lingering death by cold and hunger m m :.SPJ»: fcg ■S^*-- 1 \f ^3 $/ THE NORTH- WEST PASSAGE. 25 in some ice-pent prison under the impenetrable gloom of an interminable Arctic nigbt. Yet these men were found iu thousands, eager to share in the numerous polar expeditions that now followed in rapid succession, and the records of those expeditions show that with scarcely an exception those dauntless seafarers stood loyally to their post amid the most formidable trials. In the history of humanity, so full of dark deeds of shame and outrage, the record of the British explorations in the polar regions of the New World is probably the brightest picture yet un- folded of human nature. The nineteenth century may proudly bequeath this example of sustained heroism to future ages. In 1818 John Boss resumed the work of research at Lancaster Sound, at the very spot where it had been abandoned by Baffin two hundred years before. But, like Baffin, he also concluded that this channel, as well as all the other inlets in the same waters, was an inland basin enclosed by mountains. To his companion, Parry, fell the honour next year of piercing the zone of clouds and fog which Boss had mistaken for a rocky barrier. He thus penetrated into Barrow Strait between two of the large islands which have since been named the Parry Archi- pelago. He even traversed more than half the distance separating the outlets of the Frozen Ocean ; but, being blocked by ice south of Melville Island, he was compelled to winter for nine months in Melville Sound, returning to England the next year after vainly casting about for an open passage to the west, and without meeting the explorers, Franklin, Hood, and Bichardson, who had been sent to his aid overland round the shores of the Arctic Ocean. In 1821 Parry renewed the attempt by another route, that of the channels opening to the north of Hudson Bay. Thanks to the reports of the Eskimo, illustrated by a chart prepared by a woman of the local tribe, he was able to utilise a long winter's captivity in surveying by land the narrow Fury and Hecla Strait, which communicates with the labyrinth of winding waters in the Polar Archi- pelago. Lastly, in another expedition, he penetrated into the Begent Inlet, a southern branch of Lancaster Sound, thus preparing the way for his old leader, John Boss, who spent no less than four winters in these frozen seas. Boss escaped through Lancaster Sound in two boats, made of a spar from one of Parry's vessels. But, persisting in the idea that the North-West Passage had no existence, he ventured to assert that the peninsula of Boothia Felix connected America with the North Pole. He even declared before a Committoe of Inquiry that he had determined a difference of " thirteen feet " between the level of the eastern and western seas, a difference which he had foreseen from the rotatory movement of the earth. The honour of the expedition fell chiefly to the commander's nephew, James Clark Boss, who discovered, on the west side of the Boothia Felix Peninsula, the spot where, on July 2nd, 1831, the magnetic needle pointed almost vertically to the ground, thus indicating the magnetic pole as at that date. After two land journeys across the solitudes of New Britain and along the Arctic shores Franklin was, in his turn, entrusted with a marine expedition, sailing in 1845 for the Polar Archipelago. He failed, however, to return at the expected time, two years later, and the British public, alarmed for the safety of VOL. xv. d 2G NOETH AMERICA. this universally esteemed navigator, compelled the Government to despatch other expeditions by land and sea to his rescue. The American, Grinnell, also equipped two vessels for the same purpose, and in ten years as many as thirty-five ships, manned by over one thousand hands, scoured all the waters of the Archipelago, studying its fjords and channels, erecting signals on the headlands, depositing " caches " of supplies in the most favourable places, promising rewards to the Eskimo for the least scrap of information. The very birds, wolves, and foxes were captured and again let loose, charged with messages for those who might happen to ensnare or shoot them. In August, 18-50, no less than ten research vessels were assembled off Beachy Island, at the entrance of Wellington Strait, a larger fleet than ever before or since appeared in those waters. The remains of the last camping -ground of the Franklin expedition were at length discovered not far from the Great Fish Lake on the mainland, and in 1859 MacClintock found a written document describing the series of misfortunes that had overtaken the ships and their crews. Of the one hundred and fifty-eight men all had perished of disease and hardship. During this period of research the problem of the North-West Passage had been solved. In 1850 MacClure, penetrating through Bering Strait into the Frozen Ocean, coasted the American seaboard beyond Icy Cape, discovered by Cook. Then rounding Barrow Point, which had arrested Beechey in 1826, he passed from headland to headland all the way to Banks' Strait, where Parry had been icebound during his first expedition. Here MacClure was himself detained for two winters ; but he had fortunately crossed the frozen strait during the spring, and had thus succeeded in bearing his dispatches to a station on Melville Island, where Kellett, arriving from the eastern channels, was blocked in his turn. Communications were in this way established between the two oceans, and when MacClure was about to send half his crew southwards over the mainland, Kellett's men hastened to revive the failing spirits of the party, already brought to death's door by famine and despair. The North-West Passage had therefore been found by a " Magellan of the North," as Franz Schrader wrote in 1874 ; it had been proved possible to pass from sea to sea, but by exposure to such dangers that since the time of MacClure, Kellett and Collison, no other navigator has attempted to follow this route. Thus was closed in 1853 this chapter in the history of geogra- phical discovery, though doubtless the detailed exploration of the whole region will again be resumed according as stations and places of refuge spring up along the Arctic seaboard. Expeditions towards the North Pole. With the efforts made to force a way through the icy channels of the Polar Archipelago was naturally associated a desire to approach, or even reach, the North Pole itself. During previous centuries mariners had already pointed in that direction through openings in the pack-ice, and, according to one legend, certain Dutch sailors had even reached the goal in 1670. In any case the names are recorded of several persons, whalers for the most part, who passed beyond the EXPEDITIONS TO THE NORTH POLE. 27 80th parallel in the Xorth Atlantic. Thus Hudson would appear to have reached 82 3 before he was arrested by the icy barrier ; in 1775 Phipps sailed beyond Spitzbergen and the " Seven Islands " ; Scoresby pushed forward in 1806 at least some twelve miles higher than 81", and this explorer frequently expressed the opinion* that he might easily reach the Pole by sledging, the ice by which he was arrested being perfectly continuous and so level that if swept of its snows it might be crossed by stage-coaches. Supporting himself on the authority of these pioneers Parry induced the British Admiralty to entertain his project of reaching the Pole across the pack-ice. In Fig. 7. — The Xorth-West Passage. Scale 1 : 15,000,000. 75' —^.iiet /so* ~— — -:• "- — _ ■> *~, — o ; / / J?^, Y\ ,73 l^fe ISO* Meridian or o r ee r 85" 300 Miles. this way he got as far as 8*2° 4-5', the highest record for the following half century, and so far the absolute highest in that region of the Xorth Atlantic. During the latter part of the expedition no progress was made by the efforts of the men to drag their boats over the ice, for although they appeared to advance northwards, the ice itself drifted southwards with the current. Hence they had to give up the attempt and to allow themselves to drift with the ice back to the starting- point. + Hitherto the highest latitude has been gained not, as was hoped, by the open sea forming the northern prolongation of the Atlantic, but by the west side of * Scoresby, Account of the Arctic Regions. t W. E. Parrv, Narrative of an Attempt to reach the North Pole. D 2 28 • NORTH AMERICA. Greenland through the narrow ice-obstructed channels of the Polar Archipelago. Following up the explorations of the English navigators, Penny and Inglefield, Kane, the American, was the first to try this route in 1858. North of Baffin and Melville Bays he penetrated into Smith Sound, where he had to force a passage across the hummock to reach other basins by which this marine channel is con- tinued in the direction of the north and north-east. Few polar explorers encountered more tremendous difficulties, rugged icefields, stormy waters, disease, extreme cold, the mercury remaining frozen for four months together. Yet on his return from this terrible voyage Kane ventured to report north of the strait an easily navigable channel, completely free of ice, and beyond it the open Polar Sea. Such a report could not fail to stimulate fresh efforts in the same direction. Hayes, who had accompanied Kane on this memorable expedition, again plunged in 1860 into the chain of straits and basins which separate Greenland from the Polar Archipelago. After surmounting in sledges the ice piled up north of Smith Sound he approached some distance nearer to the Pole ; but he no longer found Kenned}' Channel free of ice, as it had been during the previous voyage. Nevertheless, the ice lying farther to the north was less compact and weaker than elsewhere, and Hayes returned from his expedition still a firm believer in the hypothesis of a "free Polar sea." Hall, who followed him in 1871, and who died not far from his highest record (82° 16'), visited these supposed open waters, but found that precisely here the passage was most contracted, forming the narrow and mostly ice-obstructed Robeson Channel. On the return voyage his vessel, the Polaris, was even crushed between the floes ; but it had already been half abandoned, and it was on this occasion that nineteen persons, including an Eskimo infant two months old, drifted on some floating ice southwards to a point where they sighted a steamer near the Labrador coast. The castaways, who were furnished with some provisions and a boat, traversed over 2,000 miles during the space of six months, nearly half of which was passed in the gloom of the Polar Sea. Three years previously the crew of the German ship, the Sanaa, had met with a similar adventure on the east coast of Greenland, along which they had drifted for eight months southwards to the station of Fredricksdal, near Cape Fare- well. The annals of Polar navigation record numerous occurrences of a like kind, such as that of MacClintock, who, in 1857, was carried in 242 days a distance of 1,300 miles in a retrogade direction. About the same time a Greenlander and his wife, borne on a block of ice across the strait, were landed without accident near Cape Mercy on Baffin Land.* The American explorers, Kane, Hayes, and Hall were followed in 1875 by tho English expedition under Nares, which also took the Smith Sound route, and which at last succeeded in penetrating through Robeson Channel into the bound- less sea flowing north of Greenland and Grinnell Land. But so far from being- " free," as reported by the previous navigators, this sea appeared to be covered with huge masses of ice 25 to 30 yards thick, alternately fissured hy the billows * Kumlein, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. xxiii., 1882. EXPEDITIONS TO THE NORTH POLE. 29 and again bound together by the frost, and strewn with blocks upraised by- pressure and the shifting of the centre of gravity. A sledge journey of some sixty miles northwards showed the sea everywhere bound by these icy fetters, while away to the north nothing was visible except interminable ice or snowfields. Accordingly, the " Free Sea " was renamed the " Paleocrystic," that is, " The Fig. 8. — Routes of Arctic Navigators. Scale 1 : 30,000,000. "T ;5 ; _ ''Viest'oT ureenwich- Parry, 1S21. Eansa, 1S6J-70. Pack ice of the Polaris, 1872-3. . 600 Miles. Sea of Permanent Ice." It was here that Markham, one of Kares' officers, reached 83° 20' 26" north latitude, the highest Litherto recorded by any explorer. But in 1882, this record was beaten by the Americans, Lockwood and Brainard, who pushed forward to 83" 24', or about 430 miles in a straight line from the Xorth Pole. From this point they distinctly descried Cape "Washington, the 30 NOBTH AMEKIUA. northernmost land yet discovered on the globe. It lies to the north of Greenland, with which it is probably connected by intermediate ice-bound fjords. Next followed Greely's disastrous expedition, in which two-thirds of the men perished of hunger on the pack-ice about Cape Sabine, in Smith Sound. This was the last of the great polar expeditions undertaken in our days. Since then the exploration of the American Arctic waters has been left to the Scotch and other whalers, who never venture within the narrow straits. But the work of systematic research will certainly be continued until the Arctic regions are thoroughly known to geographers. Doubtless the quest of the precise point round which are described the circles of latitude would seem a puerile undertaking did it not also involve the study of the surrounding lands and islands, the outlines of Fig. 9. — Paleocrystic Sea. Scale 1 : 7,000,000. m West or breenwich , 1,200 Miles. seas and inlets, the tides and currents, the movements of the atmosphere, and other phenomena of terrestrial life. On the other hand, this work itself will be more and more facilitated with the establishment of an ever- increasing number of points of observation and victualling stations in the higher latitudes, and according as the physical conditions and resources of the neighbouring regions become more fully known. The circumpolar observatories, whose original plan is mainly due to the Arctic explorer, Weyprecht, have already been partly founded at the cost of the European nations and the United States, and Greely's voyage was undertaken for the purpose of establishing one in Lady Franklin Bay, on the very margin of the Paleocrystic Sea. It should also be remembered that all the vast resources of modern industry have not yet been placed at the service of northern explorers, and that it still remains to be seen what may be accomplished ARCTIC EXPLORATION. 31 by aerial navigation. About a hundred and fifty expeditions have been equipped for the Arctic waters since the discovery of America, while thousands of whalers have penetrated into the same regions. Other voyages must follow, and one at least is already provided for through the munificence of Gustave Lambert. At present, to complete the geographical outlines of the Xew "World, nothing remains except a survey of the North Greenland seaboard between the waters Fig. 10. — ClHCCMPOLAK OBSERVATORIES. Scale 1 : 80,000,000. 1,500 Miles visited by Lockwood and the extreme points of the east coast. This space of about three hundred miles in a straight line remains, with a few gaps of less importance in the Polar Archipelago, the only blank that cartographers have still to fill up. Apart from Greenland itself, the interior of both American continents is already known in all their main features. The gradual settlement of the country by civilised white or half-caste populations has been necessarily followed, 82 NORTH AMERICA. if not by the scientific, at least by the topographic exploration of the various lands. Memorable expeditions have also distinguished the periods when the different regions successively entered the sphere of human culture. Progress of Discovery in the Northern Continent. In the Northern Continent, the first visited by Europeans, the chief share in the work of discovery fell to the French travellers, thanks to the dominant position given to them by the colonies situated about the radiating point of the great watercourses, the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, and the tributaries of Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean. Champlain, the true founder of the Canadian colony and first settler of Quebec in 1608, penetrated westwards to Lake Nipissing, and even navigated an inlet of Lake Huron, which forms part of that " sea of sweet waters " already figuring on the maps. The Catholic missionaries, full of zeal for the " conquest of souls," and the political constitution of states directly subjected to their power, or at least their influence, soon occupied the most advanced stations in the interior of the country, and through their "coureurs des bois" and Indian converts acquired a sufficient knowledge of the land to secure for themselves a considerable share of its trade.* They themselves explored the sur- rounding regions in all directions, and in a few years penetrated to the very heart of the continent. Guided by members of the allied tribes whose manner of life, toils, and hardships they gladly shared, these intrepid pioneers navigated all the rivers tributary to the St. Lawrence, all the lakes flooding the depressions of the Lawrentian rocks. In 1G40, Brebent beheld the tremendous falls of the Niagara Biver, and traversed Lake Erie. In 1660, Mesnard, ascending the Outaouais Biver, reached the shores of Lake Huron, crossed the Sault St. Mary at the issue of Lake Superior, and coasted the southern shores of that lake, the largest freshwater basin on the globe. Allouez, another missionary, pushed forward to the " Fond du Lac " at the western extremity of Lake Superior, and discovered the river St. Louis, main upper branch of the whole fluvial system of the St. Lawrence. He also surveyed the shores of Lake Michigan, and penetrated westwards to the territory of the Illinois Indians, later traversed in its entire length by Jolliet and Marquette. By following the course of the Mescousin, the present Wis- consin, these travellers reached the Mississippi in 1675, although still ignorant of its course and outflow, despite Fernando de Soto's expedition made over one hundred and thirty years previously. They also determined the confluence first of the Missouri and then of the Ohio, magnificent streams which at that time bore different names. Bui on approaching the river Akamsa (Arkansas), they no longer doubted that the Mississippi flowed to the Gulf of Mexico, and did not venture to proceed farther for fear of being arrested by the Spaniards as foreign explorers. However, the Spaniards themselves advancing into the interior of the " Floridas " in quest of gold, had penetrated to the point visited by * Francis Parkman : The Jesuits in North America. FRENCH DISCOVERIES IN NORTH AMERICA. 33 Marquette, and had thence drifted with the stream down to the Gulf of Mexico. The Jesuit missionaries thus took the largest share in the discovery of the North American fluvial hasins. But they saw with reluctance members of other religious orders, private traders, and even military leaders venturing to explore a region which they regarded as their exclusive domain, and the history of the seventeenth century in Canada is full of their bickerings with other missionaries and travellers. Thus by all manner of Court intrigues and obstacles of every kind they endeavoured to exclude Cavelier de la Salle from the routes leading to the Mississippi. Nevertheless, the Norman traveller, a man of remarkable intelligence, firmness, valour, ready wit, and unflagging perseverance, achieved his purpose in the end. After three expeditions to the regions lying beyond the lakes, after adventures of all kinds, wars, alliances, shipwrecks, assaults, retreats, and a serious malady caused by poisoning, he at last embarked in the spring of 1682 on the " Father of Waters," exploring it to the delta in the course of fifty days' navigation. Two years later he returned from France with a flotilla to ascend the river as viceroy of Louisiana ; but the command of the vessels had been given to a personal enemy, who betrayed Cavelier, landing him almost without supplies on the present coast of Texas, and himself continuing the exploration of the Mississippi mouths. But the indomitable De la Salle, still undertaking to continue his surveys by land, was assassinated by one of his officers a few days after setting out for the great river.* The vast regions stretching west of the Mississippi towards the Rocky Moun- tains and lacustrine and fluvial plateaux draining to the Frozen Ocean, were brought within the domain of geographv mainly through those " coureurs des bois," mostly independent traders, against whom the Canadian authorities issue the severest edicts. But they had a boundless world before them, and when hard pressed on the frontier of the settlements they could retire to the hunting grounds of the red- skins. "With these they entered into the closest relations, marrying their daugh- ters, but retaining the French language and preserving their relations with the peltry dealers. From sea to sea they opened up the routes afterwards followed by the European explorers. When the great traveller De la Verandrye, in 1731, crossed the " Hauteur des Terres " north-west of Lake Superior and entered the region draining to the Arctic Ocean, he was escorted by th^se half-castes, who pointed out the watersheds of lakes and rivers, the camping-grounds, the forests abounding in game. He surveyed the shores of Lake Winnipeg, the banks of the Red River, of the Assiniboine, the Saskatchewan, the upper Missouri, and Yellowstone, and crowned these achievements by scaling the Rocky Mountains, returning to the civilised world after fourteen years of wanderings and hunting expeditions. During the present century these " voyageurs," whites or half-breeds, have still been the guides in most of the supplementary excursions undertaken to connect the various itineraries on the eastern and Pacific slopes. Even during' these land expeditions the delusions of the North-west Passage continued to fire * Fr. Parkman : The Discovery of the G-real West. 34 NORTH AMERICA. the imagination of many Canadian traders. In the absence of an open sea or of a chain of straits and channels between the Atlantic and Pacific, hopes were enter- tained of discovering navigable lakes and rivers forming a commercial highway across the continent. Nearly all the charts of the eighteenth century represent the American Arctic regions as intersected by a labyrinth of large rivers and inland seas forming a continuous waterway between the two oceans. So late as 1789 Meares endeavoured to prove the existence of a north-west passage between Hudson Bay and Bering Strait through the AVinnipeg, Athabasca and Slave lakes, and by a river where occur the largest falls in the known world. Progress of Discovery in the Southern Continent. In South America the exploration of the interior, which followed the conquest of the outer plateaux and coastlands, was prosecuted, as in the north, by traders and missionaries. But on the eastern slopes of the equatorial Andes the sudden con- trast of climate and soil between the uplands and plains, the impenetrable forests, the great watercourses, insalubrious marshlands and justly hostile populations long retarded the progress of research in the lower regions occupying the very heart of the South American continent. After Orellana's memorable journey in 1540 down the Amazons two centuries elapsed before any attempt was made by other explorers to connect their itineraries with his. In the temperate zone, where obstacles of all kinds were much less formidable travellers soon penetrated far into the interior. The " Paulistas," that is, the Brazilians of the province of St. Paul, commonly called mamelucos, made numerous excursions westwards to the Parana basin either for trading purposes, or more frequently to procure slaves. The Jesuits also, protectors of the natives against the Paulistas, but with a view to their own aggrandisement, established themselves in the midst of the docile Guarani populations of Paraguay, here founding a purely theocratic state, where the whole social system was regulated to the sound of the church bells with public prayers and religious ceremonies. The territory of these missions was the chief scene of the researches of the Spanish naturalist, Felix de Azara at the close of the last century. About the same time Alexander von Hum- boldt and Amedee de Bonpland obtained from the Spanish Government the removal of the interdict imposed on all foreigners visiting this vast domain. They were thus enabled during the years 1799 — 1804 to accomplish that famous explo- ration in the equinoctial regions, which was so to say a new discovery of the Columbian world, and which gave such a potent impulse to the spirit of research and the study of nature. After them came Auguste de Saint-Hilaire, Spix and Martius, d'Orbigny, Darwin, de Castelnau and de Saint-Cricq, Markham, Orton, Bates, Muster, Reiss and Stiibel, Crevaux, Thouar, Chafianjon and others in hundreds, who traversed the land in all directions, visited the sources of the streams and determined the exact disposition of (he mountain ranges. Compared to the work already accomplished little now remains to be done in PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY IX SOUTH AMERICA. 35 order completely to determine the relief of both Continents in their more salient features. The mountains and rivers of Labrador, those of the Arctic seaboard and the regions between the Mackenzie basin and Sitka Bay still present a character of great vagueness, which, however, will gradually be removed with each successive exploring expedition. In Central America, despite the relatively small extent of the space confined between the two oceans, some districts, notably the Mosquito Coast and the Talamanca territory in Costa Rica, still remain unsurveyed. Farther south the regions about the headwaters of the Orenoco and Amazons, many parts of Gran Chaco, the interior of Guiana and towards the extremity of the continent some of the eastern slopes of the Patagonian Andes offer several tracts intersected Fig. 11. — American Isthmuses. Scale 1 : 55,000,000. Depths. '1 fa) 1KI Fathoms l^j to 2,000 Fathoms. 2,0t>0 Fnthoms and upwards. , 1,200 Miles. by but few itineraries. But on the other hand many of the settled regions have already been geodetically surveyed, while here and there the New World presents specimens of topographical work fully comparable to that of Western Europe. Physical Features of the Twin Continents. The New World contrasts with the Old in the simplicity of its general form and the disposition of its various parts. The binary arrangement of the continental group is far more precise than in the four eastern continents, Europe and Africa, Asia and Australia, which are also disposed in twos from north to south, but with great irregularity in their respective contours and dimensions. Considered in its relation to all the dry land of the globe, America constitutes the eastern 36 NORTH AMERICA. and far more regular section of the semi-circle sweeping round the Pacific basin. Compared with it the western section, comprising China, India and Africa, appears disjointed and broken, and is moreover decomposed into the chain of lands running from Indo-China in the dh'ection of Australia. The axis of the American division also coincides with its main ranges all the way from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, whereas the irregularity of outlines in the Old World makes it almost impossible to recognise its main axis, which in fact is twofold, running north-east and south- west for the water parting, east and west for the zone of culture and the march of civilisation. Both being of triangular form and connected together by a narrow isthmus the two divisions of the New World seem at first sight to present a common limit of a very definite character. Nevertheless the passage from one to the other is so gradual and effected by so many transitions that it is impossible anywhere to say : Here ends North, here begins South America. As with the divisions of the Old World, it is extremely difficult to trace the natural frontier between the two sec- tions, so that any parting line that may bo chosen must be in a great measure purely conventional. From the geological stand-point, however, the isthmus of Tehuantepec might be taken as a natural parting line between the two Americas. At this point the last slopes of the Anahuac plateau merge in the plains, while no prominence is yet visible to indicate the rampart of the Guatemaltec highlands. East of this limit the land develops a sort of fork, one branch of which, Yucatan, is con- tinued seawards by the long island of Cuba and the other Antilles, while the second branch constitutes Central America properly so called, with its successive rugosities and flooded depressions. But of all the dividing lines the best defined is that where the isthmus of Darien is rooted in the vast mass of the southern continent west of the Atrato delta. Here the heights of the isthmus fall gradually without merging in the Andine system, both slopes communicating through a low sill, where the project was at one time entertained of excavating an interoceanic canal. If the structure of the two continents be studied, not as at present limited by the encircling oceans, but also in their submerged parts, North America will be found to project south- eastwards two nearly parallel sinuous tongues of land connecting it with the southern continent. These two connecting links are Central America and the West Indies, which are themselves transversely united by the island of Cuba, while profound marine abysses are revealed in the two inland seas which are enclosed on all sides by continents, islands, or peninsulas. Contrasts and Analogies between North and South. A striking analogy of outline is presented by the two Americas, though not such as was conjectured by the navigators of the sixteenth century, who sought in the extreme north a strait corresponding to that of Magellan in the extreme south. Considered in their general structure both continents affect a triangular form ANALOGIES BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA. 37 disposed in the same direction, their three sides respectively nearly parallel, and both connected by two parallel ridges — the isthmus, properly so called, of Central America and the chain of the Antilles. The northern is about one-eighth larger than the southern triangle ; but its north-eastern section, comprising the Labrador peninsula, and nearly one-half of the Canadian Dominion, is severed from the body of the continent by a regular chain of lakes running for nearly 2,500 miles like a partly obliterated branch of the sea between Lake Ontario and the Great Bear Lake. Vast peninsular regions are thus cut off from the trunk of the northern continent, leaving a compact mass which presents a surprising resemblance to the southern division. But, as at present constituted, of the two continents the northern is the less regular, the more diversified with gulfs, inlets, and peninsulas. In this respect it offers the same contrast to South America that Europe does to the monotonous African continent. It develops a coastline of some 26,000 miles, or about 0,000 more than the southern division. Nevertheless South America, less broad though nearly as long as Africa, offers a greater elegance of contours, while, thanks to its general structure and fluvial systems, its central parts are far more accessible from the sea. Like the Xorth it enjoys the immense advantage of vast navigable wal ercourses, such as the Amazons, Orenoco, Parana, Uruguay, Magdalena, whereas the African rivers, mostly less copious, are also obstructed by cataracts at short distances above their estuaries. A remarkable degree of svmmetry has been observed between these two continental regions, which form the southern termina- tions of the great semicircle of lands sweeping round the oceanic basin of the Indian and Pacific waters. The lofty Cordilleras of South America are disposed along the west side, whereas in Africa the mountain ranges and highlands occur chiefly in the east. The two isthmuses of Panama and Suez connecting them with the northern continents offer the same symmetrical arrangement ; the chief South American and African rivers also flow to the Atlantic from opposite quarters, while the two protuberances formed by North Brazil and Senegambia confront each other on either side of the ocean. The two triangular masses of America resemble each other not only in their outlines, but also to a great extent in their general relief, the disposition of their plateaux, mountain systems, plains, and rivers. Thus the lofty ranges of the Eocky Mountains and the Andes both run parallel with the western seaboard, both are decomposed in several places, breaking into two or three parallel or divergent ridges encircling elevated plateaux ; both are pierced by volcanic apertures either quiescent or still active, while their sedimentary rocks are covered with vast expanses of lavas, tufas, or scorice. In each division the triangular form is deter- mined by the main axis of the west and a secondary orographic system occupying a part of the east side in the Appalachian range in the north, the Terra de Mar and Brazilian chains in the south. In both cases the eastern systems run parallel with the coast, but are far less elevated than the western, from which they are separated by vast fluvial basins. Hence the very centre of both continents, where we should expect to find the loftiest uplands, is occupied by depressions, in which are 38 NORTH AMERICA. gathered the continental waters, and these waters flow for the most part either to the Atlantic or to the lateral seas. Thus it happens that the headstreams of the Mississippi are separated by no prominent divides from those of the St. Lawrence and Eed River of the North, and the same absence of relief is presented in the South by the Orenoco, Amazons, and Parana systems. The lacustrine region occupying the central part of North America was at one time undoubtedly far more extensive than at present. The Michigan peninsula was itself a large island, and the outflow oscillated from epoch to epoch between the Hudson, Mississippi, and St. Lawrence valleys. Numerous species of the Canadian lacustrine fauna present a pelagic character, and several lakes, such as Champlain and the Six Nations in New York State, present all the appearance of ancient fjords gradually cut off from the sea.* Some of the North American rivers also seem to have formerly been the deep channels of glaciers grinding their way slowly seawards. Such is the Saguenay, with its stupendous gorges scooped out to depths of 600 or 700 feet. Such is the St. Lawrence itself, which now gives access to the largest vessels for over 600 miles into the interior of the continent. It should also be noticed that those parts of North America which have already shaken off their icy fetters are still in the lacustrine period that followed the glacial epoch. The lakes themselves have considerably diminished in size, but in several places their eccentric labyrinthine windings still occupy the greater part of the land. The streams have not yet regulated their course, as have those of the temperate zone in both hemispheres, but, like the Scandinavian and Finland rivers, still constitute irregular chains of lakes, connected together by a con- tinuous series of rapids, falls, cataracts, " cauldrons," in every stage of develop- ment. In this respect Canada is the most remarkable region in the whole world. Even its great watercourses, still young in a geological sense, are interrupted by obstacles of a most formidable character, and some of these have been the scene of the most memorable conflicts between rival populations. Thus the possession of the Niagara and Ottawa rivers has been contended for to the bitter end, while colonisation was arrested for long years by the Saut du Carillon and other fluvial rapids held by the Iroquois confederacy. Geology of the New "World. Before the geology of America was properly understood the opinion was often expressed that the " New " World was in its formation also more recent than the Old. Now we know on the contrary that in its present form North America is apparently the oldest of all the continental masses. Towards the close of the chalk age it had already assumed very nearly the same outlines that it now presents.f All the north-eastern parts east of the great lacustrine chain, together with the polar archipelagoes, consist of crystalline formations, or else of azoic or paleozoic sedi- * Peschel, Ullrich. f Em. de Margerie, Annuairc Ocohgique, 1888. GEOLOGY OF AMERICA. 39 inentary rocks of extreme antiquity. The outer escarpment of the mountains skirting Labrador and stretching away to the north and north-west is composed mainly of gneiss and other archaic rocks, which fall abruptly seawards, while the opposite slojie inclines gently towards the interior. Westwards extends a vast plateau of pre- Silurian formation to which, from its bulging form, Suess has given the name of the " Canadian buckler." By erosion it has been almost entirely denuded of its upper paleozoic strata, and the whole of Hudson Bay has been excavated to a slight depth on the surface of its eastern section. No other regions occur in the New "World whose form and relief have been Fig. 12. — Ckntbal Waterpartixg of North America. Scale 1 : 2,000,000. . 180 Miles. maintained for such vast spaces throughout the series of geological ages. Compared with the Canadian plateau the oldest parts of South America are of recent origin. Great charges have undoubtedly taken place along the outer borders of the con- tinental mass, and notably in the isthmuses and chains of islands connecting the two continents. Although it is no longer possible to study directly the surface of the now submerged lands, their primitive continuity is, in many places, revealed by the natural history of the insular groups. Thus the distribution of the various species of mollusks throughout the West Indies makes it evident that Central America and Mexico were formerly connected with the Bahamas through the large 40 NORTH AMERICA. islands of Cuba and Haiti. On the other hand the southern insular chains at one time belonged partly to the mainland of Venezuela, partly to that of Guiana.* In the same way the diversity of the faunas in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean shows that for long ages the two divisions of the New World have formed continuous land. Of 1,500 species of marine shells belonging to the Caribbean waters, less than 50 reappear on the other side of the narrow isthmus of Panama, where, according to Adams, the classified mollusks already number 1,350 species. From this it is inferred that at least since the close of the miocene epoch there has been no communication between the two oceans, even if the separating line does not date back to far more remote ages. Volcanic Systems. Viewed as a whole the New World presents a remarkable contrast between its western and eastern seaboards, the former bristling with igneous cones, the latter long quiescent (except in the Antilles) and slowly eroded by the sea. Neverthe- less, the burning mountains are irregularly distributed along the west coast, and the chain is in many places broken by wide gaps. A first curvilinear range, fully as symmetrical as that of the Ku riles and Kamchatka on the Asiatic side, sweeps through the Aleutian archipelago, and is continued by other cones on the Alaskan mainland. Then follow southwards along the west coast huge mountains of lava still emitting vapours, although their cirques and craters are already filled with glaciers. Such, for instance, is Mount Wrangel, north-west of Mount St. Elias. North of the Columbia river rises a third volcanic group not yet entirely at rest, but almost extinct when compared with the formidable craters which formerly discharged mighty lava streams in these regions. South of British Columbia and along the shores of California the few still smoking cones are insignificant in comparison with the great volcanic fissure sur- mounted by active craters which traverses Mexico from ocean to ocean. The region of isthmuses from Guatemala to Costa Rica is also intersected by an igneous chain indicating a subterranean zone in a state of j^ermanent combustion. South America abounds even more than the north in centres of plutonic action, presenting in Columbia, the Bolivian plateau, and Chili three chief regions of fiery eruptions and underground disturbances. Lastly, in some of the lesser Antilles a few active cones rise between the Atlantic Ocean and the inner basin of the Caribbean Sea. Judging from the frequence and violence of the explosions the volcanoes of the isthmian region would appear to correspond with those of the Malay Archi- pelago on the other side of the globe. The distance between these two centres of disturbance comprises exactly one-half of the terrestrial circumference, and the two igneous chains of Costa Rica and Java are about equidistant from the equi- noctial line, the former to the north, the latter to the south of that line. The planet would thus seem to have two fiery poles, each coinciding with a region of transi- tion between two continental masses. * Belt, A Naturalist in Nicaragua. o < o Q m a O LIBR CONTRASTS OF NOKTH AXD SOUTH AMERICA. 41 Disposition- of the Zones of Temperature. As in the Old World, in the New also, the greater part of the dry land lies in the northern hemisphere, as if it had been drawn northwards by some attractive force emanating from the Arctic Pole. The equator passes far to the south of the connecting islands and isthmuses just above the Amazons river, which has often been designated as the "movable equator." To the north is thus left nearly eleven, to the south less than six million square miles. The consequence is that the temperate zone, the most favourable for the development of human culture, occupies in North America the broader part of the land, while in the south it is confined to the relatively narrower spaces tapering southwards to Cape Horn. But in other respects the land is less favourably distributed in the north than in the south. The vast extent of the Arctic regions renders a great part of North America almost uninhabitable, whereas the narrow southern extremity is the only inhospitable tract in South America. Formerly the two limits of European coloni- sation were the banks of the St. Lawrence in the north aud those of the Plate river in the south. At present the latter limit has been left far behind, whereas the " Hauteur des Terres " between the St. Lawrence and Labrador has not yet been crossed. Both extremities of the New World are carved into fjords, but in the Austral division these formations occur only to the south of Chili, while in North America they begin on the west side with the St. Juan de Fuca Strait, and on the east with the St. Lawrence estuary. The tropical zone intermediate between the two temperate zones includes but a small part of North America properly so-called, but it comprises all Central America, the West Indies, and over one-half of the southern continent. This area of excessive heats and, in the wet regions, of rank vegetation, is naturally far less favourable to human progress than the lands enjoying a more temperate climate. Nevertheless, the torrid regions of the New World are indebted mainly to the neighbourhood of the sea for a special climate milder and more equable than that of the African and Asiatic countries lying under the same latitude. Thus the islands and isthmuses of the Caribbean Sea are distinguished by an essentially maritime temperature. A considerable section of equatorial America consists also of uplands, plateaux, and highlands, where again the great elevations with their cooler atmosphere compensate for the normal climatic conditions on the lowland plains. Thanks to their altitude many regions of the tropical zone are thus brought within the temperate sphere. Such, for instance, is the Mexican tableland, whose normal temperature at sea-level would be as high as 82° or 83° Fahr. But the moist and hot lower regions remain everywhere unfavourable to human advancement. Thus the magnificent Amazons river, the most copious on the globe, flows for the most part, through solitudes, although the plains comprised within its basin might amply suffice for the sustenance of all the inhabitants of the planet. VOL. xv. 42 NOKTH AMERICA. Climate — Marine Currents. Compared with that of the Old "World, and especially of Europe, the American climate is characterised chiefly by its lower mean temperature. Under corresponding latitudes it is colder, at least in the northern hemisphere, the difference in certain places being as much as fourteen degrees. While the thermal equator of Africa and Arabia exceeds 86° or 88° Fabr, it falls below 80° in the hottest parts of the Fig. 13. — ISOTHERMALS OF NoHTH AMERICA. Scale 1 : 80.000,000. 1,200 Miles. New World. But this discrepancy between both sides of the Atlantic docs not prevail uniformly throughout the year, and, in fact, is far less perceptible in summer than in winter. In the month of July the heat is as intense in the United States as under the same latitudes east of the Atlantic, but in January the glass falls as low on the banks of the Mississippi as on the Norwegian seaboard. Snow lies for months together on the ground at St. Louis and Washington under the same parallel as Lisbon, Messina, and Smyrna, places where snow is never seen CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 43 except on the tops of the neighbouring heights. To meet the winter climate of New York on the European seaboard the observer must ascend some twenty degrees nearer to the North Pole. This remarkable contrast is due to atmospheric and marine influences, which have now been carefully studied. In West Europe the prevailing winds blow from the south-west, that is, from the tropical regions of America, and the marine currents set in the same direction. From the Caribbean Sea and equatorial waters they flow north-eastwards without appreciably affecting the climate of North America ; they act only on the West European seaboard as far as Scandinavia and even Spitz- bergen, while the coast of North America is washed by a cold current from the polar regions. Nevertheless, the course of these marine streams is far from being constant, nor can their progress be calculated, as Maury supposed, like that of a projectile discharged from the cannon's mouth. They are often displaced, re- tarded, or accelerated, are complicated by backwaters or counter-currents, undergo the thousand influences of climate, and in their turn react on the alternation of the seasons. The hydrographic researches conducted especially under the direction of the United States Bureau of Navigation have shown that even the Gulf Stream, one of the chief factors in determining the climate of West Europe, is far from being so uniform, at least on the surface, as was at one time supposed. In many places under the shifting surface currents, the deeper waters have been observed to move along in a regular channel. Numerous spars and even abandoned vessels describe sinuous tracks, at times even returning to their first course under the influence of counter-currents. Hulks have thus drifted from Bermuda towards Florida in the opposite direction to the main stream, which sets from America towards Europe. About the end of 1887, an accident revealed the general direction of the oceanic current west of Long Island at that time, when the whole body of water was found to be moving almost due west and east under the latitudes of New York, the Azores, and Lisbon. A gigantic raft, consisting of 27,000 trimks of trees, 200 yards long, and weighing 11,000 tons, was broken up and sent adrift during a fierce gale, and the observations taken showed that over 500 of the fragments had spread out in the form of a fan in the direction of the Azores. In 225 days the flotsam had drifted some 3,500 miles, spreading north and south, under the meridian of Flores, about eleven degrees of latitude between the 34th and 45th parallels. Other currents skirting the American seaboard produce effects analogous to those of the Gulf Stream and polar current, diversely modifying the continental climate according to the windings and varying velocity of their course. Thus the Kuro-sivo, or " Black Stream," which corresponds in the Pacific to the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, determines on the west coast of North America climatic phenomena similar to those of Western Europe. Its tepid waters setting from Japan eastwards, strike the seaboard south of Alaska, and thence sweep south- wards along the shores of Oregon and California. But as it advances from colder to warmer seas, it mingles its waters with those coming from the Arctic regions, e 2 44 NORTH AMERICA. and is thus gradually changed to a cold current. On the tropical coasts, it cools the atmosphere, and tempers the torrid heats. The Kuro-sivo, however, is even less uniform than the Gulf Stream. It is not originally developed in a well- defined basin, such as the Gulf of Mexico, nor does it assume near its source the aspect of a river flowing between solid banks. It sets sluggishly across the Pacific, moving at a slower rate than the corresponding current in the North Atlantic. Like those of North America, the east and west seaboards of South America are also exposed to the influence acting in different ways on the climate. Thus the west side is washed by an Antarctic current, whose cold waters temper the heats of the coastlands as far as the Equator. On the other hand, the east coast receives into its gulfs the tepid waters brought by a branch of the great equatorial current, which, after crossing the Atlantic from east to west, ramifies at Cape St. Roque into two secondary branches, one penetrating north-westwards into the Caribbean Sea, the other setting southwards to the La Plata estuary. Yicf, 14. — Apparent Anomalies in the Surface Current op the Gulf Stream. The full lines indicate the course followed by flotsam. The dotted lines indicate the course followed by the fragments of the great raft. The capitals indicate the starting-point, the small letters the terminal point of flotsam. Thus, of the four chief currents affecting the American climate, two raise and two lower the temperature of the seaboards. But these effects are produced, so to say, in diagonal fashion, the east side of North, and the west side of South America receiving cold streams, while the west side of the former and the east side of the latter are washed by tepid waters. Thanks to the triangular form of its two main divisions, no part of the New "World lies at any great distance from the surrounding oceans, so that a certain degree of moisture is brought by all winds to the interior. Hence the only absolutely rainless tracts are those where the rain-bearing clouds are intersected by lofty ranges, and compelled to precipitate their contents before proceeding farther. On the whole, the rainfall is heavier in the New than in the Old World, as shown by the prodigious volume of waters discharged by the American rivers. LI8R/ CLIMATE OF AMERICA. 45 Of these the Amazons is the largest in the world ; hut others also, such as the St. Lawrence, Mississippi, Orenoco, and Parana, have few superiors or even rivals amongst the watercourses of the opposite hemisphere. Doubtless no such tremendous downpours have yet been recorded in any part of America as those which fall on the Tcherraponjie Hills in the Brahmaputra basin. But the enormous discharge of the Atrato into the Gulf of Uraba, at the north-west angle of South America, makes it far from improbable that here the annual rainfall is fully equal to that measured in Gangetic India. In an equal area the Atrato Fig. 15. — Chief Curbejjts of the Ahekicax Seas. Scale 1 : 175,000,000. :."■ !•::■ Meridtan or o^eenwich 0* , 3,000 Miles. sends down a volume of water twenty-three times greater than that of the Seine. Dry tracts with poor or arid soil occupy a great part of the North American plains and plateaux stretching west of the Mississippi. But deserts, properly so called, occur only about the Gulf of California, and along the Chilian and Peruvian coasts, on the outer terraces of the Andes, sheltered from the rains by the lofty rampart of the Cordilleras rising to the east. But how insignificant are these uninhabitable districts compared with the vast chain of sandy spaces occupying the greater part of a diagonal zone which extends in the Old "World from Adrar on the north-west coast of Africa all the way to Chinese Manchuria. 4G NORTH AMERICA. Flora and Fauna. From the disposition of the twin continents stretching north and south across every climatic zone it might already be inferred that their flora must be relatively more diversified than that of the Old World. In fact, notwithstanding its much smaller extent, America comprises nearly as many vegetable zones clearly marked by the presence of characteristic genera and species. From the frozen islands of the north to its austral extremity it presents every variety of vegetation, passing from the lowly mosses and lichens, the miniature forests of dwarf birch and willow of the arctic lands to larger growths gradually increasing in size in Canada and Pig. 16. — Limits or Forest Vegetation in Nokth Ameeica. Scale 1 : 75.000.000. 1. Limit of ubies alba. 2. „ larch. 3. „ aspen. 4. Limit of cedar (thuya.) 5. „ black ash. 6. ,, white elm. 7. Limit of sugar map'e. 8. „ redoak. 9. ■ ,, dwarf willow. . 1,800 Miles. the United States. Here trees of deciduous foliage prevail in the south and east, replaced chiefly by the conifer family in the western regions of British Columbia, Oregon, and California. Some of these, such as the sequoia, acquire gigantic proportions, rivalling in girth and height the Australian eucalyptus. Under the same latitudes stretch the less abundantly watered prairies, boundless grass}' plains now largely brought under tillage, and elsewhere followed by arid plateaux with growths of saline plants like those of the se'ashore. In Mexico and Central America the vegetable zones assume a vertical disposition, rising from the " hot lands " of the periphery to the " cold lands " of the interior. The Antilles also, as well as the southern mainland and the Andes, have each their special floras. The Amazons basin is almost entirely occupied with dense woodlands almost FAUNA OF AMERICA. 47 impenetrable except by tbe natural routes of the river-beds. No other region of the globe is clothed with such vast tracts of verdure, and this is the home of arboreal vegetation in a pre-eminent sense, specially named "Hylrca" by botanists. In the more southern temperate zone the araucarias of the plateaux are succeeded by the grassy pampas corresponding to the North American prairies. Patagonia again has its peculiar flora, as has also Tierra del Fuego, with its stunted beeches, its trailing shrubs and lichens. Like its flora, the American fauna is highly diversified, thus corresponding to the endlessly varied conditions of soil and climate. Birds, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, insects of all kinds are represented in prodigious multitudes. The mam- mals also are numerous, although the large species characteristic of Asia and Africa have no analogous forms in America. The naturalists of the eighteenth century had already remarked that in this narrower world the animals are of smaller size. Yet America had its mastodon in a recent geological epoch, while in the tertian- period the Rocky Mountains were inhabited by dinocerata of prodigious dimen- sions.* Now, however, the New World has no quadrupeds comparable to the elephant, rhinoceros, or giraffe, although amongst its wild animals there are some of considerable size. Such are the white polar bear and the grisly bear of the Rocky Mountains, the Canadian wapiti and moose deer, the jaguar of the tropical regions, commonly spoken of as the American " tiger." In the same way the puma, llama, and nandou or rhea have been respectively called the " lion," " camel," and " ostrich " of the New "World, the same types being in fact repre- sented by distinct species in the eastern and western hemispheres. As a centre of evolution South America contrasts favourably with the north, possessing a large number of animals not found in that region. The latter has only 700 species of birds, while the former has no less than 2,300, and the contrast between the fishes is still more striking. In this respect the North American waters resemble those of Europe and Asia, whereas the species peculiar to the south are reckoned by the thousand. A single lake contains as many as all Europe, and in the Amazons basin alone Agassiz collected as many as 2,000 distinct forms. ItfHABITAKTS. From one extremity to the other of the New World the various divisions of the aborigines present the most surprising uniformity of type. Excluding the Eskimo, regarded by many ethnologists as an Asiatic race closely allied to the Chukches of north-east Siberia, all the inhabitants of America appeared at the time of the discovery to constitute a single ethnical group. "Whatever local differences may exist between northerners and southerners, between cultured and savage peoples, between hunters and tillers of the soil, whatever divergences may have been produced by social usages and their 450 distinct languages, the natives have almost without exception certain physical traits in common, notably that dark coppery complexion from which those of the north have received the * O. C. JSIarsh, The Gigantic JTammate of the Order Dinocerata, 48 NORTH AMERICA. name of " Red Skins." All have straight hlaek hair never crisp or wavy, and all have a grave demeanour, slow action and pulse less rapid than the inhabitants of the Old "World. Their common relationship is further shown by the prevailing angular face, massive jaw, prominent superciliary arches, aquiline nose, strongly marked features differing little between the sexes, broad and relatively powerful chest. Such is the so-called " Indian " type, differing profoundly from that of the true East Indians, with whom they were confounded in the imagination of Columbus and his Spanish successors. Consequences of the Discovery. The discovery of the New World had a far greater influence on the destinies of mankind than could have at first been foreseen. "Without America the human family remained incomplete, history sought without finding its unity. Reduced to about a sixth of its real size and destitute of the great navigable highways which give ubiquity to its inhabitants, the globe seemed infinite precisely because its limits were unknown. But what an expansion was given to the field of human knowledge when America, emerging from darkness, took its place between Europe and China, and when the terrestrial surface was at last clearly defined ! So long as man was ignorant of his position in space and even regarded his domain as immeasurable, all theories on the nature of things were necessarily false, and scientific progress became impossible. What could astronomy lead to when, despite the teachings of a few philosophic heirs of Greece and Egypt, the world continued to be commonly regarded as a solid plane supporting the firmament, or else as the centre round which revolved the sun and stars ? And with astronomy all the associated sciences were doomed to rest on pure conjecture, depending not on mathematical certainty but on miracles or the flights of fancy. The Middle Ages would thus have been indefi- nitely prolonged, probably involving intellectual and moral death. But what a quickening of intellectual life, what an impulse to study and progress of all kinds when man became aware by the direct evidence of his senses that the earth swam in ether, a planet amongst the planets, one of the myriad particles wandering in boundless space ! The influence exercised by the discoveries of the Columban age was great in virtue of the actual knowledge revealed to humanity ; it was far greater through its indirect action in advancing the intellectual emancipation of mankind. Spread of Modern Culture to the New "World. Even from the material point of view the year 1492 brought about considerable changes in both hemispheres. The aspect of the land has been modified by the clearing of forests, by plantations, the growth of towns, the development of high- ways, the migration of plants and animals between both sides of the Atlantic basin. In respect of animals America has received far more than she has given, obtaining in exchange for a single domestic bird, the turkey, all the numerous THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 49 species of the Old World associated with man, the elephant and camel alone excepted. Moreover, representatives of the respective wild faunas — forest birds, marine, fluvial and lacustrine fishes, insects of all kinds, have passed intentionally or not from hemisphere to hemisphere. Uncultivated plants carelessly imported with merchandise or agricultural produce still continue their migrations, and if most of them perish in their new environments, a certain number gain a footing and even end by exterminating the native forms. And here again the Old World has been the greater benefactor, largely assimilating America in its flora as well as in its inhabitants. If in Europe the railway embankments have been overgrown by the Canadian erigeron, if many canals in England, France, and Germany have been obstructed by the "water pest" (anacharsis alsinastrum), the American plateaux have in their turn been invaded by the European thistle, while half of the northern continent has been overrun with the clover from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the Rocky Mountains. All cultivated species, with but few exceptions due to climate or other local causes, have become common to both worlds. America now grows all European fruits, mostly in greater abundance than in Europe itself ; the Arabian coffee-plant and Indian sugar-cane, also, are more productive than in the Old World. To America, on the other hand, we are indebted for the maize and the most wide- spread variety of tobacco, as well as the potato, cinchona and many other medicinal plants. By way of compensation for the destructive phylloxera, she has also supplied the vigorous stock by which the exhausted European vineyards are now being renovated. Fate of the Aborigines. Changes, analogous to those effected in the flora and fauna, have also taken place in the native American populations, who have been violently thrust aside, and even, in many regions, exterminated by the intruders from the Old World. Of the aboriginal tribes, many are known to have perished, and the arrival of Columbus in the Antilles was the signal for the wholesale disappearance of the insular people. Tracked by bloodhounds, forcibly baptised and thus made the " spiritual brethren " of the Spaniard, but none the less condemned to statute labour in the mines and on the plantations, bound as serfs to the glebe, distributed in herds amongst the conquerors, and subjected to the Inquisition, the unhappy natives were speedily reduced to the condition of abject slaves. Espafiola and Cuba, where they had numbered hundreds of thousands, were transformed to solitudes ; whole tribes were seen to renounce all civilisation, take refuge in the woods and revert to the savage life of their ancestors. Others sought in suicide an escape from the atrocious oppression of the foreigner,* and now the question is discussed whether there still survive, anywhere in the islands or on the mainland, a few half-caste descendants of the primitive insular populations. Their memory is, nevertheless, perpetuated in a considerable number of familiar words bequeathed to Spanish, and through it, to all the languages of Europe. * Las Casas, Sistoria de la destruction de las Indias. 50 NORTH AMERICA. The atrocities begun in the "West Indies were continued in many parts of North and South America. Many hundred thousands perished at the hands of Cortez, Pizarro and other conquistadores, by whom whole districts were often Fig. 17.— Dominant Races in Ajleeica. Scale 1 : 115,000,000. Majority of the population black or coloured. Majority white. Majority aborigines or half-breeds speaking European languages. I J Uninhabited regions, — 1.B0O Miles. depopulated. Nor were the Spaniards the only delinquents, and if some, such as the Portuguese, shed less blood than others, the fact was due not so much to their sense of pity or justice, as to the conditions of the regions occupied by them and sparsely peopled by wandering tribes taking refuge from their oppressors in their THE A3JEEICAX ABORIGINES. 51 remote woodlands. Elsewhere systematic slaughter was replaced by gradual encroachments on the native territory, which, in the long run, produced the same results. The aborigines of the United States east of the Mississippi have either completely disappeared, or are now represented only by a few scattered " Reserves." "Wherever the conditions of life are irreconcilable, the struggle for existence continues to the advantage of the whites ; the hunter inevitably yields to the agricultural and industrial labourer. Millions of natives have also been swept away by alcoholic drinks, smallpox, and other epidemics introduced from Europe. But even in those regions where the aborigines have not been entirely destroyed, their original civilisation has ceased to exist. Many cultured communities have reverted to barbarism, or else have adapted themselves to alien social systems. The expeditions, battles and massacres of which Cortez, Pizarro and others were the heroes, drew the attention of contemporary observers to the powerful states over- thrown by the conquerors. But while the local civilisations were exciting wonder, they had already disaj^peared. Yet the Mexicans had displayed great engineering talent in the construction of embankments, causeways, canals, aqueducts, sewers. They possessed fine highways along which a postal service was organised, compared to which analogous European institutions were still in a rudimentary state ; they were skilled workers in gold, silver, copper and other metals ; their astronomic science enabled them to divide their year into eighteen months of twenty days with five complementary days, thus making three hundred and sixty-five exactly ; they recorded national events by painting and sculpture, and even made use of hieroglyphic characters. But all these products of art and science were regarded by the ignorant Spanish priests as the work of the devil, and consigned to the flames. The continuity of history was thus broken, and the mass of the people reduced to ignorance and slaverv. So also in Peru, the descendants of the Quichuas and Ayniaras preserved nothing of those industries which had enabled them to construct vast edifices, to lay down broad paved highways along the flanks of the mountains, to cast and chase the metals. And what remains of the ancient civilisations developed by the Chibchas of Columbia, the Mayas of Yucatan, and the kindred Quiches of Guatemala ? These nations, however, at least still exist, although in a degraded state, whereas many other cultured popidations have totally disappeared. In the impenetrable and now uninhabited forests have been discovered the grandest temples, the choicest sculptures of the New World, and in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta the splendid paved roads found at remote distances from all habitations are now frequented chiefly by the tapir, peccary and jaguar. Dominant Ethnical Elements. Despite the conquest, many native races still survive, protected here and there by swamps, forests, mountains or the local climate. At present, in more than half of the Xew \Yorld, the majority of the population are descendants of the old owners of the soil. According to the political constitutions of the Ilispaiio- 52 NOETH A]tfEEICA. American States, differences of origin are not held to be bars to civil equality. The natives themselves have in fact acquired the right to rank on a level with their conquerors, either by fighting side by side with the rebels against Spanish rule, or by taking part in all the civil wars by which the new states have been convulsed. Whatever be the pretentions of certain sections of the community, there can scarcely exist in Latin America any really pure race, for the first European immigrants from Mexico to Chili nearly all married native women, and since then twelve generations have followed, diversely modified by unions between every shade of half-breeds. The American populations, which in virtue of these unions belong at once to both races, may be estimated at about thirty millions altogether. But a third ethnical element must also be taken into account, for the negro has also contributed to people the New World, though not as a free immigrant. The blacks captured on the African seaboard and sold to American planters have been roughly estimated at about fifty millions, and, in any case, they far exceeded in numbers the European immigrants down to the close of the last century. But most of the new arrivals were swept away by disease, oppression, and hardships of all kinds, their race was perpetuated mainly by successive fresh importations, and at present the Africans are far less numerous in America than either the whites or the Indian half-castes. Nor have they, any more than the redskins, preserved their racial purity ; nearly all those of the West Indies, Brazil, and even the United States, have by crossings become an intermediate race, people of " colour " rather than blacks, numbering altogether about twenty millions. In Haiti, how- ever, where alone they have acquired political autonomy, more than half of the inhabitants are classed as "blacks," relatively to the other citizens of lighter complexion. But even if they have remained physically pure Africans, they have been Europeanised, if not in habits, at least in institutions and language. Speaking generally, the great bulk- of the population in Latin America may be regarded as consisting of three elements — European whites, African blacks, and the aborigines diversely fused in a new race. In the United States and British America, on the contrary, social feeling maintains an impassable barrier, especially between the whites and blacks, a barrier which since the emancipation has been strengthened rather than weakened. There can be no doubt that in the Southern States, for instance, political causes, such as the granting of universal franchise to the negro, have tended to widen the gap between the antagonistic elements. The illicit unions, common enough on the plantations before the abolition of slavery, have mainly ceased, with the result that the mulatto is dying out or becoming absorbed in the true black, the whole race thus showing a distinct tendency to revert to the pure African type. Thus, from the standpoint of the progressive blending of the ethnical elements, the New World is divided into two distinct sections, very unequal in extent and in no way coinciding with the natural divisions. These two sections are frequently designated by the names of Anglo-Saxon and Latin America, from the dominant peoples, or rather from the chief languages current amongst them — English in the ETHNICAL ELEMENTS IN AMERICA. 58 north, the two Latin languages, Spanish and Portuguese, in the south. But as regards the origin of the peoples themselves, these expressions can have hut a very relative value. The " Anglo-Saxons," taking the term in its widest sense, Fig. 18. — Chief Languages of Amebica. Scale 1 : 115,000,000. ." Aboriginal. F French. Guarani. E Spanish. Icelandic. Portuguese. 1.S00 Miles. A English. Uninhabited regions. douhtless enjoy a decided majority in the domain attributed to them ; but the " Latins," represented especially by Spaniards and Portuguese of Iberian, Keltic, or Ligurian stock, are almost effaced in the presence of the multitudes of other 51 NORTH AMERICA. peoples surrounding them — Europeans of every nationality, Africans and American aborigines. Moreover areas of different speech occur in both domains. Thus the unity of the English-speaking division is broken by Lower Canada and some districts in North Amorica, while iu the south several of the Antilles, as well as British Guiana, lie beyond the Hispano-American world. Of the two divisions the Anglo-Saxon is the smaller in extent, but immeasurably the more important in population, industrial and commercial activity, and political power. This disparity tends also to increase from decade to decade, so that the time would seem to be apjjroaching when the whole of the New World will be brought under the direct or indirect influence of the English-speaking section. As if in anticipation of their future destiny the people of the United States already claim the title of "Americans" in a pre-eminent sense. Progressive European Immigration. It was long ago remarked by Kohl that the peoples of West Europe shared in the New World the work of discovery and settlement, proceeding in an order from north to south corresponding to their respective positions in the Old World. Thus the Scandinavians (Danes, Icelanders, and Norwegians) occupy the shores of Greenland, and to them is due our first knowledge of the mainland southwards to and beyond the St. Lawrence. Then follow the English and the French, con- tending for the possession of Canada and the Mississippi basin. Lastly come the Spaniards and Portuguese, sharing between them the rest of America. But the populations of Central, and even of East, Europe have also aspired to take their part in the rich inheritance revealed to them beyond the seas, and colonists were thus attracted from every, civilised land. In almost every American village are found representatives of these various countries, and most of the towns have more inhabitants of foreign origin than natives. Hence the astounding rapidity with which the more fertile regions of the temperate zone have been peopled, the population having increased threefold since .1825 in many of these more favoured parts. The annual arrivals are now reckoned by hundreds of thousands, and in some European countries the movement of transatlantic migra- tion may almost be described as a veritable exodus. Certain parts of America scarcely inhabited two hundred years ago, or occupied only by a few hunting tribes, are already as densely peopled as many industrial centres in Europe. This universal migratory movement is naturally determined by climatic con- ditions, for the mortality of colonists everywhere increases in direct ratio with the difference between the climates of their old and new homes. Scandinavians, Englishmen, Germans, even southern Frenchmen, cannot venture without risk to settle in tropical lands, where their physical and moral energies are impaired and where the family dies out unless renewed by fresh arrivals. On the other hand the Africans perish in the cold regions of North and South America. But the history of colonisation clearly shows that there still remain many broad lands well ETHNICAL ELEMENTS IX AMERICA. 55 suited for settlement by the various ethnical groups of the Old World. Thus the French live, labour, and thrive as well under the isothermals of 35° or 3G° Fahr. in the "Winnipeg basin as under those of 72° in the Mississippi delta. So also with other Europeans who find in America a habitable zone where the total range of the tomperature presents far greater extremes than in their native land. Colonists from the European temperate regions have, moreover, the choice in the New World of two suitable regions, one in the northern, the other in the southern hemisphere. "Whether they settle on the banks of the St. Lawrence, or on those of the Plate Eiver, at the foot of the California!! mountains or of the Fig. 19.— Occupation or Ameeica by Iiohgeaxts feoji the Old 'Woeld. Scale 1 : 250,000,000. 6,000 Hiles. Chilian Andes, they find themselves equally in an environment adapted to their constitution. The fact that America is disposed in the direction from north to south, transversely to the line followed by civilisation in the Old "World, has modified the course of history by broadening the various streams of European migration, and directing them at once to both hemispheres. Nor does the race appear to have in any important respect degenerated since its occupation of America. Changes have been noticed in the complexion, the carriage, the sound of the voice, but it has not been shown that the whites long settled in the tem- perate parts of the New World are inferior to the average European in height, strength, endurance, or beauty ; they are as long-lived, and the women are equally prolific* * Shaler in "Winsor's America. 56 NORTH AMERICA. Decadence of the Spanish Power. The discovery of America, followed by its entanglement in the rivalries and vicissitudes of the Old "World, naturally proved disastrous to the destinies of the very people from whom it had received its first navigators, conquerors and colonists. One of the first consequences of this event, which opened to commerce the new highways of the west, was to close those hitherto followed in the east. Thus Columbus, Vespucci and Cabot, unwittingly brought ruin on their Italian native land. Genoa, after the fall of Constantinople, had already lost its trade route by the Black Sea, and Venice had to abandon its eastern factories after the navigation of the Atlantic was established. "While the spice monopoly was seized by Portugal, thanks to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, the trade in gold fell into the hands of Spain and was transferred from the Old to the New Indies. The Italian oligarchies were thus overtaken first by financial, then by political decadence, and the Peninsula entered on a long era of decay, misery and servitude. And if ruin overwhelmed the Christian agents of eastern traffic, how much more were the eastern peoples themselves involved in the calamity ! Vasco de Gama, Columbus, Magellan inflicted a deadly blow on the Mohammedan States, through which had hitherto passed the exchanges between India and "Western Europe. Henceforth removed from the great stream of commerce, the Mussulman world sank into hopeless decline. Spain and Portugal themselves, at first benefited by the discoveries and prematurely declared masters of the world by the bull of Pope Alexander VI., began also to decay soon after obtaining possession of those vast domains abound- ing in spices, gems and the precious metals. They doubtless imported gold by the ton, as much as two billions sterling between 1492 and 1775 ; but this sudden wealth fostered a love of display and a taste for gambling, created monopolies, fomented speculation and brought industry into contempt. The moral worth of the nation diminished with the increase of its treasures. Yet Spain, first of European powers in military strength and resources, seemed in the middle of the sixteenth century irresistible, and fear was entertained lest Philip II. might by force or intrigue realise his visions of universal monarchy. But the chief mainstay of his powerful political engine was already broken. The various states of the Iberian Peninsula, which had hitherto enjoyed a large measure of autonomy, and whose liberties no king had hitherto dared to violate, were henceforth absolutely prostrate at the feet of the monarch. All local energies had been suppressed, all citizens transformed to soldiers, officials, or subjects of no more account before the power of the sovereign than all those nameless peoples assigned to him by the papal bull. During the brilliant period following the conquest of Grenada, the expulsion of the Moors and the discovery of the New World, the dazzling glory of the new monarchy had seemed ample compensation for the loss of freedom, and the Spaniards had yielded without complaint to the whims of royalty, and even to the terrible inquisitions of the tribunal of the " Holy Brotherhood." But at the close of the sixteenth century, ETHNICAL ELEMENTS IN AMERICA. 57 when the vital forces of the nation had heen exhausted on the European battle- fields, and in expeditions beyond the seas, Spain had no longer any hands available for industrial pursuits. Her Moorish artisans had been banished the land, and the Christian craftsmen stood idle. The kingdom continued to receive consign- ments of gold, but was unable to export manufactured wares in return ; hence it was fain to appeal to the stranger for those articles it had ceased to produce. Thus the wealth of Mexico and Peru flowed out to Flanders, Germany, France and England, while Spain herself was compared to the Arcadian ass, " laden with gold but feeding on thistles." Her mercantile navy, which at the beginning of the sixteenth century comprised a thousand vessels, had been gradually impoverished and swept from the seas, for the squadrons had also disappeared which should have accompanied the convoys and protected them from the ubiquitous English privateers. Spain was crushed beneath the weight of her colonial empire, from which it was a relief to be at last delivered by foreign wars and revolutions. Colonies and metropolis mutually ruined each other, and the same was also true of Portugal and its old political dependency, Brazil. Ascendency of the Anglo-Saxon Race. In North America beyond Mexico, England and France were the suzerain powers, and it long remained doubtful to which would ultimately fall the empire of the continent. French colonisation, directed, so to say, towards the interior by the course of the St. Lawrence, had advanced step by step to the heart of the land, descending seawards from the headwaters of the Mississippi. It was thus developed in a vast semicircle sweeping round from the St. Lawrence estuary to the Gulf of Mexico. But so thin was the zone of population that this circuit of some 2,500 miles was little more than a slender line traced in the wilderness and interrupted at intervals, especially towards the summit of the curve. On the other hand the English colonies, as well as those of Holland and Scandinavia, soon destined to be merged in the former, had been founded on the Atlantic seaboard, and from this solid base they had gradually spread in a compact mass inland, always in free communication with the sea, and nowhere presenting a vulnerable point along their periphery. The respective position of the rival nations thus indicated beforehand the result of the conflict. Apart from circum- stances foreign to the colonies themselves — diplomatic talent and high statesman- ship, military genius, superiority of forces sent to the aid of the settlers, integrity of administrators — it was evident that the more compact colony, with the stronger strategic position, and at the same time the more densely peopled, must prevail in the long run. At the time of the cession of Canada to England the British settlements had a population of 2,500,000, while the French of the St. Lawrence numbered only 60,000 souls. The English-speaking colonies were even strong enough to sever their political connection with Great Britain, and achieve their independence by force of arms. After nine years of desultory warfare the United States of America were firmly vol. xv. f 53 NORTH AMERICA. constituted, and by a remarkable turn of events the French Canadians also succeeded in maintaining their effective independence. During the revolutionary war the inhabitants of Canada had remained loyal to England, and had even resisted the appeal to rebel made by the French allies of the revolted British colonies, and this loyalty was rewarded with the recognition of their full administrative autonomy. They were thus enabled to develop a new France far better than if they had remained under the direct dominion of the mother country, exposed to the caprice of royalty, harassed by all manner of laws and regulations, in the framing of which they could themselves have had no share. French influence has increased in North America precisely in proportion to the political independence of the French Canadians. Still more emphatically may it be asserted that the English world has expanded in virtue of the independence and prosperity of the United States. Since the establishment of its political autonomy the great republic has presented a picture of jn'ogress in wealth and population, such as has never before been witnessed. Within a single century the new State has become in some resjiects the most powerful in the world, although possessing merely nominal land and sea forces, and scorning to line her seaboard with bristling fortresses. In many industries she already takes the foremost rank, and aspires to outstrip all peoples in the arts of peace. Despite the manifold origin of the inhabitants, their common work is usually held to be the outcome of Anglo-Saxon energy, and rightly so, for the English mould in which American society has been cast has converted the continent into a " Greater Britain," enjoying the same traditions, the same language and literature, the same laws and love of freedom as the mother country. It is chiefly through the United States that English is }'early acquiring more and more that character of a universal language which it already possesses in the commercial world, and which it aspires to as the medium of intercourse between all civilised peoples. The English-speaking communities in the British Isles, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, the "West Indies, Guiana and elsewhere, are yearly increased by a population of from two to three millions, and already half the letters passing through the post-offices of the world are written in the English language. Even the Spanish American republics have to submit to the Anglo-Saxon hegemony in their political institutions and the general tendency of their civilisation. " America for the Americans ! " Such is the retort of the States of the New World to the attempts of European powers to intervene in the internal affairs of the western world. From the political point of view the question ma}' even be regarded as already set at rest. The American republics, with which Brazil has now (1889) thrown in her lot, have no longer to fear attack from any quarter, and the time may not be distant when they may even cease to tolerate the exis- tence of colonies depending directly on a foreign government. If Great Britain still possesses officially one-fourth of the New World, the greater part of this vast domain is an almost uninhabited wilderness, while the settled provinces constitute a practically independent commonwealth, in which the suzerain power is repre- sented by an empty title. M W ©■ < H Bi O &. < - J 3 LIBRARV ETHNICAL ELEMENTS IX AMERICA. 59 Their political autonomy is consequently secured to the peoples of the Xew World. But from the social standpoint America is the inheritance of all the colonists from the Old "World, who have made it a new home, introducing their traditional customs and usages, their aspirations, their hopes, and the power of adapting themselves to a new environment. Those who call themselves "Ameri- cans " to distinguish themselves from other cultured peoples are themselves the descendants of Europeans, whose numbers are annually increased by over a million through the excess of births over the mortality, and by nearly another million by fresh immigrants chiefly from the British Isles and Germany. The transatlantic world is a field of experiment for the Old World, and in it will probablv be solved mam- social and political problems for the common benefit of all mankind. F-2 CHAPTER II. GREENLAND. EOGRAPHICALLY speaking, Greenland occupies an intermediate position between Europe and the New World ; it is even scarcely more distant from the European island of Iceland than it is from the Polar Archipelago of America. Nevertheless, the general disposition of its seaboard as well as the conformation of the land connect it with the western islands and constitute it a fragment of North America. Its isolated condition is clue to the girdle of ice by which it is completely encircled for two-thirds of the year and almost severed from the habitable world. "With an area equal to that of the British Isles, France, and Central Europe, or about 870,000 square miles, it has a population of probably little more than ten thousand, including the native families not subject to the jurisdiction of the Danish officials. The name of "Green Land," given by Erik the Red to this inhospitable region in the hope that a name of good omen might attract immigrants, has not had the desired success. For over nine centuries the expression has rather conveyed a sense of irony, and the name of " Desolation Land," applied to it by Baffin, is certainly better justified by the actual conditions. Nevertheless, the original designation has held its ground, even though the land itself had been long for- gotten by seafarers. Of all the names given by the Norsemen to their discoveries in the New World before and after the year 1000 this eccentric term alone persists in common usage. Historic Retrospect. Greenland was discovered by Gunnbjorn and the banished Erik the Red at the close of the tenth century, five hundred years before the time of Columbus. The first Scandinavian immigrants were still pagans ; but at the beginning of the eleventh century Leif, son of Erik, returned from a visit to Norway in company with a priest, by whom the viking and all his thanes were baptized. About this time a large number of Icelanders settled in Greenland, where they were grouped in two IIISTOEY OF GREENLAND. 61 districts, separated by an uninhabited tract. These two districts of the "West and East — Westerbygd and Ostcrbygd — have not been determined with absolute certainty, some indentifying them with the settlements founded on both coasts, others, far more probably, with stations on the west coasts, one at a point project- ing westwards, the other on the Gulf of Igaliko, or the "Abandoned Houses," lying near Cape Farewell, east or south-east of the other colonics. This hypo- thesis is even regarded by Rink as beyond all reasonable doubt, and in any case the presence of the Scandinavian settlers is attested by some sixty old structures and runic inscriptions. Host of the Greenland nines preserved in the Copenhagen Museum were found near the southern extremity of the island; but in 1824 one was discovered in a district north of Upernivik itself, that is, beyond the last group of huts occupied by the civilised natives, on the summit of Kingiktorsoak Island in 72° 55' north latitude. These inscriptions have not been very clearly made out, although the form of the characters, compared with those of Xorway, shows that they evidently date from the eleventh or twelfth century. In 1881 a Xorse ruin, bearing the name of Xarssak, or the " Flam," was also found by the missionary, Brodbeck, on a fjord a little past of Cape Farewell. Xarssak was no doubt one of the fourteen or sixteen churches erected by the Scandinavians in Greenland for the inhabitants of the '280 villages or hamlets founded in the two districts of "VTesterbygd and Osterbygd. At the beginning of the twelfth century a cathedral church, depend- ing on the .see of Bremen, was also built at Garde not far from the southern extremity of the land. Social, trading, and religious relations were maintained for four hundred years between the two Scandinavias of Europe and America. But these relations were gradually weakened and at last brought to a close by the action of the Norwegian Crown, which had seized the Greenland colonies in 1261, destroying their old republican liberties and establishing a complete commercial monopoly. Trade was henceforth restricted to a single royal vessel, the Grbnlandsknarra, so that a shipwreck, a war, a succession to the throne, an epidemic, or other accident sufficed to interrupt all communications. Thus it happened that Greenland ceased to be visited after the "black sickness," which ravaged Xorth Europe at the close of the fourteenth century. The very name of Erik's domain was forgotten, or preserved only in legendary tradition and indicated at haphazard on contemporary maps. The desire to revisit the land was not awakened till after the great discoveries of Columbus and his rivals. Progress of Discovery. The first attempts made by the Scandinavian mariners to recover their old colonies were not successful, and the renewal of exploration in the waters between Greenland and the Polar Archipelago was due to Sebastian Cabot, Frobisher, and Davis. In the seventeenth century the Danish seafarers resumed their efforts in the hope of discovering the mines of the precious metals reported by Frobisher. G2 NORTH AMERICA. But it was still to Englishmen, Hudson and Baffin, that fell the honour of geographically surveying those northern regions. In 1607 Hudson coasted the east side to 73° north latitude, while Baffin followed the west side in its entire length from the southern extremity all the way to Smith Sound. At last the Scandinavians renewed acquaintance with their old possessions in the year 1721, when the missionary, Hans Egede, sailed from Bergen and landed on the west coast of Greenland, where he founded the village of Godthaab, or " Good Hope." But he met no descendants of the early Norse settlers, or at least he failed to recog- nise their blood in the Eskimo, probably half-breeds, who gathered round him. Since Egede's visit West Greenland has never ceased to be a political and religious dependency of Denmark. During the course of the nineteenth century several expeditions have surveyed Fitf- 20. — EtmoPE and Greenland according to Laurentius Frisius in detail more than half of the seaboard. Partial studies are due to the Arctic explorers, who drew up charts of the havens and anchorages where harbours of refuge might be established. But a systematic survey of the coastlands has also been undertaken by the Danish Government. In 1821 Graah studied the whole western section comprised between Cape Farewell and 62° north latitude ; two years later he explored the north coast between Disko Bay and Upernivik, and in 1828 turned his attention to the side facing the Atlantic, here displaying the highest qualities of endurance and devotion. After a year of preliminary expedi- tions the supplies were so greatly reduced that Graah resolved to send back his four white companions and the less trustwortlry of the natives, retaining only two men and six women, with whom he continued to explore the ice-bound coast in one large Eskimo boat. During two successive campaigns, interrupted by long winterings, he completed the survey of the whole coast from Cape Farewell to 65°, 18' north latitude. But beyond that point he found it impossible to advance EXPLORATION OF GREENLAND. 63 through the fringing ice, and Egede Land, so named from a descendant of the missionary who sighted its shores from afar, still remains the least-known part of South Greenland. Nevertheless, De Blosseville, commander of the French ship, the Lil/oise, struck the seaboard about the 68th parallel in 1831, and followed it for some distance, but next year he perished with his vessel crushed between the pack-ice. Opera- tions were renewed in 1879 by Captain Mourier, a Dane, who reported some lofty mountains under 6?" 6' and 68° 10' north latitude. In 1822 Scoresby, one of the ablest of Arctic explorers, skirted the north-east coast for about 400 miles in a straight lino ; his accurate chart was later revised and completed at certain points by C'lavering and Sabine, and again by the German expedition which discovered the extensive Franz- Joseph Fjord. Since 187(3 the exploration of the seaboard has been systematically conducted by learned naturalists, who have studied the form and elevation of the coastline, the depth of the neighbouring waters, the phenomena of natural history, and the customs of the natives. Thus has been completed the survey of all the west side beyond Upernivik, and a beginning has been made with the east side. But the interior remains almost entirely unknown. Few of the numerous attempts have succeeded to penetrate far across the snowy wastes. In 1728 a governor, ignorant of the true character of the country, had imported some horses from Denmark and mustered a company of soldiers to march overland to the east side, where he expected to find the descendants of the old Xorse settlers ; but the horses, objects of wonder for the Eskimo, all perished before the cavalcade could start. Twenty- three years later the trader, Lars Dalager, scaled the glacier north of Frederiks- haab, but only passed three nights on the ice. Over a century elapsed before these attempts were renewed. In 1860 Hayes, leaving his ship at anchor in Smith Channel, made his way about 60 miles inland to a point over 5,000 feet above the sea, where he was arrested by a snow- storm. In 1867 "Whymper, the Alpinist, and Dr. Robert Brown vainly essayed to reach the interior from Jakobshavn ; but in 1870 Xordenskiold and Berggren were more successful, advancing some days' march east from Egedesminde across dangerous crevasses and running waters. Again in 1883 Nordenskiold pushed farther inland, wliile his Lapp guides reached the centre of Greenland, traversing 270 miles in 57 hours and rising to a height of 6,400 feet above sea-level. At last the Norwegian, Dr. Xansen, succeeded in 1888 in crossing from the east to the west coast, attaining at one point an altitude of about 10,000 feet. Although it was summer the temperature oscillated between —40' and —57° Fahr., but despite this intense cold, often aggravated by the high winds, the heroic band reached the Ameralik Fjord near Godthaab after a fearful journey of forty-six days across glaciers, frozen plateaux, and vast snowfields. Extent — Physical Features. Although its outlines are now accurately known almost everywhere except on the north-east side, it is impossible to estimate the actual extent of Greenland C4 NORTH AMERICA. without a probable error of several thousand square miles. The land being almost entirely covered with an ice-cap, it is quite uncertain whether the projections along many parts of the seaboard are true headlands or mountains surrounded by plains rather than islands connected with the mainland by glaciers. It has even Fi"-. 21; — Expeditions into tile Interior of Greenxant. Inland Ice-fields 300 Miles. been suggested that the whole of Greenland may be nothing more than a vast archipelago bound together in a compact mass by a superstructure of thick ice and snow. Formerly the fjord into which Frobisher penetrated in 1572 was regarded, not as an inlet of one of the Arctic islands, but as a strait traversing the southern peninsula of Greenland. In support of the insular hypothesis appeal PHYSICAL FEATURES OF GREENLAND. 65 has also been made to the statements of fishers claiming to have captured in the western fjords whales that had been harpooned by others in the eastern water. Nevertheless, the detailed study of the west coast, which is free from ice for a considerable distance, makes it sufficiently evident that Greenland proper really forms a continuous mass of land. The existence of coast ranges, whose crests are seen towering above the ice in regular lines, the homogeneous character of the rocks examined in various parts of the country, the form of the inlets along the seaboard, the general disposition of mountain and plateaux, all imparts to Green- land an aspect greatly resembling that of Scandinavia. In both regions the formations are the same, and they would present an analogous appearance were the western land disencumbered of its icy fetters. As in Norway, the coastline is fringed with ramifying peninsulas continued seawards by islets and little insular groups, and these are the lands which, with the advance and retreat of the glaciers, may alternately be attached and separated from the mainland. The geological history of the seaboard offers numerous examples of these changes — islands that have become promontories or even snow-clad mountains, and which have again been detached ; fjords filled up by glaciers and again set free ; gulfs which have been transformed to lakes, and which after many years or centuries have re-established their communications with the sea. Such changes, caused by the alternation of seasons and climatic periods, are so rapid in some fjords that the charts prepared at different times all present considerable discre- pancies in the contours of the mainland. In the northern parts visited by the Greely expedition the forms of the insular groups appear to have undergone the greatest modifications in their icy integument. Here several parallel straits separating elongated islands would seem to have been entirely filled by the ice- pack from the Paleocrystic Sea and frozen ocean. Throughout their whole length the coastlands are mountainous and of forbid- ding aspect. Even the southernmost point at the extremity of an archipelago is a gloomy mountain, the Kangak Kyrdlek, or TJmanarsuak of the natives, to which the English seafarers have given the name of Cape Farewell, and which the 4Scandinavians call Statenhuk. North of this headland the west coast is dominated by long serrated ranges with crests "sharp as sharks' teeth." The mean altitude of these crests scarcely exceeds 1,600 feet, but in the interior of the southern point the peaks attain an elevation of over 7,500 feet. The inhabited regions in Danish territory have summits exceeding 3,000, and in some places even 4,000 and 5,000 feet, but north of the polar circle the mountains are less elevated in the region of deep fjords stretching north of Disko Bay. Here the seaboard rises in gentle slopes towards the ice-fields of the interior. But the rugged island of Disko itself, the largest on the west coast, presents crests and domes rising above 3,300 feet. Still farther north the peninsula of Nursoak has summits of 6,000 feet, while the peaks of gneiss on the neighbouring mainland rise to heights of 6,500 feet and upwards. Beyond this point the coast range falls, although the gaze of mariners is here attracted by the eccentric form of the "Devil's Thumb," 6G NOETH AMERICA. a lofty eminence terminating in a sort of obelisk. According to Kane the Arctic Highlands north of Melville Bay nowhere exceed 2,000 feet ; on the east side of Smith Channel Hayes ascended a peak 4,170 feet high, and Nares attributed a height of 6,000 feet to a summit in Washington Land, the peninsula skirting the east side of Kennedy Channel. The east side of Greenland, indented like the west with fjords and fringed with islands, is the loftier and more precipitous of the two, and here rises the highest mountain hitherto discovered. In 1870 the German expedition under Koldewey penetrated into an unknown fjord, the mouth of which was masked by over a hundred icebergs. This long and winding inlet, which was named the Franz-Joseph Fjord, is dominated by steep escarpments from 0,000 to 7,000 feet high, and consists of horizontal layers interspersed with quartz, schists, and Fig. il. — Cape Farewell. Scale 1 : 1,000,000. 15 Miles. limestone. Towards its western extremity in the interior of the continent the pyramidal mass named Mount Petermann rises, according to Payer, to an altitude of at least 11,000 feet. Other summits of like elevation probably occur elsewhere, for the explorers have already observed domes 10,000 feet high in the southern regions, where Greenland is much more contracted than in higher latitudes. The backbone or waterparting between the two slopes, placed by IS T ordenskj6ld near the west coast, is by Rink and most other authorities removed to the opposite side, presenting its more precipitous slope towards the Atlantic. Geological Formation. Most of the uplands denuded by the melting snows or retreating glaciers consist of crystalline rocks, such as gneiss, granites, and porphyries. The gneiss of the Franz-Joseph Fjord contains enormous crystals of garnet like those erratic GEOLOGY OF GREENLAND. G7 blocks in Iceland which were perhaps transported by ice. In this part of Green- land the series of rocks is the same as in Spitzbergen, a tract of Jurassic formation here also occurring associated in like manner with carboniferous deposits and fossil plants. Some chalk beds underlying mioccne strata have been observed on the west coast, while various parts of the seaboard are strewn with basalts ejected, as in Europe, during the tertiary epoch. Xear Godhavn in Disko Island a basalt escarpment rises nearly vertically to a height of 2,000 feet, and above it is seen the bluish section of a glacier over- hanging the precipice, and from time to time sending down enormous blocks of ice. The basaltic columns exposed to the action of the waves here affect the strangest forms — causeways, peristyles of temples, cathedral naves where the billows break with fury. It was at Ovifak near the foot of a basalt cliff in Disko that xSordenskjold found the three huge blocks of iron, one weighing 24 tons, which he removed to the museum of Stockholm. These blocks, till recently supposed to be of meteoric origin, are now generally believed to have been associated with the eruptive basalts and dolerites occurring in the same district and also interspersed with iron of the same description. According to John Boss similar blocks are found on the shores of Melville Bay, where the material is utilised by the natives for making knives. Despite the abundance of old igneous rocks, no active volcanoes have yet been discovered in Greenland ; and although jets of hot water occur at Unartok in the south and elsewhere, none of those "very copious" thermal springs have been found, near which stood the monastery mentioned in the travels of the brothers Zeni. By means of irrigating rills the monks raised vegetables, fruits, and flowers, such as could be produced nowhere else in the country ; the hot water flowing seawards also formed a harbour free from ice, frequented in winter by myriads of aquatic birds. The islands mentioned in the sagas as existing between Iceland and Greenland have by some been identified with those designated by Graah as the " Gunnbjorn Beefs,"' while others have suggested that they may have been volcanoes blown to pieces since historic times by an explosion like that of Krakatau. The chart prepared by Buysch for an edition of Btolemy published in 1507 indicates in these waters the site of an island, which was said to have been " completely burnt in 1456." The Inland Ice-Cap. Till recently Hooker, Payer and others supposed that the interior of Greenland presented vast spaces free of ice, grass}* valleys where herds of reindeer grazed, and popular legends were appealed to in support of this view. Xordenskjold also suggested that the phenomenon might be explained by the action of the winds, which after crossing the inland ranges descended in warm currents like the foihn of Switzerland, and thus melted the snows of the valleys. But the systematic researches made in recent years have failed to discover any of these inland oases. The whole land appears, on the contrary, to be covered with a continuous ice-cap 69 • NORTH AMERICA. fringed by glaciers which move down the outer valleys to the neighbourhood of the sea, or to the fjords of the periphery. The valleys themselves have disap- peared and despite local irregularities the ice-cap slopes like a shield uniformly towards the interior. Thus in certain places the explorer should expect to meet elevations of 7,000 or 8,000 feet; but owing to an optical illusion he scarcely knows whether he is climbing or descending. The horizon seems to rise on all sides, says Nordenskjold, " as if he were at the bottom of a basin." The aspect of these boundless wastes rolling away in scarcely perceptible undulations, and in the distance mingling the grey of their snows with the grey of the skies, at first gave the impression that Greenland was a uniform plateau, a sort of horizontal table. The belief now prevails that the rocky surface of the land is on the contrary carved into mountains and hills, valleys and gorges, but that the plastic snows and ice have gradually filled up all the cavities which now show only in slight sinuosities on the surface. Allowing to the whole mass of the ice-cap an average thickness of 500 feet, it would represent a total volume of about 150,000 cubic miles. This sermer sued; or " great ice " of the Greenlanders, flows like asphalt or tar with extreme slowness seawards, while the surface is gradually levelled by the snow falling during the course of ages and distributed by the winds. In the interior of the country the surface of the ice and snow is as smooth as if it were polished, looking like " the undisturbed surface of a frozen ocean, the long but not high billows of which rolling from east to west are not easily distinguishable to the eye."* Nevertheless the exterior form of the ice-cap has been greatly diversified at least on its outer edge, where in many places it is difficult to cross, or even quite impassable. The action of lateral pressure, of heat produced by the tremendous friction, of evaporation and filtration has often broken the surface into innumerable cones a few yards high in form and colour resembling the tents of an encampment. The depressions of the snowy plateau are filled with meres, lagoons, and lakes; streams and rivulets excavate winding gorges with crystal walls in the snow and ice. Cascades, frozen at night, plunge during the day into profound crevasses ; during the expedition of 1870 Nordenskjold saw intermittent jets of water rising to a great height, which he was unable to study, but which he supposes must be geysirs. Moraines occur, not on the inland icefields, but only at the foot of the glaciers and in the immediate vicinity of the fall. Not a single stone is to be seen on the vast expanse at any distance from the coast. But the so-called nunataJcker, rocky eminences dreaded by the Eskimo as the abode of ghosts, rise in certain places like islands above the surrounding snows, and when these melt under the summer heats the observer is surprised to find the eminences overgrown with mosses and even flowering plants. Jensen met short grasses, the carex and saxifrage, as well as the ranunculus and poppy sheltered beneath the mosses of one of these nuna- takker, whose humble fauna consisted of a butterfly's larva and two spiders. A solitary bird had been borne by the storm to this isolated rock, which stands 4,400 feet high, about 24 miles in the interior of the icefield. The existence of these * Nansen, Proceedings of the R. Geographical Society, August, 1889. THE GBEEXLAXD ICE-CAP. 69 Fijr. 23.- ■Pabi of Greenland free from Ice. Boale 1 : 5,300,000. little centres of vegetable and animal life amid the boundless snows is one of Greenland's mysteries. But the very snows themselves tave their organisms, as shown by yellow and red patches on the surface of glaciers and nivis, the colour of which is due to the presence of myriads of animalculte. The inland ice is also pierced by innumerable little holes of varying size tilled at the bottom with drops of water and a bed of grey dust, on which grow numerous microscopic plants. This dust, which Xor- denskjold has called cryokonite, or " ice powder," is so abundant that its mass certainly repre- sents many tons per square mile, and imparts a greyish tint to the icefields. It con- sists of refuse of all kinds brought by the winds, and would also appear to contain substances of cosmic origin, especially the dust of meteors traversing the atmosphere of the globe. Xotwithstanding the slight general tilt of the land the Greenland ice- cap is certainly in motion. All the changes of equilibrium, however pro- duced, have the result of dis- placing the particles in the direction of the incline. "When the ear is applied to the surface a muffled sound is heard, accompanied by sharper notes like those of distant explosions. These are the echoes of streams flowing in the lower depths, of blocks of ice falling into the cascades, of crevasses opening or closing. All the movements are necessarily propagated from the higher to the lower levels, so that the whole mass is gradually thrust by gravity and lateral pressure from the region of the waterparting down to the seaboard. West Of U"*een^"cfi l-.'O Miles. NORTH AMERICA. Glaciers and Icebergs. Although so little is known of the interior the relative size and importance of the catchment basins is revealed by the lower extremities of the frozen streams. Towards the north the east side facing Europe seems to he less rich than the west in glaciers overflowing seawards. But the south-east coast is fringed, according to Garde, by over 170 glaciers following north and south in a space of about 200 miles. More than half of these are fed by the inland snow-fields, and more than a third are over -5,000 feet broad at their entrance into the Atlantic. On the Fig. 24. — Fredekiksha.u:- I -blink. Senle 1 : 700,000. Wm ' j m mm ^ ' l 1m West dp Greenwich 50' Itinerary of Jensen Itinerary of Dulager. 18 Miles. opposite or west side the glaciers are relatively much narrower. Such is the Sermitsialik, which discharges into a fjord 1,600 feet deep. The space on the west coast comprised between (>. and G8~ 30' north latitude is less encumbered with ice than any other part of Greenland, although even here several glaciers are of vast size. Such is the Frederikshaabs Isblink, which winds through a valley 26 miles long and no less than 9 miles wide at its outlet. But these frozen streams fail to reach the sea, thus leaving the coastlands free from ice for a distance of about 450 miles going northwards. In some districts the reindeer hunters advance 90 miles from the seaboard before reaching the edge of a a 2 v: H IS o z a a THE GREENLAND GLACIERS. 71 the inland ice-cap. The superficial area of the iceless zone may be estimated altogether at over 20,000 square miles. In general aspect it differs little from the Norwegian seaboard lying under the same latitude, being similarly indented with numerous fjords ramifying in various directions, though for the most part disposed at right angles with the coast. At the upper end of these long marine inlets the alluvial tracts are watered by brooks and even rivers, which, like those of the Alps, flow in summer through terminal arches at the foot of the glaciers. These temporary streams are the most copious in the whole of Greenland, yet they represent only a part of the excess of annual moisture precipitated under the form of rain or snow, for much of this moisture is also returned to the ocean through the huge icebergs continually breaking away seawards. The long convoys of these icebergs, which drift southwards and imperil the navigation of the north Atlantic, originate on the west coast of Greenland, between 68° 30' and 75° north latitude. One of the great sources of supply is the Jakobs- havn glacier, which discharges into Disko Bay at a point where its bed is con- tracted between two lofty headlands. Still more voluminous is the Torsukatak glacier, which presents a frontal wall nearly 5 miles long, and which reaches the coast at "VTaigat Strait, north of Disko Bay. Then follow other frozen streams in the fjords along the seaboard beyond the Nursoak (Nugsuak) peninsula as far as Upernivik Bay, whose glacier at its mouth is divided into several branches by a cluster of high islets, giving it the aspect of a cataract disposed in numerous divisions by rocky piles. North of this point the glaciers have been little studied ; they are seen to disembogue between most of the headlands, although explorers do not describe them as giving rise to any large icebergs. Even the enormous Humboldt glacier, which develops a concave frontal wall over 60 miles long and 300 feet high above the unfathomed depths of the Kane Basin, cannot be compared to those of Danish Greenland for the number and size of its crystal fragments. Most of the glaciers reaching the coast round the Greenland seaboard present a somewhat regular frontal line, from which blocks of varying size break off with every w r ave and drift away with the cxirrent. But the frozen streams which yield those huge masses large enough to be called icebergs, that is, " mountains of ice," are relatively few in number, their production requiring a combination of favour- able circumstances, such as the thickness of the parent glacier, the form of its bed, the depth of the water at its mouth. The larger fragments originate for the most part along that remarkable break which is presented in the normal formation of the coastline between Egedesminde and the Svartenhuk peninsula. Rink enumerates not more than thirty Greenland glaciers which discharge really large icebergs, and of this number only six or eight yield blocks of the first magnitude. The average velocity of the congealed masses is about 50 feet in the twenty- four hours, but in some places a much greater speed has been recorded, though still varying considerably with the seasons. A branch of the Augpadlartok glacier north of Upernivik, moves at the rate of 100 feet a day, the highest yet measured. But how enormous must be the pressure of the inland icefields to 72 NORTH AMERICA. discharge into the sea the vast quantities of icebergs which are yearly sent adrift along the Greenland seaboard ! Estimated in a single block the annual discharge from each of the five best-known glaciers would represent a mass of about seventeen billion cubic feet in capacity, and 5,600 feet in height, depth, and thickness. Reduced to a liquid state this mass would be equivalent to a stream discharging seawards 500 cubic feet per second, or 15,500 millions a year. Each glacial basin may be compared to a fluvial basin defined by waterpartings Fig. 25. — Huhboldt Glacier. Scale 1 : 2,i 00,000. I West dP Greenwich 30 Miles. and ramifying into lateral basins. Like an ordinary river, it has its alluvial deposits, the fine particles of triturated rocks ground down by the friction of the slowly moving frozen streams. Nevertheless, most of the precipitated moisture probably returns to the sea in a liquid state. Estimating at twelve inches the annual snow and rain-fall of Greenland, Rink calculates that a sixth part is discharged in the form of ice, and five-sixths by evaporation and the streams fed by the glaciers. But the alluvial matter is mainly carried off by the running waters, very little sediment of any kind being transported by the drift ice. THE GREENLAND GLACIERS. 73 The formation of this drift ice, or floating icebergs, is one of those phenomena which were discussed long before the seaboard had been studied, or before the breaking away of the frozen masses had actually been witnessed. "Wherever the glaciers discharge through a broad valley preserving a uniform width and depth for a considerable space, and advancing seawards through a fjord of like dimen- sions, and with gently sloping bed, the ice may progress without any of these accidents caused by the inequalities of more rugged channels. Under such conditions the compact mass glides smoothly forward over its rocky bed without developing any rents or fissures. But as it moves down like a ship on its keel, it tends to rise, being at least one-twentieth lighter than the displaced water. It is Fig. 26. — Jakobshavx Glaclee. Scale 1 : 600,000. 12 Miles. also left without support by the sudden fall of its bed beyond the normal coast- line. Nevertheless, it still continues its onward movement through the waters to a point where its weight prevails over its force of cohesion with the frozen stream thrusting it forward. At this point it snaps off suddenly with a tremendous crash, and the iceberg, enveloped in a thousand fragments projected into space, plunges into the abyss and whirls round and round to find its centre of gravity amid the troubled waters. On recovering from the bewilderment caused by all this tumult and chaos, the spectator finds that the glacier has apparently receded a long way towards the head of the bay, in the middle of which a crystal peak is seen slowly drifting away with the current. In this he recognises the huge VOL. xv. g 74 NORTH AMERICA. fragment detached from the glacier, though seldom able to detect its primitive form, the greater part, say at least six-sevenths of its volume, sinking below the surface. In the Jakobshavn Fjord Helland observed several icebergs rising 300 feet above sea-level ; one even attained a height of 400 feet and was some miles long on all sides. But being too large to cross the sill at the entrance of the fjord, these enormous masses run aground at the bar, where they break into several fragments still of great size. The highest measured by Nares in the open seas rose 250 feet above the surface, and in the Denmark Channel, between Greenland and Iceland, Garde saw none exceeding 200 feet. It is easy to understand how dangerous to shipping must be the proximity of Fij<. -7. — Movement of the ICvn'OEEDli-o-Suak Glaciek, L"ju_xak Disteict. Scale 1 : 3.. 0,000. WertoR G 52°55- 6 Miles. The scale of heights is 60 times greater than that of lengths. those glaciers which suddenly throw off such prodigious masses, whose capacity is measured in hundreds of millions, and even billions of cubic yards. The instantaneous crash churns up the seething waters, and in many places changes the marine level by many feet, causing sudden eddies, swift currents, and even rapids like those of a river. Then the tumultuous waters rush fiercely through the narrows, sweeping along the broken fragments of ice, and threatening vessels in port with imminent destruction. During the present geological epoch, some glaciers have been retreating, while others, such as the Sermitsialik, have advanced several miles. But it is difficult - g < a S3 THE GREENLAND GLACIERS. 75 to say whether the inland ice has, on the whole, increased or diminished. When compared, however, with a still more remote period the present aspect of the seaboard, especially in the inhabited regions, attests a retreat of the present glaciers. The coastlands now free from ice were formerly icebound like the interior, and the peninsulas and islands fringing the shore were connected with the mainland by continuous glacial fetters, as shown by the erratic boulders, and the polished surface of the rocks. Since the retreat of those glaciers, that no longer reach the coast, deposits of sand and mud have been formed in the abandoned beds, and these deposits have even encroached on the fjords themselves. At the entrance of the inlets a submarine ridge of debris marks the limit between the outer and inner waters. This skargard, as it is called, represents the frontal moraine of the glacier which formerly filled the whole fjord, and which has gradually receded inland. Thus Disko Bay was at one time entirely occupied by the Jacobshavn glacier, while that of Torsukatak overflowed beyond Waigat Bay, strewing erratic blocks of gneiss over the basalt banks of its bed. Greenland has consequently entered a period of higher temperature ; its glaciers have diminished in size, and the fjords formerly filled with ice have become open marine inlets. Upheaval and Subsidence. Most geologists also believe that considerable changes of level have taken place along the coastlands, as shown by the raised beaches occurring at various heights above the present sea-level. Some are mentioned by Hammer and Steenstrup as high as 480 feet, and the same observers have also found banks of marine shells belonging to the present fauna at an elevation of 190 feet. Never- theless these terraces and deposits are no absolute proof of upheaval, as their formation may be explained by the former extension of the glaciers. "When these frozen streams advance seawards far enough to close the entrance of a lateral fjord, its communication with the sea is cut off and it becomes transformed to a lake, whose level is gradually raised until the overflow finds an outlet through some sill or crevasse. In tbis way lakes have been formed to the right and left of the glaciers, rising to various altitudes and carving on the surrounding cliffs regular beaches like those skirting the seashore. Then as the confining glacial barrier subsides the lake is gradually lowered, and at last exhausted, leaving on the flanks of the encircling hills the traces of its former presence. On the Greenland coastlands hundreds of such lakes still exist ; but there are also other lacustrine basins which were evidently marine inlets, and which now stand above the level of the sea without having been separated from it by glacial action. Hence their origin can be explained only by the assumption of a change in the relative levels of land and water. Such is the lake discovered by Kane to the north of the Humboldt Glacier, some 30 feet higher than the spring tides. Its water has gradually become fresh, but its fauna remains marine, so that there can scarcely be any doubt it at one time formed part of the neighbouring gulf. Bound about Polaris Bay, Hall visited several basins of a similar character, and up g2 76 NOETH AMERICA. to an altitude of 1,760 feet he observed beaches containing thick beds of driftwood and marine crustaceans. Geologists generally suppose that the region of North Greenland has been upraised during the present epoch, whereas the coastlands south of 77° north Fig. 28. — Greenland Floe-Tce. Scale 1 : 22,000,000. iz^r 75* West of breenwich ^ . !'.. \ , f Floe-Ice. >til\\\ \ Greenland Tee-Cap. . 620 Miles. latitude have undergone a movement of subsidence. Pringel, Kane, Payer and others, appeal to numerous instances of erosion and denudation, which they regard with the Eskimo as proofs of a general lowering of the land, whereas Steenstrup sees in all this nothing but local phenomena without any general significance. MARINE CURRENTS. 77 Marine Currents and Tides. The system of coast currents is difficult to explain in its details, owing to the contradictory reports of observers perplexed by the incessant struggles and shift- ings caused by the conflicts between the tepid Atlantic and cold Arctic waters. Along the east side, which is occasionally connected by continuous floe-ice with Iceland and Jan Hayen, the current sets parallel with the shore from north to south and south-west ; it consequently flows in an opposite direction to the branch of the Gulf Stream known as "Irminger's Current," which sweeps round the west and north sides of Iceland. But the soundings have revealed the fact that the jtolar current rests on a layer which itself belongs to the Gulf Stream, and which sets northwards while the surface waters move southwards. This is clearly shown by the temperature and salinity of the water, both increasing with the depth. From freezing point in the surface waters the heat increases as much as 10° and even 12° Fahrenheit lower down, and the salinity increases in the same direction from 30 to 35 thousandths and more. About Cape Farewell the conflict of waters is shown by phenomena of a very irregular character. Sheets of ice are often seen drifting with a surface current in one direction, while large blocks, penetrating to lower depths, were carried in another by a contrary undercurrent. One of these blocks, which stranded in 1884 near Julianahaab, was found covered with refuse from the Jeannette, which had been icebound not far from one of the mouths of the Lena. The flotsam had thus taken three years to drift some 3,000 miles across the Arctic Ocean and round Greenland. From Polar Asia also comes the drift-wood, larch, alder, and the like, which is gathered on the east coast. On the west side a relatively warm current sets northwards to Smith Sound, and probably continues in the same direction under the floe-ice, for such a current has often been reported in Kennedy Channel. It is owing to this warm current that the western parts of Greenland are still comprised in the habitable world. Here villages, surrounded by cultivated plots, have sprung up on the margin of the fjords : fishermen find an open sea in which to pursue their prey ; skippers are able to coast the seaboard from port to port, whereas the central parts of Davis Strait and Baffin Bay are obstructed by large quantities of ice often forming a con- tinuous mass, the middle-pack of English seafarers. At times the contrast of tem- perature between two neighbouring places is most surprising, especially near Smith Sound. Thus Whale Sound and Foulke Bay enjoy a remarkably mild climate com- pared to that of Rensselaer Bay, where Kane wintered, although it lies only some forty miles to the north-east. Hayes speaks of the former region as an " oasis " and a " Paradise ; " in any case it is a land where the Eskimo can live and find sustenance. According to some explorers all influence of the Gulf Stream ceases north of Baffin Bay* The waters penetrating into the northern straits would appear usually to set from the Paleocrystic Sea, where are united the two tidal currents, * Axel Hamberg, Proc. of the Royal Geographical Society, 1884. 78 NOETH AMERICA. one coming from the Atlantic round the north of Ireland, the other from the Pacific through Bering Strait. Fossil Remains. If Greenland, like other regions, passed through a glacial epoch, the fossil remains preserved iu its sedimentary rocks show that it had also its hot and tem- Fig. 29.— Movement of the Tidal Currents round Greenland. Scale 1 : 35,000,000. . .50° West of Greenwich G20 Miles. perate periods. The old formations -which have yielded carboniferous, triassic, and Jurassic fossils, present types of organisms comparable to those at present found in the torrid zone. The upper chalk beds, abounding in vegetable forms, analogous to those of the subtropical and temperate zones, had already been examined by Giesecke at the beginning of this century. They supplied to Nordenskjold a very remarkable flora, especially rich in dicotyledonous plants CLIMATE OF GEEEXLAND. 79 represented by numerous families of Cycadea, a tree-fern and even a bread-fruit tree. At that time the mean temperature must have been as high as 68° Fahr. The miocene flora, whose general physiognomy corresponds to a more temperate climate, averaging about 53° or 54° Fahr., is illustrated by splendid specimens discovered chiefly in Disko Island and the surrounding peninsulas. Quite a fossil forest is buried under the ferruginous mass of Mount Atanekerdluk, a peak which rises to a height of over a thousand feet over against Disko, and which is now surrounded by glaciers on all sides. From these deposits "Whynrper, Nordenskjold, and others have extracted 169 species of plants, of which about three-fourths were shrubs and trees, some with stems as thick as a man's body. Altogether there have been discovered in the Greenland strata as many as 613 species of fossil plants. The most prevalent tree is a sequoia, closely resembling the Oregon and Californian giants of the present epoch. Associated with this conifer were beeches, oaks, evergreen oaks, elms, hazelnuts, walnuts, magnolias, laurels ; and these forest trees were festooned with the vine, ivy and other creepers. A leaf of a cycadea found amongst these fossil remains is the largest ever seen, and a true palm, the flabellaria, has been discovered amongst the remains of these old Arctic forests. To develop such a flora the climate of North Greenland must at that time have been analogous to that at present enjoyed on the shores of Lake Geneva, twenty-four degrees nearer to the equator. According to the same gradation of temperature the dry lands about the north pole itself must at the same epoch have had their forests of aspens and conifers. According to Oswald Heer the change that has taken place in the climate since then represents a fall of 30° or 40° Fahr. for North Greenland. The interval between these two ages was marked by the glacial period, whose traces are visible on the west coast. Climate. At present the climate of Greenland is one of the coldest in the world. The isothermal of zero traverses the land near its southern extremity, and in the northern districts whole years pass without a single summer's day, that is, with a temperature of 59° or 60° Fahr. At TJpernivik the glass falls in winter to — 47° Fahr., and even in summer it does not always rise to freezing-point. In September Nansen and his party had to endure colds of — 56° Fahr. for several consecutive nights. On the other hand, the greatest summer heats scarcely exceed 64° Fahr. in the shade ; but they amply suffice to melt all the snow on the plains and even on the hills of the coastlands. In East Greenland the solar rays often appear unendurable to travellers, especially in virtue of the contrast with the ordinary low temperature. Payer relates that on the shores of the Franz-Joseph fjord the sailors, overcome by the heat, fell into a lethargic sleep from which it was difficult to rouse them. Scoresby saw the natives on the east coast walking about naked to cool themselves. In general the summer temperature is remarkably uniform throughout Greenland, 80 NOETH AMERICA. the few fine days of this season presenting a discrepancy of not more than 7° or 8° Fahr as compared with differences of 20° or 25° recorded in winter. Towards the southern point the winter climate answers to that of Norway, while in the north it is quite Arctic* The prevailing sea breezes usually set north and south or south and north, the Fig. 30.— Disko Island and Nuesoak Peninsula. Scale 1 : 2,500,000. former cold and dry, but occasionally accompanied by fogs in summer, the Temperature of various Greenland stations:— North Latitude. Mean Temp. Julianahaab . . Godthaab . Jakobshavn Upernivik . Sabine Island . 64° 8' . 29° . 69° 13' . 24° . 72° 48' . 15° . 74° 32' . . 13° Summer Temp 47° F. 42° 36° 38° 65° Winter Temp. 22° F. . 17° . 10° . 6° —40° CLIMATE OF GEEEXLAXD. 81 latter humid, charged with rain or snow. By an apparent anomaly the warmest winds are those on the west coast, which come from the ice-covered inland plateaux. Eising in the tepid Norwegian waters these winds are cooled in their passage across the Greenland mountains, but again become warm as they approach the western seas. Their effect is felt in the north as well as in the south, raisins the winter temperature at Upernivik above freezing point, and causing the snows to melt even in the month of January. They are frequently accompanied by heavy downpours, such as that of October, 1887, at Ivigtut near Cape Farewell, where the rainfall reached 8 inches in two days. In December the discharge exceeded 13 inches in eleven days, and the mean for the whole year rose to 46 inches. Farther north the rains are never so copious, and the climate beyond Fig. 31. — Fbaxcis Joseph Fjoed. Scale 1 : 2,500,000. 60 Miles. Upernivik may be described as very dry, as it also is on the east coast facing Iceland. Flora and Fauna. Although incomparably poorer than that of miocene times, the present flora of Greenland is sufficient to clothe extensive tracts with a mantle of mosses, grasses, and brushwood. Wherever the snows melt under the influence of the sun or of the warm east winds, herbaceous and other lowly plants spring up even on the exposed nunatakker, and to a height of 5,000 feet. Owing to the uniform intensity of the solar heat the summer flora is almost identical on the low-lying coastlands and highest mountain tops. True trees occur in the southern districts, where Egede was said to have measured some nearly 20 feet high. But the largest met by Rink during all his long raniblings was a white birch 14 feet high 82 NORTH AMERICA. growing amid the rocks near a Norse ruin. Few trees in fact exceed 5 or 6 feet, while most of the shrubs become trailing plants. Such are the service and alder, which on the coast reach 65° north latitude, the juniper, which advances to 67°, and the dwarf birch, which ranges beyond 7 "2". In its general features the Greenland flora, comprising about 400 flowering plants and several hundred species of lichens, greatly resembles that of Scan- dinavia. Hooker and Dr. Robert Brown regard it as essentially the same as that of the North European highlands and lacustrine regions. Even on the west coast facing America this European physiognomy is said to prevail, although to a less degree than on the opposite side, which appears to be much poorer in vege- table forms. But though limited, the American element is important, supplying to the natives numerous edible berries, algae, and fuci, which have saved whole tribes from starvation during periods of scarcity. The Europeans have also their little garden plots, where they grow lettuce, cabbage, turnips, and occasionally potatoes about the size of schoolboys' marbles. Like the flora, the fauna is mainly European, resembling that of Iceland, Spitzbergen, Lapland, and Novaya Zemlya, with all which regions Greenland at one time formed continuous land. The mammals, such as the reindeer, white bear, Arctic fox and hare, ermine and lemming, are those of Europe, the musk ox alone being of American origin. But this animal is not found in the habitable parts, being confined to the glacial tracts limited westwards by Smith Sound, and ranging eastwards to Franz-Joseph Fjord. The Danes have introduced a few of their domestic animals, the dog, cat, ox, pig, sheep, and goat ; but on the other hand their firearms have greatly diminished the primitive fauna. Herds of rein- deer are no longer met in the northern parts beyond the European settlements, where as many as 25,000 were annually killed during the years 1845-49, and 8,500 from 1851 to 1855. The swan has also become rare ; another bird, probably the auk [alca impennis), has completely disappeared, and the eider is now seen only in the small archipelagoes remote from the Danish villages. Beetles and mollusks are far less numerous than in Norway, from which Nordenskjold infers that the glacial period has persisted much longer in Greenland than in Scandinavia. The surrounding seas teem with animal life, comprising as many as seven species of seals and sixteen of cetaceans, besides fishes, mollusks, and smaller organisms in endless variety. The marine fauna presents a distinctly European character, and in its mollusks Davis Strait still forms part of Europe. According to seafarers at least one-fourth of the West Greenland waters is diversely coloured dark brown, green, or milky white, these tints being due to the diatomacerc filling these seas to a depth of 600 or 700 feet and for many thousands of square miles. Numerous species of medusoo feed in these vast " prairies," and in their turn fall a prey to the cetaceans. The neighbourhood of the coloured waters is always hailed as a good omen by the harpooners, who here secure rich harvests of seals, cetaceans, and fish. The seal is the chief resource of the Eskimo, who use the oil and fat as food, the sinews as a stout sewing thread, the INHABITANTS OF GREENLAND. 83 skins for the manufacture of garments, tents, and canoes. The walrus or morse is also hunted for the sake of its tusks, which yield a hard, white ivory more valuable than that of the elephant. Inhabitants. The great bulk of the present population consists of Danes, Danish half-breeds, and tho Eskimo proper, more or less modified by crossings with the early Norse settlers. Nearly all the inhabitants, already Christianised and civilised by the missionaries, are grouped in parishes, whose organization differs from corres- ponding European communities only in those conditions that are imposed by the climate and the struggle for existence. There still survive, however, a few tribes of pure Eskimo stock, such as those recently discovered by European explorers beyond the Danish territory north of Melville Bay and on the east coast. Others also may perhaps exist along the shores of unvisited or inaccessible fjords. But the most northern camping-ground hitherto discovered is that of Ita (Etah), situated in Port Foulke on Smith Sound, in 78° 18' north latitude. In 1875 and again in 1881 it was found abandoned ; but it is known to have been previously inhabited, and the natives had returned to the place in 1882 and 1883.* When visited by Hall and his party, this little group of twenty persons, who had never seen any other human beings, fancied that the strangers were ghosts, the souls of their forefathers descending from the moon or rising from the depths of the abyss. In their eyes the ships of John Boss were great birds with huge flapping wings. The term " Eskimo " applied by Europeans to the natives of Greenland, the Arctic Archipelago and the Frozen Ocean, is usually interpreted by etymologists in the sense of "eaters of raw fish." This designation, which is of Algonquin origin, is supposed to have been given to the " Hyperboreans " by their Bcdskin neighbours proud of their superior civilization. But the Eskimo themselves, who from their isolated position had come to regard themselves as almost constituting the whole of mankind, called themselves in a general way by various names, amongst others that of Innuit or Inoit, that is, " men " in a pre-eminent sense. Karalit, another of these designations, appears to be the original form of the term " Skrallinger," applied by the early Norse invaders to the natives with whom from the first they had maintained a deadly struggle. The Europeans on the other hand are known to the Eskimo by the name of Kablunak, that is, the " Crowned," in allusion to their headdress. The Greenland Innuits are all grouped along the coastlands, as are also their western congeners as well as the Asiatic Chukches, who probably belong to the same stock. They are prevented by the ice-cap from penetrating far inland, while fishing, their chief pursuit, obliges them to settle along the shores of the fjords and headlands. It has thus been easy to calculate their numbers in those districts where Europeans dwell amongst them. In the whole of North America they are estimated at about 30,000 altogether, while those of Greenland rather exceed 10,000, all but 500 or 600 confined to the west coast. In certain districts * Greely, Three Tears of Arctic Service. 84 NOETH AMEEICA. their groups of habitations are dispersed over large spaces, the stations being some- times over 60 miles apart, and quite inaccessible one to the other except by way of the sea. Despite the vast extent of their domain, stretching 3,000 or 4,000 miles from east to west between the Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, the different tribes everywhere present great uniformity in their appearance, customs, and idioms. Like other American languages the Eskimo is of polysynthetic form, the same structure and the same roots prevailing from Bering Strait to Labrador. Of all the dialects the most divergent is that of the few inhabitants of East Greenland, a fact due either to their long isolation, or else to the custom of scrupulously avoiding all combinations of syllables that might recall the names of the departed. Every death thus contributes to modify the current speech. The striking analogy in their customs presented by the hyperborean Eskimo and the troglodytes of the stone age in West Europe has suggested the theory of a relationship between the two groups of populations. The peoples who occupied the Dordogne basin when its climate resembled that now prevailing in the polar regions, are supposed to have gradually retired northwards with the increase of temperature. Following the retreat of the snows and of the animals inured to an Arctic climate, they thus at last reached the polar circle and became the ancestors of the present Innuits. Link, however, who has dwelt longest amongst the Green- landers, does not consider this theory justified. According to him the Eskimo are pure Americans, who while contrasting in appearance with their immediate neighbours in the British possessions, nevertheless present every shade of transition to the American type through their congeners of Alaska, the Charlotte Islands, and British Columbia.* Amongst the Greenland Eskimo are most frequently found men of average and even high stature, especially on the east coast. Most of those on the west side are short, but thickset and robust, with short legs, small hands, and a yellowish- white complexion. The face is broad and flat, the nose very small, the eyes brown and slightly oblique like the Chinese, the hair black, lank and falling over the forehead, the expression mild, suggesting that of the seal, the animal which is ever in their thoughts, and whose death is their life. They have also the seal's gait and carriage, as well as the rounded figure well lined with fat to protect it from the cold. What essentially distinguishes the Eskimo from the Mongolian, with whom he was till recently affiliated, is the extremely " dolichocephalous" form of his head, the skull, with its vertical sides and sharp crest, often affecting a " scaphocephalous " or boat-like shape. According to Dall the cranial capacity is higher than that of the Bedskins. Both sexes are dressed very much alike. European fashions, however, have already penetrated amongst the Greenlanders, and in many districts, men are now met wearing the garb of European labourers, while the women deck them- selves with cotton stuffs and many-coloured ribbons. But in winter no costume could advantageously replace their capacious boots, sealskin pantaloons, close- * H. Rink, The Eskimo Tribes. INHABITANTS OF GREENLAND. 85 fitting jacket, and the amauf, or hood which "keeps haby warm." In Danish Greenland the women no longer tattoo their chin, cheeks, hands, or feet, nor do they now insert variegated threads under the skin, the missionaries having inter- dicted these " pagan " practices. Singing, dancing, the relation of the old legends, even athletic games amongst the young people were also formerly sternly repressed. Indulgence in strong drinks is allowed only once a year, on the anniversary of the King of Denmark, and the royal monopoly of the trade with Greenland is justified on the ground that in this way the importation of spirits is prevented. At present all the Eskimo of the Danish territory are Protestants. Hans Egede, their first missionary, landed in 1721 on the spot where now stands the station of Godthaab. He was followed twelve years later by the Moravian Brothers, who founded their " sheepf old " in the same district, but who had long to wait for the flock. Aiming at a complete revolution in Eskimo society, these foreign " magicians " had constantly to contend with the angakok, or native wizards, whom they endeavoured not only to deprive of all religious prestige, but also to set aside as civil counsellors and magistrates. With the conversion of the natives complete submission was secured, the only troubles that have since arisen being caused by the excessive zeal of the neophytes, who aspired to the role of projDhets and founders of new sects. On the west coast no trace survives of the old heathendom except the name of the supreme god, Tornarsuk, which has been adopted as that of the devil, while the bugdkah, or good spirits of old, have now become the demons of the lower regions. For over a century Greenland parents have ceased to place a dog's head near the graves of departed infants, " so that the soul of the dog, which finds its wav everywhere, may lead the child to the land of spirits." In East Greenland the bodies of the dead are thrown into the sea, except in times of epidemics, when the survivors shift their quarters and leave the corpses in the abandoned huts. Carved wooden figures, recalling the " genealogical trees " of the South Alaskan islanders, still adorn the entrance of the houses in the northernmost villages on the Atlantic coast. In their hunting expeditions these villagers often see phantoms gliding over the heights ; these are the ghosts of the departed returning to scare the living. Their conversion to Christianity has scarcely bettered the material condition of the Greenlanders. The hovels, constructed of alternate layers of stone, earth, and turf, and roofed with earth supported by a little driftwood, are small and gloomv, and often give way. Being mostly destitute of stoves or hearths, they can be heated only by the lamp, the " soul of the dwelling " during the long winter months. Escaping at last with the warm season from these foul dens, the inmates remove the roofs to let wind and rain cleanse their abodes, and meantime pitch their tents in some more healthy spot. On the east coast every community consists of a single house, harbouring on an average ten families, or about fifty persons. Here fire is still procured by the primitive method of rubbing two bits of wood together. In all Greenland there are scarcely fifty head of cattle ; sheep, goats, and even 8b NORTH AMERICA. poultry are also rarely met, jealously guarded iu the enclosures of a few wealthy Europeans. The only domestic animal of real value is the dog, a savage beast of uncertain temper, often tortured by hunger, and now threatened with extinction. The question arises, how the natives themselves can hope to survive when deprived of the animal that now conveys them from fjord to fjord and transports the produce of the fisheries to their settlements ? In 1877 there were still 1,800 dogs and 320 sledges in all Greenland, and it has been proposed to replace the dog by the reindeer. But the natives have not yet learnt to tame this animal, which has moreover become very rare in the neighbourhood of the Danish settlements. The only remedy seems to be the introduction of the Lapps with their domestic herds. The Greenlanders have two kinds of boats, the kayak, used for fishing, and the umiak for transport. Although the word kayak, borrowed from the Tatars of Siberia, has made the round of the globe from the caique of Constantinople to the "West Indian cayuco, the Greenland boat is peculiar to the Eskimo world. Formed of sealskins stretched on a frame 10 to 20 feet long, and 2 feet wide, it presents only one narrow opening, into which the native introduces himself enve- loped in a cloak which is sewed to the boat. Provided with a double paddle he glides over the waves almost as swiftly as the seal itself, a good boatman averaging 80 miles a day. If it capsizes a single stroke of the paddle suffices to right the craft, which weighs only 55 or 60 pounds, and may easily be transported overland. The umiak, or " women's boat," so called because usually propelled by women, is also made of sealskins stretched on a frame, but is flat-bottomed and large enough to carry as much as three tons of merchandise. Collision with a block of ice would suffice to sink it, so that it has to be managed with great care, the crew seldom venturing beyond the line of breakers into the high sea. If the produce of the chase and fisheries could be uniformly distributed from season to season, it might perhaps suffice for the wants of these scattered com- munities. But the communications are so difficult that times of plenty are often followed by long periods of scarcity. The old cannibal practices no longer exist ; infanticide is rare ; the aged and sick no longer invite their friends to despatch them. But the same work of destruction is continued by famine and misery. About 8 per cent, of the deaths are those of men drowned in their kayaks. The consequence is a considerable disparity of the sexes, the women outnumbering the men in the proportion of about 115 to 100. All writers on the subject consider that the Greenland natives are dying out. According to Egede there were as many as thirty thousand on the west coast at the beginning of the last century ; but so rapid was the decrease that a hundred years later Graah estimated the whole population in the Danish region at a little over six thousand. Since then, however, there has been a slight increase, and at present it is about stationary between nine thousand five hundred and ten thou- sand. But this is mainly due to crossings, which give a more vigorous offspring than that of the pure race. Immigration also contributes to maintain the INHABITANTS OF GREENLAND. 87 equilibrium, the wild tribes of the east coast being continually attracted to the European settlements. Possessing great natural intelligence combined with love of instruction, the Greenlanders may justly claim to be civilised. The great, majority read and write their mother tongue, and sing European melodies, while several speak English or Danish. Nearly all the families have their little library, and read their Eskimo newspaper, as well as the collections of national legends, illustrated with Fi"-. 32. — Greenland Esedio. engravings by native artists. Greenland even possesses at least one original work, the account of the voyages of Hans Hendrik, companion of Kane, Hall, Hayes and Nares. Formerly, the right of property was restricted to objects of personal use, such as clothes and weapons ; the hunting grounds belonged to the whole community, and the produce of the chase or fisheries was equally distributed amongst all. The rights of communal property were also regulated and safeguarded by general assemblies followed by public banquets. But the Europeans have changed all that by introducing the principle of sale and purchase, by enlarging to their own profit the rights of personal ownership, and proclaiming the new gospel of " every man for himself." The result is a general impoverishment and moral degradation of the people. They are no longer like the Eskimo visited by Graah 88 NORTH AMERICA. on the east coast : " the gentlest, the most upright and virtuous of men." Nevertheless, the language possesses not a single abusive term, and it is impossible to swear in Eskimo. Topography. The part of Greenland where Eric the Red built his stronghold, and where the banished Norsemen flocked around him, is still one of the least deserted regions, as it also is the most fertile and temperate. Julianahaab, capital of this district, contains one-fourth of the entire population of the country grouped on the banks of a small stream in a grassy valley near a deep fjord, which is unfortunately not easily accessible to shipping. Navigation is obstructed by the numerous icebergs drifting with the polar current across the entrance, and skippers have to make a long detour to the north in order to reach the anchorage off Julianahaab. As many as a hundred Norse, or other ruins, are scattered over the district, and at the very extremity of the fjord are shown the remains of the structures attributed to the first conqueror of Greenland. There are also some debris of old buildings on the terminal islet of Cape Farewell itself ; but at present the southernmost group of habitations is the Moravian missionary station of Frederik&dal, the point first reached by the Eskimo immigrants from the east coast. Here the inland icefield, pent up between two mountains, is only a few miles broad ; the passage from one slope to the other presents little difficulty, and is occasionally utilised by the white bear. The Frederikshaab district, which follows that of Julianahaab in the direction of the north, is limited by branches of the ice-cap covering the whole of the interior. Southwards the glaciers reach the coast near the rugged insular heights of Cape Desolation ; in the north is visible the enormous isblink of Frederikshaab, the bluish glint of its crystal surface reflected on the grey sky. The village, whence the district takes its name, has- the advantage of an excellent harbour, sheltered by islands, but encircled by rocks and morasses. On this coast the most important station is Ivigtut, or Ivigtok, which has become famous for its absolutely unique deposits of cryolite. This mineral, of a whitish colour, was long known to the Greenlanders, and had been described by European mineralogists ; but it was first utilised in 1856 by Sainte-Claire Deville for the preparation of aluminium. At present it is chiefly valuable for the soda and salts of alum used in dyeing, which are extracted from it. The natives reduce it to powder, which they mix with their tobacco to increase its strength. The Ivigtut deposits have been granted to a private company, in return for a yearly sum paid to the Danish Government. The beds, which are not very extensive, lie at the base of a precipi- tous rock on the seashore, so that vessels are able to ship their cargoes on the spot. It might also be possible to work the numerous beds of asbestos, as well as the eudialyte of Julianahaab, a substance which supplies the best burners for electric lights. In any other region Godthaab would be an admirable trading centre, thanks to the labyrinth of fjords which here penetrate far into the interior. But this is TOPOGRAPHY OP GREENLAND. 89 one of the least populous districts of Danish Greenland, nearly the whole traffic in seal and reindeer skins, cod and eiderdown being arrested cither by the destruc- tion of the animals or the want of capital. Yet it was formerly the richest and most commercial district in the whole country. Here Egede and the Moravian missionaries founded their first stations, and Godthaab is still the literary centre of Greenland, for it possesses both the seminary and printing establishment. A more flourishing place is the northern village of Sukkertqppen, or " Sugarloaf," so Fig. 33.— JUT.TAXATTAAB AND ITS FjOBDS. Scale 1 : 750,000. '-46° West of Greenwich 15 Miles. named from the conical shape of its island. Sukkertoppen is the most populous place in Greenland, and several of its three hundred and sixty inhabitants have learnt to build vessels of European form for the cod fisheries. Other less important villages follow in the direction of the north. Such are Hohtenlcnj, formerly a centre of the whale fisheries ; Egedesminde, situated on an islet at the entrance of the spacious Disko Bay ; Kristianshaab, standing on the mainland east of the same bay; Jakobsham, at the entrance of a fjord which receives the most famous glacier in Greenland. This glacier, which discharges VOL. XV. H 90 NORTH AMERICA. the largest icebergs, is at present moving forward, its frontal wall having advanced nearly two miles seawards since it was visited by Ilammer in 1878. The port of Godhavn, till recently known to the whalers by the name of Lievety, lies under shelter of a headland on the south side of Disko Island. It is the most frequented island in Greenland, being visited by most whalers and explorers during the six mouths of navigation. According to an Eskimo legend, here was made fast the rope by which an ancient magician drew the island of Disko away from the mainland. The local gardens, being well exposed to the southern sun, are renowned for their fertility throughout Greenland. The Waigat Channel, passing north of Disko Island and separating it from the hilly peninsula of Fig-. 34.— Godhavn and Disko Fjokd. Scale 1 : 405,000. We st . of breenv\ncVi 53° • 6 Miles. Nursoak, leads to the little harbour of Ritcnlenk, beyond which to the north lies the insular village of TTmanak, a busy centre of the seal fishery. The graphite discovered in the Nursoak cliffs has no commercial value. Upemivik (Upernavik) and Tasiusak, lying still farther north in 73° 24' north latitude, are the last European settlements in Greenland, gloomy abodes lost amid the snows at the foot of yellowish or brick-red rocks. In winter the sun sets for eighty days, yet by a sort of mockery this glacial district bears an Eskimo name meaning " spring." The horrors of war w r ere extended to this extremity of the habitable world at the beginning of the present century, when Upernivik was burnt by the English whalers, and all communication between Greenland and Denmark interrupted for the seven years from 1807 to 1814. § p s s < a z '■A ■J ADMINISTRATION OP GREENLAND. 91 Administration. Officially the whole of Greenland belongs to Denmark, but the actual Danish territory comprises only the inhabited part of the west coast between Cape Fare- well and Tasiusak. Besides the two " governors " of North and South Greenland, the commercial agents settled in all the stations along the seaboard are representa- tives of authority amongst the natives, and depend themselves directly on the Board of Trade at Copenhagen. The Lutheran missionaries arc also included in the number of official functionaries, being appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction and administering their parishes without being subject to the control of the civil governors. Lastly the Moravian missionaries, although without official Fig. 35.— Upeenivik, its Isles and GLAciEr.s. Scale 1 : 950,000. 15 Miles. status, also enjoy considerable influence, being at once the mayors and magistrates of the communities grouped around their stations and comprising one-fifth of the whole population. Three physicians named by the Danish Government are charged with the sanitary inspection of the coastlands, that is, of a tract over 950 miles long. Each commune is now constituted in a municipality, whose council forms a tribunal for adjusting differences, imposing fines and in serious cases sentencing to the bastinado. Since 1774 the Greenland trade is an absolute monopoly of the Danish Govern- ment, which maintains along the coast some sixty factories where European wares are given in exchange for such local produce as sealskins and train oil, eiderdown, feathers, walrus ivory, fox, bear, and reindeer peltry. The annual value of this h2 92 NOETH AMERICA. traffic is estimated at about £60,000. Notwithstanding the dangerous character of the navigation between Denmark and Greenland caused by the fogs and ice- bergs, the " royal " traffic lost only three ships between 1817 and 1862. The Tessels engaged in this traffic are very solidly built and commanded by skilled captains familiar with the route. The postal service along the coast is entrusted to Eskimo sailors who travel in kayaks and sledges and rarely meet with an accident. In the Appendix is given a table of the two provinces with their administrative subdivisions. CHAPTER III. THE ARCTIC ARCHIPELAGO. HE numerous islands which continue the American continent in the direction of the pole, and which are nearly all comprised within the Arctic Circle, still remain somewhat vaguely defined along a great part of their periphery. Many promontories now figuring on the maps will doubtkss prove to he distinct insular bodies, fjords and inlets will be transformed to straits, lands severed by imaginary channels will be merged in one ; others, on the contrary, will be broken into smaller frag- ments, while certain mountains carefully traced on the charts will be resolved iuto mist and cloud. One section of this archipelago stretching north-east of the Parry Islands has not yet even been roughly surveyed, so that its true outlines are still unknown. The area of 720,000 square miles given to the whole insular group has consequently no more than a provisional value. • This Arctic Archipelago is readily decomposed into several perfectly distinct groups. One of these is clearly limited on one side by Smith Sound and the Kennedy and Eobeson Channels separating it from Greenland ; on the other by Lancaster Sound and the Barrow and Banks Straits, which form a long waterway between the Baffin and Alaska seas. The large region of Baffin Land which, with the fringing islands, continues the vast Labrador peninsula northwards, and which is washed on the east by Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, forms a second distinct group. Lastly the western lands which skirt the shores of British America, from which they are separated by winding channels and waters of a lacustrine aspect, constitute a third division of the Arctic Archipelago. Till recently a few scattered Eskimo names alone appeared on the rough maps prepared by explorers, ileeting small groups of natives only at long intervals, these pioneers had themselves to complete the nomenclature of the polar regions, and as the work of exploration was carried out almost exclusively by British and American navigators, English names, those mainly of kings, queens, presidents or leading statesmen, were naturally given to the various capes, headlands, straits, gulfs, inlets, mountains, and islands. The names of illustrious seafarers and naturalists were also largely employed to designate the geographical features of the Arctic Archipelago, which is politically assumed to form part of British 94 NORTH AMERICA. North America, although no formal possession has yet been taken or at least ratified. In the history of geographical discovery the explorations of these regions is inseparably associated with the quest of the "North-West Passage," and the attempts to reach the North Pole. The names of Sebastian Cabot, Frobisher, Davis, Bylot, Baffin, and John Ross are intimately connected with the insular coastlands, which form a northern extension of Labrador. Kane, Hall, Hayes, Nares, Markham and Greely are amongst the most conspicuous of those who forced their way through the narrow ice-obstructed channels to the Paleocrystic Sea. Parry was the first to penetrate through the Lancaster and Barrow Straits towards the Asiatic waters; Hudson Bay was justly named after the navigator who discovered, or at least explored it, possibly following in the track of Sebastian Cabot ; the Boothia Felix Peninsula, within which lies the station of the magnetic pole, recalls the expedition in which James Clarke Ross took a leading part ; lastly, the western islands near the shores of British North America perpetuate the triumphs or glorious failures of the Franklins, Collinsons, MacClures, Kelletts, MacClintochs, and Schwatkas. Insular Groups. The broad marine waters separating the Arctic Archipelago from Greenland are extremely deep at their entrance, the sounding line recording 2,000 fathoms off Cape Farewell, and 1,500 under the latitude of Hudson Strait. Farther north Inglefield would appear to have measured 2,600 fathoms without touching the bottom, and the sea is everywhere deep enough for the largest icebergs to drift freely, although often sinking 250 fathoms below the surface. Melville Bay reveals depths of over 400 fathoms within 10 miles of the shore, and Ross obtained soundings of 950 fathoms at the entrance of Smith Sound. In these seas, kept in motion by the action of swift currents and counter-currents, the navigation is mainly free in summer except along certain parts of the seaboard blocked by floes or obstructed by convoys of icebergs. But farther north the floating ice in the narrow channels, failing to find a sufficiently broad outlet towards the southern seas, becomes piled up in confused masses difficult to penetrate. One of the explorers who traversed these rugged spaces compared them to the houses of New York with their gables, turrets, and chimneys. Hayes took 31 days of superhuman efforts to cover a space of 75 miles in a bee line, but estimated at 550 with all the windings and detours. These prodigious accumulations are explained by the quantities of ice sent down from all sides. On the east the Humboldt Glacier incessantly discharges great fragments from its frontal wall ; from the north come other masses impelled by the winds which frequently blow from that quarter ; from the west two fjords contribute a steady stream of blocks of all sizes. Nevertheless the straits are sometimes partially disencumbered and thrown open to exploring vessels by the rapid currents and fierce northern and north-eastern gales, which prevail especially in winter. ¥ * i V > *MF - . -11 1 o o O o o IB £ - THE ARCTIC ARCHIPELAGO. 95 The Polar Sea ahd its Approaches. North of the Robeson Channel and Parry Island stretches that Polar Sea which the first American explorers (Kane, Hall and Hayes) supposed to bo "free," hut which Narea and Greely afterwards found to be filled with "old ice," the accumu- lations of different epochs partly melting in summer and again frozen during the long winters. According to Greely the pack-ice here rarely exceeds 7 or 8 feet, although in one of the fjords of Grinnell Land some was found apparently over 12 feet thick. The crystalline mass increases in thickness during the winter and even in spring to the middle or end of May, and then diminishes in summer. Hence the thicker masses accumulated in the straits and in the Paleocrystic Sea would not appear to be old ice which has remained stationary since its formation, but heaps of blocks pressing one against the other, and gradually growing in size by the addition of other fragments cither thrown up on top or drifting underneath. In the Polar Sea much of the drift ice differs in form from the Greenland ice- bergs. Instead of rising in sharp points, precipitous sides, and irregular domes, it generally presents vertical walls and flat upper surfaces, thus resembling the prodigious cubic blocks seen in the Antarctic waters. Greely and his companions observed nearly a hundred from 30 to over 300 yards thick. As in the Austral seas these regular masses do not originate, like the Greenland icebergs, in glaciers discharging their contents seawards far beyond the coastline, but they are " land ice" deposited on some level plain and then gradually pushed forward by the pressure of the inland pack, and thus at last sent adrift like a raft. In winter nearly all the islands of the Arctic Archipelago are united with each other and with the American mainland by continuous frozen masses, consisting of old fragments soldered together by young ice. But despite the floes and other icy fetters covering the Arctic seas, the currents and tides still make their way through all the straits and sounds. The early navigators who penetrated into the polar waters in search of the North -"West Passage carefully observed the undula- tions of the tidal waves, in the hope that their course might indicate the quarter whence came the great Pacific current. But these phenomena, influenced by the most diverse conditions, form of the basins, breadth and depth of the channels, direction of the winds, alternations of temperature, salinity of the water, quantity of drift ice, have frequently perplexed and deceived seafarers, rather than aided them in their researches. The prodigious accumulations of ice often observed in Smith Sound and the Kennedy and Robeson Channels seems to be in a large measure due to the con- flicts of opposing currents in these confined spaces. One such current is a branch of the Atlantic Gulf Stream, which frequently brings driftwood and wreckage from great distances. But the most powerful current is that of the Polar or Paleo- crystic Sea, which often breaks rip the ice-floe, and sweeps its fragments away to Baffin Bay and the Labrador waters. The large driftwood sent down through Robeson Channel shows that this current comes from beyond the Polar Sea, on the shores of whose basin no trees grow except dwarf willows scarcely an inch high. 06 NORTH AMERICA. But the driftwood here in question appears to be that of the walnut, ash, or pine, which could come only from the temperate zone. Possibly some of it may be brought from soiith Japan with a branch of the Kuro-Sivo, entering Bering Strait and then sweeping round to the north-east in the direction of Greenland. In Lancaster £ound, and the other channels through which Baffin Bay corn- Fig'. 3G. — C'HAjra-Ei.s leading to Tan Paleocrtstic Sea. Seal? 1 : 7,000,000. municates with the west polar waters, the tides are very low ; the highest scarcely exceed forty inches, and are usually not observed at all. Under the pack south of Melville Island the low tides rise only one or two inches. In all these inland channels the icebergs are also of very small size. During the whole of his voyage from Lancaster Sound westwards, Parry met none rising more than 30 feet above the surface. The humidity which is precipitated in these regions under the GRANT AND GKINNELL LANDS. 07 form of snow or rain is far less than in Greenland. During a whole year Parry recorded only forty.tjjree days when a few drops of rain or flakes of snow fell, and - : . .: v: . fZTTj. ":.r; " ■:•: ■; -. :: ~ :;:;:_-; l z - n";:iif :: "i; -~: — _r;: m . -:!..: :: i -:_ -: n : r "_r 7. _mi- -.'i- - ~ ~_-:-.~.z ni ----- : v_'i > zzz: :..z_z it _h _-. >;s:r. "''. : —-! -"- i; i - ;--.;;: • : :c~ : = _:.:.■: . --.."I : -" in ..n~ : .. -f ~_-:~ : : -: t: • .."_..--:■: -'. _:n: - . . . r ri :: ri_ei : •_: :. rr':_" passinz : rn : uu 2- ". zz±-. voFtcrr. ?-::. ; j_rf- ~-- :: .- - z,-. _:~._" s '-_~_ :: : • r~7'._: n. - rein i^iri :::m : im :n- : ~ ni;:r f- imc. - Il?:cl -r.~ • - *.- :■-. ™_'n m • v-l :; n-: ^-. . : ~ in; nmn-: - - - ' " - . - " _ - ' r ~ " - - - ■ - ... ...": . - . :>- mn r — "— - . _ - " . _ . " : :'-•: _ l. ~~ •"t i n: ::- — — V :7 _ :o:eL - -.- 1: ' ~ zz ±iores:n : : . : ~ - - - "" " in.: m : r:.o" 1.. "_ . _\ _ . _ ■ ■ : - . t -:::■:•?: I : - .o 1 - _ i. :ni — n.i --::- L — .1 ." :.i~ : :: m ;L ::: ?:~s , ?r. ~-_ j vm:i: : pen v ::;l." -" . — - .- —l- ,-,.--',"- -; ;.- tic 1 : "i: -in i ;nrer. '-—'- mf ssl reiram . .-- - — -•' In "—■ ' - .:_:'_ - l.-.- -.".': i . '"_"_■ 7 : . .. . ' . - :..._"" 1- . "ronmer. nre :o~:n n 7 : i: " -: :_.. - — r- >-,-" I. _--::".-;. innon izTei. " . n : — .~_ . .."_ : - : - - n ■ _7e 7 n " "- — • •"?.- : : . "i - ~ . . . - :: n " : 7tvlv:7 : - 1 i. -_:: '.-: ' i . -■ . ; i...n: i j-In: _.. -i " ~^z-?~ rlL-jiir- £:~ fr^n ir.e " : l'1 2 '- "■--- - - - . -_ . ~ ~*~" - . - _ _---_ .'. '.— '. - _nsi t: .1 n ■ :•:. ■ ":^: •. mi : .. ■: ■: :-r ; ~l-. : i-. i". n -i : r. :: ; : - - : : ,:■■*= znae: • - BAFFIN LAND. 00 and 82° north latitude is attributed by Greely to the slight annual snowfall, and the precipitous form of the rocks, on which the snow is unable to lodge. South of Grinnell Land the Ellesmere coast facing Greenland continues to pre- sent a line of steep cliffs along the shores of the straits, -but the interior has not yet been visited. All these shores, both of the Archipelago and Greenland, arc disposed in parallel terraces at levels up to a height of 1,500, and even 2,000 feet, and the shells embedded in the rocks are identical with those of the neighbouring seas. On the flanks of one mountain Kane counted forty-one regular steps like those of a gigantic staircase. On the margins of lakes, which were formerly marine inlets gradually separated from the sea, Greely also found large driftwood sufficiently preserved to be useful as fuel. The banks of Archer Fjord, an inlc Lady Franklin Bay, contain thick beds of vegetable fossils in the form of coal. Baffin Land. Baffin Land, which is the largest island in the Arctic Archipelago, and which is shown on numerous maps as divided into several fragments, skirts the west of the Greenland waters between Hudson Strait and Lancaster Sound. It has a total area of at least 265,000 square miles, and this vast expanse is considerably increased by its numerous insular dependencies. The two most important of these islands are Livang at the north-east corner, which has received the name of Bylot in memory of the almost forgotten captain under whom Baffin served, and Tujakjuak, the Resolution Island of the English charts, which lies at the south-east angle towards the entrance of Hudson Strait. Baffin Land itself is disposed in three sections, Aggo in the north, Akudnirn in the middle, and Oko in the«south, these Eskimo terms being explained to mean the " windward land," the "midland," and the "leeward land." The east coast of Baffin Land is dominated by a gneiss and granite range, whose sharp crests in several places reach an altitude of 6,500 feet and even more. The lofty headlands projecting eastwards rise precipitously above the surface, and beyond them in the interior isolated or serrated black crags are seen towering above the white expanse of the snowfields. One of the best known of these eminences is Raleigh Peak (4,600 feet), which was so named by Davis in 1585, and which presents the aspect of a great Alpine summit rising to the south of Exeter Bay. The seaboard is indented by fjords which penetrate far inland, terminating at low ridges, by which they are separated from other inlets of similar formation on the west side. The whole region is thus divided by deep fissures into parallel sections, which a subsidence of the land would resolve into separate insular masses. These fissures themselves are subdivided at intervals by transverse ridges, either natural rocky barriers or the remains of moraines, which for the most part enclose small lakes or tarns. Notwithstanding the inaccessible character of the land, due to its rugged surface, the sudden changes of temperature, the blinding snowstorms, fogs and fierce gales which prevail, especially in summer and autumn, the Eskimo succeed 100 NOETII AMEEICA. in crossing Baffin Land from sea to sea, and seven of their routes are indicated on the map prepared by Boas. Whalers have also crossed from east to west the south-western part separated by Fox Strait from Melville Peninsula. In 1876 Roach, after traversing a small coast range on Cumberland Bay, descended from lake to lake to the vast plain where lies the Xettilling, or Kennedy Lake, one of the chief trysting-places of the Eskimo hunters and fishers. From the few explorations made in the interior it appears that, west of the eastern coast range, Baffin Land is occupied by granite hills, which fall gradually down to the silurian and fossiliferous Limestone western plains. Lakes, which were formerly marine gulfs and channels, are dotted over the centre of this plain, on which are still found the remains of the walrus, whale and other marine animals. Amakjuak, one of the lakes not yet visited by Europeans, is reported by the Eskimo to lie not far from the north side of Hudson Strait. The much larger Lake Kennedy is connected with Cumberland Bay on the east side by an almost continuous chain of meres and ponds, although its overflow is discharged westwards to Fox Channel. In the mountains of Baffin Land occur mineral deposits that have not yet been worked. Coal and graphite have been found in many places, but steatite (soap- stone) and beds of driftwood are less abundant. The former is used by the natives for making their lamps, and even the latter has acquired some value since the industrial conditions have been so profoundly- changed by contact with the Europeans. In the islands skirting the north side of the long line of channels between the Baffin and Bering seas, the mountains present in many districts a formidable appearance with their steep escarpments, terraced cliffs, and vertical walls. But the average height of the peaks, crests, or plateaux, scarcely exceeds 800 or 1,000 feet. Few summits attain an elevation of 1,050 feet, although in this part of the Arctic Archipelago some eminences rise to 2,300 feet and upwards. Such is that in North Kent, an islet at the north-west extremity of Tujau, the North Devon of the English charts. The rocky shores of this island and of the other members of the Parry group stretching westwards, present here and there the fantastic outlines of fortresses whose ramparts consist of horizontal layers of lime- stone and argillaceous sediment, forming an alternating series of raised and depressed surfaces. Other promontories form huge masses of gneiss interspersed with garnet ; some again are columnar basalts ; but in no part of the archipelago has the presence of volcanic cones, ashes or scoriae been placed beyond doubt. In the Parry group the oldest formations occur in the east, the more recent in the west. Thus north of Lancaster Sound the rocks are crystalline, granite or gneiss, followed westwards by silurian strata, and still farther west by carboni- ferous sandstones and ferruginous limestones in Bathurst, Byam, Martin, and Melville Islands, and other limestones associated with Jurassic rocks in Prince Patrick Island in the extreme north-west. The coal measures of the Parry group date from the same age as those of Bear Island, north of Scandinavia, and are overlaid by the same marine limestones. These coincidences at such vast distances THE WESTERN ARCTIC ISLANDS. 101 have been appealed to in support of the hypothesis of a great continent which formerly comprised all the Arctic regions, but which has partly subsided in both hemispheres. The "Western Insular Groups. West of Baffin Land the peninsulas and islands skirting the northern shores of British America must be regarded as a geographic unit independently of their present junction with or severance from the mainland. The channels winding between continent and islands are relatively shallow, nowhere more than 260 fathoms deep, so that a slight subsidence of the waters would transform the Fig. 38.— Baeeow Strait. Scale 1 : 5,030,000. Part £oiven West of ureenwich . 1C0 Allies. insular groups to peninsulas. On the other hand a corresponding upheaval of the marine level would convert into fjords and even straits, the chains of lakes which at a former epoch were evidently branches of the sea. The contours of the archipelago as traced by the present coastlines are a passing phenomenon of no permanent geographical importance. In this respect the whole peninsular region, limited southwards by a line continuing westwards the north coast of Labrador, and terminating at the Mackenzie delta, forms part of the Arctic Archipelago. The Melville peninsula, attached to the continent by a narrow neck of land ; the Boothia Felix peninsula, which the first explorers supposed to be an island ; lastly Adelaide Land, scarcely severed from the mainland by Sherman Bay, thus belong to the same natural division as King William, Prince Albert and Bering 102 NORTH AMERICA. Lauds. The abortive straits indicated on the side of Hudson Bay by the Wager and Chesterfield inlets, and on that of the Polar Sea by Sherman Bay, are the natural limits of this region of the Arctic insular world. Throughout the whole of these peninsulas and islands there is a complete absence of mountain ranges properly so called. The highest summits observed by explorers do not exceed 1,650 feet, and their apparent relief is even diminished by the snows covering hills and plains alike. Nevertheless, the surface is much broken and often studded with lakes. In Prince Albert Island some peaks on the west coast have the appearance of volcanic cones, though MacClure was unable to determine their true character. For vast spaces the coastlands consist of dolomites, whose nearly horizontal strata stretch away uniformly for immeasurable distances. Near the shore the bed of the sea, visible to a considerable depth thanks to its whiteness, resembles a marble pavement. As in other parts of the Arctic Archipelago numerous indica- tions of upheaval have been observed in this region. Here and there old beaches are found covered with shells and driftwood, and in Cornwallis Island one of these beaches now stands 1,000 feet above sea-level. On the shores of Banks Island MacClure and his party collected fossil wood, petrified acorns, and branches, and these objects are now preserved in the English museums not only for the sake of their scientific value, but also as mementos of these heroic expeditions. Even on the coast of the Paleocrystic Sea Greely's companions discovered petrified forests, and so early as 182G Robert Jameson had verified the existence of fossil plants attesting a former temperate and even tropical climate in these Arctic lands. Climate. But the climate has undergone a vast change since this vegetation flourished ; it will doubtless pass through further modifications, and one of the proofs of its instability is the incessant oscillation of the magnetic pole and of a pole of low temperature above the Arctic Archipelago at a great distance from the true North Pole. In these regions the magnetic needle no longer serves to indicate the north, as was already remarked by Forster in the last century, so closely do the lines of unequal declination approach each other. They converge from all quarters, not, however, in the direction of the geometrical north, but towards the southern part of the Boothia Felix peninsula. By following the indications of the compass James Clarke Ross was thus able approximately to determine the place where the needle points towards the centre of the planet, and this twenty years before the circumnavigation of America had been completed. On the site of the observatory the deflection from the vertical was still one-sixtieth of a degree ; consequently the actual position of the pole should be a short distance seawards in the direction of the south-west. At that time, that is, in 1831, the converging point of all the magnetic currents in the northern hemisphere was 1,370 miles south of the true pole. Thus was discovered under another form the " polar rock," the magnet which mediaeval mariners supposed to exist in the northern regions, and which CLIMATE OF THE ARCTIC ISLANDS. 103 attracted the waters and ships. Round this rock the sea was supposed to rush iu cataracts into the depths of the earth. The northern lights were also formerly believed to increase in number and intensity in the direction of the pole, thus illuminating, like the solar rays, the long night of 50, 100, or even 150 days that Arctic navigators have to pass in those high latitudes. This foregone conclusion of physicists has not been verified by observation. The auroral coruscations are in fact rarer and usually less vivid in the Arctic Archipelago than in Labrador and !Nbrth Scandinavia. They mostly roll upwards in the form of whitish ribbons, undulating in space like streamers of Fig. 39.— Magn-etic Pole. Scale 1 : 2,300.000. West of Greenwich , 00 lliles. pale light against the black ground of night. The phenomena of refraction are also very common in the unequally heated atmospheric strata resting on the polar seas. Islands, vessels, hills, and icebergs assume the most fantastic forms ; the moon becomes oval or even polygonal and develops an encircling halo, while several suns shine in the firmament, all connected by crosses or circles of light. Eefraction also at times elevates the line of the horizon far above its true position, as when Parry sighted a coastline 100 miles distant. The vibrations of sound become equally intensified, the scrunching of frozen snow under passing sledges being heard at a distance of nine or ten miles. 'Apart from the consideration of latitude, the annual temperature is lower in 104 NORTH AMERICA. the Arctic Archipelago than in Greenland itself. At Port Rensselaer Kane recorded 97° below freezing-point Fahrenheit ; Nares and his companions endured a cold of 90°, and MacClure 94° at Mercy Bay in January. But meteorologists accept these figures only as probable approximations, for the mercury freezes at — 40 D F. while spirit thermometers are untrustworthy beyond — 58° F. In any case the winter temperature in these regions is extremely low, averaging — 32" F. in Grinnell Land and the Parry Islands, and at Port Rensselaer — 36° F. in March. The only month when the mercury stands above freezing- point is July, when the moisture is precipitated in the form of rain, snow or sleet prevailing during the rest of the year. Even farther south the mean winter temperature is about — 22° F. on the west side of the Davis and Baffin Seas.* By a most remarkable meteorological phenomenon all winds, from whatever quarter they blow, have the effect of raising the local temperature in these regions. During calms, that is, the normal winter weather, the heavier and colder air prevails with higher barometric pressure. But when the equilibrium is disturbed and the atmospheric currents rush in, the actual cold diminishes considerably, although it is more felt and more irksome to travellers than the intense cold of calm weather. As a rule a rapid rise of temperature is not welcomed by explorers, because followed by aerial disturbances and storms. The increase of heat is also generally accompanied by thick fogs, which greatly contribute to the disappearance of the ice-pack. It breaks up and, as the Eskimo say, " is eaten by the fog." Flora and Fauna. Although of a lowly type, the flora of the Arctic Archipelago is not lacking in beauty. In Grinnell Land the " willow groves " scarcely one or two inches high cover extensive tracts with green tints, while the lichens of all kinds — brown, red, yellow, and green — seem to present more vivid shades of colour than in other lati- tudes. Vast spaces are also covered with red saxifrages and with the dryas, a tiny rose with tufts of white flowers. In a few weeks the plants complete their life history, bursting into bloom almost as soon as they appear above tbe snows. The margins of many lakes are fringed with tall grasses 20 inches high; but the vegetable kingdom supplies nothing suitable for fuel except driftwood, and even this is plentiful only at the entrance of Davis Strait and on the coasts facing the Bering Sea. The lands, however, contiguous to the American mainland produce a lowly plant, the cassiope ictragonia, very rich in a resinous substance which is carefully collected and used as " firewood." The plants gathered during * Temperatures in various parts of the Arctic Archipelago : — North Latitude. Mean Temp. Summer Temp. Winter Temp. Winter Island . . 66' 11' . . +9° F. . . +34° F. . . _20° F. Repulse Bay . 66° 25' . . +6° 8 . . +40° 24° Igloolik . 69° 20' . . +5° . +34' . 21° Port Eowen . 73° 14' . • -H° . +36° 24° Port Leopold . 73° 50' . . +3° . +33° 8 . . —32° Mercy Bay . 74° G' . -4-2° . +37° . —28° Port Rensselaer. • 7S° 37' . . —1° . +38° . —31° FAUNA OF THE ARCTIC ISLANDS. 105 the Penny expedition, chiefly along the shores of the Wellington Channel between North Devon and Cornwallis Island, comprised as many as fifty-four phanerogams. The islands have also their fauna ; like the American mainland, they are inhabited by the wolf, fox, hare, lemming, ermine ; and the Eskimo speak of them I as the "Land of the White Bear " in a pre-eminent sense. The musk ox roams as far north as Grinnell Land, which was formerly also frequented by the rein- deer. At least one species of bird, the ptarmigan (lagopus rupestris), passes the whole year in the same region, to which about thirty birds of passage flock in vol.. XV. I 106 NORTH AMERICA. summer. Aquatic fowl, with brilliant plumage, visit the bays for a few weeks, and then take wing for the continental plains. According to Otto Torrell the species of indigenous birds are twice as numerous in the wooded parts of boreal America as in the islands south of Lancaster Sound, while in these the proportion is three times greater than in the Parry Group and Grinnell Land. No birds migrate beyond the terminal headland of this region. The family of passeres, represented in British North America by twenty sjiecies, has only two in the Parry Islands, where is also found a solitary bird of prey, the stryx nyctea. The North Polar islands, like those of the Antarctic region, are frequented by myriads of the eider duck (somateria mollmima), and here the various families of birds always congregate together in large colonies in such a way as not to encroach on each other's domains. When first visited by the Arctic explorers those frequenting the more remote islands of the Archipelago were so tame that they allowed themselves to be taken by the hand. Like the birds the fishes diminish in the direction from south to north. Within the polar zone the marine waters contain at most about a dozen species, while the freshwater lakes are almost entirely uninhabited, though one variety of salmon is still met so far north as Grinnell Land. North of Cape Sabine in the channels leading to the Paleocrystic Sea not a single cetacean has been found, and only one species of seal penetrates beyond these channels. But in the cold waters of Baffin Land the large cetaceans were formerly very numerous. The early navigators speak of schools comprising as many as a hundred whales. About the year 1840 some one hundred and fifty whaling vessels still yearly frequented these seas, and especially the neighbourhood of Cumberland Bay. But in 1860 they were reduced to about twenty, and now scarcely any are seen, the whale having been almost exterminated in those high latitudes. Here, however, the seal still swarms, and some inlets are inhabited by the cod; the variety captured off the south coast of Baffin Land is said to have a more delicate flavour than that of Newfoundland. The mosquito, scourge of the Arctic regions south of 70° north latitude, almost entirely disappears in the more northern islands. One variety of spider reaches as far as the Parry group, which, however, lies beyond the range of the beetle and butterfly. Yet these insects are still numerous in the islands near the mainland, where some species are remarkable for their brilliant colours. Inhabitants. The insular Eskimo, far less numerous than those of Greenland, are undoubt- edly allied to them in race and speech, although long isolation has developed consi- derable diversity amongst the several groups. In an area approximately estimated at 800,000 square miles the whole population scarcely exceeds two or at most three thou- sand souls. The different tribal or family subdivisions are generally named from the districts usually occupied uj them. Thus those settled on Hudson Strait are the Siko- suilarmiuts, that is, the Mint, or "People, of the Iceless Shore." So also the Aggo- INHABITANTS OF THE ARCTIC ISLANDS. 107 riiiuts and Akudmr-miuts (Oko-niiuts) of Baffin Land, and many others. One of the most divergent tribes, at least in their social usages, are the Talirpings, the only community which, till recently, occupied an inland territory. They dwelt on the banks of Lake Kennedy, inhabited by the seal ; but now they reside on the sea- shore, like all the natives of the Archipelago. Like them also, they have greatly diminished in numbers since the arrival of the European explorers. One of the strongest, if not the strongest, of all the Innuit groups is that of the Neckilliks, who formerly held the isthmus of Boothia, but who, since the middle of the cen- tury, have migrated towards the northern and western shores of King William Land. Here they find seal and fish in abundance, and hunt the reindeer in sum- mer, and are thus able to lay up sufficient supplies for the long winter days. About the second decade of the present century the natives of Cumberland Bay were said to number about fifteen hundred persons ; but in 1884 Boas estimated at a hundred, more or less, the whole population of Baffin Land, one of the least, deserted regions of the Archipelago. Contagious diseases, and especially syphilis, introduced by the white sailors, have certainly been the cause of these deplorable ravages. In 1883 diphtheria, attributed by the Eskimo to Boas himself, was added to the other disastrous epidemics, while the extermination of the race is hastened by infanticide, prevalent in some tribes. The famines, by which the population has often been decimated, have often wrongly been assigned to the falling off of the fisheries. Doubtless, the whale has almost entirely disappeared, and is now pursued by the Eskimo only in Hudson Strait and the neighbouring waters. But the seal, which is not captured by the European whalers, is still found in multitudes along the shores of Baffin Land. In spring, however, it is difficult to take, the ice having become too weak to bear the hunters, while still too strong to be forced by their kayaks. They are also frequently kept ashore by continuous stormy weather, and the distress is greatly increased when a member of the tribe happens to die, custom then requiring all hunting and fishing to be suspended for several days. Vestiges of old habitations have been met by most explorers at various points of the seaboard. The remains of cabins occur in all the Parry Islands, and large villages formerly stood on sites hundreds of miles remote from all present camping- grounds. The objects of human industry found nearest to the pole were a sledge, a lamp, and a scraper, collected by Fielden on the shores of the Paleocrystic Sea six or seven miles below 82° north latitude. Greely also discovered some ruins in the interior of Grinnell Land, which, however, seemed to have been merely temporary structures. In this region he draws the limits of the zone of per- manent habitation to the north of 80° north latitude, a line coinciding with the extreme frontier of the territory roamed over by the reindeer and visited by the walrus. The natives have legends about the Tornits, an older race of barbarians un- acquainted with the bow and arrow, but skilled magicians. In certain mythical tales they are confounded with monstrous beings, said to have had human bodies and the paws of dogs. The Tornits were either exterminated or else died out, because " the world was too small to contain both races." The Eskimo themselves, though i2 108 NORTH AMEUH'A. the least numerous of men, are confirmed Malthusians ; although lost as it were in the immensity of space, the earth still seems scarcely rich enough for their support. Compelled to lead a nomad life by the necessities of the chase, fishing and Fig. 41. — Melville Peninsula and neighbouring Isles, from ah Eskimo Chart. (Wfnter./s/anc/J Land oF /Vannovv trade, the natives are familiar with vast stretches of their insular domain. By inquiry made at a small number of intermediate stations an intelligent explorer might easily make himself acquainted with all the routes lying between the shores INHABITANTS OF THE ARCTIC ISLANDS. 109 of the Baffin Sea and the Mackenzie delta. But in undertaking long expeditions the Eskimo hunters require to take every precaution, for many communities are separated by the traditions of blood and the vendetta. Even those not rendered hostile by hereditary feuds foster feelings of mutual jealousy and suspicion. Amono-st the Nechilliks a 'woman armed with a knife advances to meet all strangers, offering them peace or war. After certain preliminaries they are received into the tribe on a footing of equality ; wives are assigned to them and they cease to belong to the maternal group. Marriage is, in fact, one of the chief causes of expatriation, the husband nearly always leaving his own people to dwell with those of his bride. The adoption of strange children also contributes variously to intermingle the tribes, and half-breeds have become numerous since the whalers have visited these regions and founded stations, round which the natives have grouped themselves. So great is the influence of the whites that from the shores of the Baffin Sea to Alaska the medium of intercourse is a sort of Anglo-Eskimo, into which some Danish, Portuguese, and even Polynesian words have also been introduced. The French term "troc" is usually employed for barter of all kinds; but despite all these foreign additions, the vocabulary of this jargon is very limited. The Eskimo of the Arctic Archipelago recognise no authority. Custom is their only law, and when some unforeseen event upsetting all their calculations requires them to depart from established usage the change must be made by common consent. The natives have a vague belief in a supreme being, but they carve no idols, nor do they perform any ceremonies to escape from a future life of everlasting winter or secure the blessing of an eternal summer. Marriages are generally arranged long beforehand, the girls being occasionally betrothed in their cradle. Men and women, as well as the different tribes, are distinguished by the cut of their hair, the fashion of their dress, and the tattoo marks on nose, cheeks, and chin, but the practice of tatooing is falling into abeyance. Although recognising no masters the community formerly paid great deference to one of the elders, the wise man who knew everything, and who was consulted on all weighty matters. He indicated the auspicious days for changing residence, undertaking journeys and hunting expeditions. He presided at the public feasts and interceded for the community with the propitious deities. After his death he received great honours, and in his grave were deposited arms, utensils, orna- ments, and other valuables ; especially hunting and fishing gear wherewith to pro- vide himself with food in the other world. Instead of the kayak the natives now generally make use of boats purchased from the whalers. But they retain most of their old industries, and as artists greatly excel the Labrador and Hudson Bay Eskimo. Their garments, implements of the chase, and carved objects are made more solidly and with greater taste. Their surprising sense of locality is alluded to by all explorers, and they have often prepared charts, the accuracy of which has been recognised by European mariners. To one of these charts executed by the Eskimo, Iligink, Parry was indebted for the discovery of the Fury and Hecla Strait. 110 NORTH AMERICA. ToP0GRAPH\. A region such as the Arctic Archipelago could scarcely contain any centres of population beyond a few permanent or temporary encampments. At present the en- campment most frequented by the European seafarers is Kekerten, situated on an island in Tinikjuarbing (Cumberland) Bay at the entrance of the Kingnait Fjord. At Kekerten have been established the only two whaling stations in the Arctic Fig. 42.— Cumberland Bay. Scale 1 : 2,200,000. iNGUA^XMeteorological Stshion , ^^trr-'.^j'-r^ W - , 30 MUes. Islands, and these have attracted the natives from all quarters. Kingua, another group of huts at the northern extremity of Cumberland Bay, owed its passing fame to the choice made of it by the German Commission as the site of one of the circumpolar meteorological observatories. Farther south Hall discovered in Fro- bisher Bay a large number of objects, cordage, bricks, bits of iron, wood, and coal, winch he supposed must have belonged to Frobisher's expeditions of 1576-78, and which are now preserved in the Greenwich Naval Museum. The island where these relics were found is known to the natives by the name of Kodlunarn, " Island of the White Man." A few islands and inlets along the coast have also become famous in the annals TOPOGKAPHY OF THE AECTIC ISLANDS. Ill of geographical exploration, thanks to the shelter they have afforded to navigators, or else to the forcible sojourns made in them by Arctic explorers. Thus Fort Conger in Lady Franklin Bay, and the red syenitic headland of Cape Sabine in Ellesmere Land, recall the misfortunes of the disastrous Greely expedition. Fig. 43. — Reteeat of the Fbanklin Expedition. Scaie 1 : 2,000,000. Erebus 8t Terror in bhe ice septe Erebus &. Terror abandonned april 1848 West of Greenwich .36 Miles. Becchey Island at the south-west corner of North Devon was the chief rendezvous of the polar explorers, thanks to its happy position at the intersection of the straits between the Wellington, Lancaster, Barrow, Prince Regent, and Peel channels. 112 NORTH AMERICA. Winter Harbour, on the south coast of Melville Island, has been known since Parry wintered here in 1819, and here also was effected in 1853 the junction of the circumnavigation routes by the meeting of Kellett and M'Clure. A Winter Is/and is also one of the historical places in the Arctic Ocean, thanks to Parry's residence here during his second expedition, when his vessel became entangled in the " no thoroughfare " of Repulse Bay south of Melville Peninsula, and when he vainly endeavoured to cross the strait to which he left the name of his ships, the Fury and Hecla. Port Bourn and Port Leopold, facing each other on the Prince Regent Strait, where nothing is to be seen except " sandstone, snow, and ice," similarly recall the sufferings of other Arctic heroes, while Bellot Strait between North Somerset and Boothia Felix perpetuates the memory of that devoted mariner who disappeared amid the floes of Wellington Channel, and in whose honour a monument was raised on Beechey Island. But the best-known places are those where have been discovered the traces of the retreat made by the ill-fated companions of Sir John Franklin. Such are Point Victor//, where M'Clintock came upon the first indications of the disastrous result of the expedition ; Cape Felix near the spot where the two vessels were blocked by the ice-pack ; Erebus Bay where the graves of the dead begin to show along the beach; Simpson Strait where the survivors at last reached terra firma; Famine Bay, crossed by one only of the fugitives to perish in his turn a little farther on in an inlet of the Adelaide Peninsula. The calamitous end of this expedition, which gave rise to so many expeditions in search of the castaways, was the chief cause of the long suspension of Arctic exploration that then ensued. But research will in future be facilitated by the establishment of fixed stations which can be provisioned from various points of the mainland. Nor have all the resources of modern industry yet been enlisted in the service of Arctic navigation. The Polaris was the first steamer employed in this service, and that so recently as the year 1871. In 1850 John Ross let off two carrier pigeons in Barrow Strait, and one of these birds reached Scotland in 120 hours after a flight of 2,500 miles. A table of the Arctic lands with their chief subdivisions will be found in the Appendix. CHAPTER IV. ALASKA. HE north-west extremity of North America bears the official desig- nation of Alaska, which according to some etymologists is derived from the native words Al-ak-shak, or " the Great Land." This name it takes from the curved peninsula which projects to the south-east of the Bering Sea, and is continued westwards by the chain of the Aleutian Islands. A/iaska, the name formerly attributed to the penin- sula in most written documents, has gradually yielded to the form Alaska, which has been extended to the whole region as far as 141° west longitude. This region formed part of the Russian empire till the year 1867, when it was sold to the United States for a sum equivalent to about £1,500,000. Although public opinion in America had long protested against this purchase, the price is certainly low enough for a territory nearly 600,000 square miles in extent, and which is not exclusively a land of mountains, frozen lakes and snows, as has been so often asserted. Alaska possesses on the contrary vast forests, mines, and fisheries. With exception of the Seal Islands its resources have doubtless been but imperfectly developed, while the white population is still thinly scattered along the south coast, the only inhabitable district. Nevertheless, it seems strange that the Russian Government should have consented to surrender its vast possessions in the New "World, which, although of no fiscal value, added not a little to the dignity of the empire. The step has been explained by the desire felt by Russia, at that time at enmity with Great Britain, of showing her sympathy with the great republic, and of sowing the seeds of future dissension between the two conterminous states. The south-east part of Alaska is indicated by natural frontiers ; starting from 54° 40' north latitude, it comprises the coastlands as far as the divide formed by the coast range. But where this divide lies more than 10 marine leagues (34 miles) from the sea, the frontier towards British America will be traced at this distance parallel with the coastline. Near the superb landmark of Mount St. Elias, whose crest is probably just within the American border,* the limit becomes quite con- * Dall's determination of 1874 gave 60° 20' 45'' latitude; 141° 00' 12" longitude, just twelve seconds on the American side. 114 NOETII AMERICA. ventional, and has hitherto been provisionally surveyed only at the point where it is crossed by the Yukon River ; it is merely an ideal meridional line drawn to Demarcation Point on the Arctic Ocean. Had the political limit followed the most salient feature of this region, it would have been drawn from Mount St. Elias towards the ranges which enclose on the east the sources of the Copper River, and then those of the Yukon and its affluents. With the addition of these upland valleys Alaska would have been enlarged by at least one-third, though its economic importance would scarcely have been enhanced, these parts of the country being almost uninhabited. The present population, estimated at less than 34,000 by the census of 1880, would at most have been increased by perhaps 2,000 or 3,000 had the whole of the Upper Yukon basin been annexed. All the adjacent islands — Chichagov, Baranov, Admiralty, Kuprianov, Prince of Wales, Revilla-Gigedo, and the surrounding clusters of islets — belong politically to the United States, as does also the Aleutian chain as far as the island of Attu. Omitting these islands and smaller inlets, the coastline of Alaska has been estimated at about 8,000 miles. But this long stretch of seaboard with its creeks, gulfs, and bays, numerous especially along the south coast, is but of slight value under such a frigid climate. All that part of Alaska lying north of Bering Strait is, so to say, cut off by the line of the Arctic Circle. Exploration. During the first decades of the eighteenth century the Russians had already a A r ague knowledge of the existence of the " Great Continent in the East," which was reached by Gvozdev in 1730. But on the maps constructed from current reports the name of Alaska is attributed to an island in Bering Strait. Systematic exploration first began in 1741, when Bering and Chirikov, the former accom- panied by the naturalist Steller,- the latter b} 7 the geographer Delisle de la Croyere, made independent surveys of the districts near Mount St. Elias, coasting the sea- board and Aleutian chain, but without penetrating inland. In 1745 Novodiskov reached the island of Attu from Kamchatka, and was followed by numerous adventurers. The Spaniard, Quadra, got no farther than the southern islands in 1775 ; Arteaga stopped short at the Aleutians, and Cook, who penetrated into the Arctic Ocean as far as Ice Cape, also confined his surveys to the coastline. But the Aleutian Islands had already been overrun by Russian traders and hunters ; the costly American peltries had found their way to the European and Chinese markets, and the extermination of the natives had begun. In 1785 Jelikov founded several settlements on the mainland, although these were occa- sionally designated in a general way by the name of ostrorn, or " islands." Being absolute masters of the seaboard, and controlling the inland trade through the native hunters, the Russians were able to effect their exchanges without making long journeys into the interior. Nevertheless, they gradually became familiar with all the south-western parts of Alaska south of the Yukon. In 1829 the Russian half-easte Kolmakov ascended the Nushagak, flowing to Bristol Bay, as r. >< - <: K 3 P t Sr. Elias. Scale 1 : 400,000. / •. .*> — -.■■/'■:■'■ ■ ■ ' i- ' '■■:'■" ' - ■ 1 I4i°iO' 'Aest oibreenwich . 6 Miles. The glacier itself also seems to disappear at the point where the slopes begin to gradually fall off in the direction of the sea ; here are mingled in chaotic con- fusion heaps of shingle and boulders, shale, slate, granite, quartz, porphyry, trachyte, basalt, amid which are here and there visible the layers of blue ice, 120 NOKTH AMEBIC A. foaming torrents or sheets of smooth water. Lower down its extensive moraine formation, which covers the glacier for a width of about nine miles, is itself clothed with a layer of earth, where grows a dense forest of spruce, alder, willows, birches, and maples, while the whole mass of stones, clay, brushwood, and trees, is borne along at an extremely slow rate by the glacier flowing beneath. The accumulated forest-clad debris, thus advancing seawards, at last overwhelms the coast forests themselves, the aspect of nature changing from year to year with the progress or retreat of the glacier, the shifting refuse, floods, crevasses, or sudden eruptions of the underground stream. The Yahtse-tah, or Jones, as this river has been re- named, plunges, "broad as the Thames," into the hidden galleries of ice and moraines, and after a sub-glacial course of about eight miles reappears in countless channels winding between the mud and sand flats of a broad delta. Alpine climbers have reached a height of 11,461 feet on a steep ice-ridge in the amphitheatre of secondary summits encircling the crater-like cirque of the St. Elias. This mountain surpasses all others on the globe in the extent of the ice and snow fields, which have to be traversed between their lower limit, about 3,000 feet above sea-level, and the terminal crest. In fact, at some points it might be possible to ascend the whole way from base to summit on an uninterrupted sheet of ice, for the Agassiz glacier advances to the water's edge, terminating in sparkling white cliffs 150 to 300 feet high, which descend 650 feet on the marine bed. One of the " dead" glaciers, that is, covered with earth and shingle, sloping north-westward in the direction of Yakatat Bay, has a surface of at least eighty square miles.* Westwards, Mount St. Elias is continued by a ridge which falls rapidly, but whose crests none the less present a superb aspect, and send down glaciers of considerable size. One of these falls precipitously from a lateral valley as if to bar the course of the Copper River ; but the ice itself is visible only through the crevices, the lower part being almost everywhere covered with shingle, earth, scrub, and even trees. A little farther -on the deep inlet of Prince William Sound interrupts the coast range, which is only indicated at intervals by the chain of islands half closing the entrance of the sound. But beyond this break the oro- graphic system reappears in the Kenai range, which is continued seawards by the large Afognak and Kadiak islands, and still farther west by a few islets running parallel with the Aleutian Archipelago. The Shugach (Chugach) Alps, whose snowy amphitheatre, 7,200 feet high, encircles the northern bend of Prince William Sound, are connected by spurs with the St. Elias chain, and the volcanic group east of the Copper River may be re- garded as forming part of the same system. Mount Wrangell, the highest peak in this region, has often been described as rivalling the St. Elias in height ; but it would appear to fall considerably below 18,000 feet,t while its neighbour, Mount Tillman, is about 1,000 feet lower. It is certainly a volcano, and although ice- capped like the Kamchatka cones, its crater emitted dense volumes of vapour in * Harold "W. Topham, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, July, 1889. t Tet Lieutenant Allen asserts that it rises 18,400 feet above the forks of the Copper River, which are themselves '2,000 feet above the sea. This would make it 20,400 feet or 1,000 higher than St. Elias. THE ALASKAN PENINSULA AND ISLANDS. 121 1884. Mount Drum is also of igneous origin, though now extinct. Other neighbouring summits may also be of volcanic formation, for the banks of all the headstreams of the Yukon present thick layers of scoria?, which would seem to have been ejected by YTrangell and the surrounding mountains. Immediately above a gorge of the Copper Eiver rises the "Spirit Mountain " (2,800 feet), so called by the natives, who occasionally hear the muffled roar of the evil spirits within its recesses. West of the Atna River the crests of the hills encircling the Kenai Peninsula still maintain an altitude of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet. The Alaskan Alps, which form a curved prolongation of the Rocky Mountains properly so called, are still to a great extent very little known. At the Perrier Pass, between the Cliilkoot Sound and the source of the Yukon, they are little over ■4,000 feet high, while the Miles Pass, lying much farther west between the Copper and Xanana valleys, falls, according to Allen, to less than -'>,100 feet, though the neighbouring summits are double that height. The depressions of the rugged plateau, which here forms the waterparting, are flooded with small lakes or tarns. Xone of the peaks of the Alaskan Alps appear to attain 1 0,000 feet ; but although less elevated than the southern coast range they are much more regular, develop- ing a vast curve, whose main axis runs parallel with the south coast and the Yukon valley. The Alaskan Peninsula and Aleutian Islands. Towards the neck of the Alaskan peninsula, the range skirts Cook's Inlet at no great distance from the superb Iliamna (Ilyamua) volcano, by the Spanish navigator Arteaga named the " "Wonderful." Its highest peak rises to a height of 12,000 feet ; but the crater, which occasionally emits vapours, stands at a much lower elevation. ^Nevertheless Petroff failed to reach its rim owing to its steep sides and dangerous ravines, swept by avalanches of snow. Xear Iliamna rises the less elevated Mount Redoute, a perfectly regular mass of scoria?, which was emit- ting smoke when seen by Wrangell in 1819. These two cones form the eastern limits of the long Alaskan peninsula, the middle of which is marked by the superb Ycniaminov with its encircling cortege of snowy peaks. Yeniaminov was in con- tinuous eruption during the years 1830 — 40. Be)-ond this point begins the long chain of the Aleutian Islands, which sweep round from the north to the south-west and then to the west, developing a regular arc of a circle with a radius of about 900 miles. In no other part of the world are seen two systems of terrestrial prominences presenting a greater analogy of forms and origin than do the two volcanic chains of the Aleutians prolonging the American peninsula of Alaska, and the Kuriles, continuing the Asiatic peninsula of Kamchatka. The resemblance between these insular groups is extended even to the bed of the ocean. Both enclose relatively shallow seas on their concave northern sides, while on the opposite side they plunge into the abysmal waters of the Pacific. Xevertheless, within the Aleutian range occur depths of 750 and even 1,000 fathoms. The whole chain is divided into the four secondary groups VOL. XV. K 122 NORTH AMERICA. of the Fox, Andreanov, Eat, and Near Islands, the last so named from their proximity to Siberia. Although lying on the same fault in the terrestrial crust, the peninsular Alaskan ran O ►J 30 O a o ►J o THE ALASKAN RIVERS. 125 been formed, not centuries but ages ago, for amongst the remains were those of the mammoth and of the horse, long extinct in America. According to Dall and others, there are no traces of glacial action west of the Rocky Mountains greatly exceeding the present limits of the frozen streams, and it is remarkable that no erratic boulders are met on the plains near Kotzebue Sound. But in South Alaska, and especially in Lynn and Glacier Bays clear proofs occur of shrinkage. Some marine islands are certainly old moraines, and above the Muir glacier rise high striated cliffs, which were at one time entirely covered by the ice. George "W". Dawson even endeavours to show that the whole space between the Rock} - Mountains and the coast ranges was formerly filled by a vast icefield with a northern (rend. The Alaskan Rivers. A few streams ice-bound in winter flow in summer to the Arctic Ocean, cutting a channel through the floe-ice which here fringes the coast. Such are the Corvine (Xigalek-kok), the Meade, the Nunatok (Xoatak), and the Kovak, the last two falling into Kotzebue Sound. But south of these streams, which are seldom navigable, the coast i3 reached by the Yukon, the most copious of all American rivers flowing to the Pacific, and one of the largest in the whole world. Petroff and other American geographers assign it a volume one-third greater even than that of the Mississippi, which would imply a mean discharge of about 740,000 cubic feet per second. This estimate, however, does not appear to be based on accurate measurements, and it should also be remembered that in winter, when the Mississippi is overflowing its banks, the Yukon on the contrary is deprived of its affluents, which at times are frozen through to the bottom ; hence its winter- discharge represents but a very small proportion of its volume in summer. In an}- case the Yukon compares favourably in size both with the St. Lawrence and Mississippi, its length from the source visited by Schwatka to the mouth of its chief branch being no less than 2,000 miles, and the area of its basin about 400,000 square miles, considerably more than three times that of the British Isles. It is also entirely free from falls or rapids and accessible to steamers as far as British territory above the Lewis and Pelly confluence. The region of the Upper Yukon was long known to the Canadian and Scotch trappers of the Hudson Bay Company ; but they were unable to connect the course of the rivers frequented by them with that of the main stream, the chief artery of the whole of north-west America. The Yukon was first ascended in 1SG3 by the Russian trader, Ivan Lukin, to the British frontier, though the account of his journey was never published. The oldest authentic chart of the river within the present limits of Alaska, is due to Ketchum and Laberge,* servants of a telegraph company, who iu 1867 pushed forward to Fort Selkirk, 380 miles beyond the conventional frontier. Then after the cession of Alaska to the United States, Raymond was charged with the official survey of the whole fluvial basin within- the former Russian territory. * Not Lebargc, as the name of this Canadian is reproduced in all English works. 126 NORTH AMERICA. According to Schwatka the main Lead stream descends from the Perrier Pass (4,100 feet), so named in honour of the French geographer. Collecting its waters in Crater Lake on the opposite slope of the Chilkat Mountains near the Lynn Channel, the Takheena torrent, gradually swollen by numerous tributaries from Fig. 49.— Chilkat axd Ciiilkoot Bays. Scale 1 : 650,000. Unexplored Regions West' or Greenwich 12 Miles. glaciers on both sides, rushes from fall to fall, from lake to lake, to the Alaskan frontier, where it is already a copious river. Eclow the only well-marked gorge occurring throughout the rest of its course, where its bed is narrowed to about 100 feet, the Yukon, or Lewes as it is here called, presents an uninterrupted navigable waterway of 1,800 miles to its mouth.* The Hotalinqua, one of its Fr. Suhwatka, Along Alaska's Great River. THE ALASKAN BIVERS. 127 farthest headstreams, rises far to the south iu British Columbia, where its course lies through a long chain of lacustrine depressions connected by deep rock}- gorges. Owing to the length of its valley Dawson considers that this branch should be regarded as the main stream. Farther down the Newberry, the Big Salmon, or d'Abbadic, and the Polly follow on the eastern skrpe ; the last mentioned is sometimes designated as the Yukon throughout its whole course, on the information supplied by Campbell, who descended it in 18-52. But Schwatka has shown that the Lewes is the true Yukon, Fiur. 50.— Xoeiom Bay, and (3-bea.t Bexd of t:ie Yl"i;o". 160° Wsst of Greer. v.ch Depths. 0to32 Feet. 32 Feet and upwards. 60 Miles. having a discharge about a fifth greater than the Pelly, 37,000 as compared with 29,000 cubic feet. Beyond the Bocky Mountains it is joined by the Stewart and the Porcupine, or Bat, whose valley runs parallel with the coast of the Arctic Ocean. At this confluence the Yukon is only about 400 feet above the sea, and here becomes navigable for steamers drawing 3 or 4 feet of water. Lower down it expands to a breadth of some rmles and ramifies into numerous branches winding round islands and islets masking the real river banks. Lower down the branches converge in a single bed, where the navigation is somewhat obstructed by the so-called " Bamparts." But beyond this rocky gorge the stream again 128 XORTH AMERICA. expands, and here tends to encroach on the right bank in accordance with the law regulating the course of large rivers in the northern hemisphere. Here also the Yukon is joined by the Tanana, its largest affluent, which was ascended for the first time in 1848 by Mercier as far as the Tautlot confluence, 150 miles from its mouth. At the junction of the Koyukuk, another large tributary from the north-east, the Yukon, here 2,800 yards broad, bends round to the south-west, thus eominsj Fig. 51.— Yukon Delta. Scale 1 : 4,500,000. 7^ '/hid' - West of uretnnich P 65 Derths to 32 Feet. 32 Feet and upwards. 125 Miles. within 30 miles of Norton Sound, with which it is connected by an easy portage. Below the isthmus the Yukon continues its south-westerly course, and then trends to the west and north before ramifying into the numerous branches of its delta. Although the mainstream was long known as the Kvickpak, from the native name THE ALASKAN EIVEBS. 129 of the middle branch, navigation is confined to the Aphun, or northern branch, which has an average breadth of 1,G00 yards, winding for 40 miles through a willow-fringed bed to an open estuary half obstructed by a bar. The Kvickpak, Kusilvak, and all the other branches with their lateral channels are similarly separated from the sea by sandy bars, none of which are flooded by more than 10 feet of water. The sea itself is here endangered by alluvial banks, and so shallow that clear water 30 or 40 feet deep scarcely anywhere occurs GO miles off the shore. In summer and autumn the river rolls down a vast volume of water which melts the floe-ice and tempers the climate along the coast. But the floating ice becomes again united in winter and spring, forming a cordon of islets round the delta. Fluvial ice also obstructs the delta during this season, and one year persisted so long that the salmon in vain attempted to ascend the channels. Although really a very large watercourse, the Kuskokvim, compared with the Yukon, is regarded only as a secondary stream. It even in some respects belongs to the same fluvial system, for in its lower reaches it approaches the Yukon, and traverses the same alluvial plains. Both rivers are connected by lakes or lagoons alternately dry and flooded, so that the traveller is often uncertain which fluvial basin he is traversing. On the southern slope of the coast range the largest stream flowing entirely within Alaskan territory is the Copper River (Atnah), which has been ascended by Allen to the head of the navigation below the easy portages leading to the upper course of the Tanana. After describing a great curve to the north, west, and south, round the highlands dominated by Mount "Wrangell, the mainstream is joined from the east by Chittynia, which is the true " Copper ' : River. One of its affluents sends down such a quantity of the metal in solution that salmon are unable to live in its yellow waters. Hence Allen was not justified in applying the name of Copper River to the section of the mainstream which lies above the Chittynia confluence. A few miles below this confluence the united streams plunge into Wood's Canon, one of the wildest gorges in the whole of America. This tortuous chasm, nearly 3 miles long, is contracted in some places to scarcely 120 feet between its vertical basalt walls ; but at certain sudden turns the fissure expands into broad basins without any visible issue. The gorge is enclosed by rocky terraces from 100 to 500 feet high, black and almost destitute of vegetation. Here and there a few stunted shrubs are seen on the cliffs, and from an over- hanging ledge a broad rivulet is precipitated into the stream, though for the greater part of the year the fall is a solid crystalline mass. Below the gorge begins the lower course of the Copper River, which, after winding to the west of the chain terminating in the " Mountain of Spirits," receives contributions from the surrounding glaciers, and ramifies into several channels intersecting the alluvial plains of its delta. Occasionally the stream is partially blocked by the projecting glaciers, greatly endangering the navigation. The Taku, Stikeen, and other rivers flowing to the southern fjords belong to Alaska only in their lower course, nearly the whole of their catchment basins being comprised in British territory. 130 NORTH AMERICA. Climate of Alaska. The character of the Alaskan climate is sufficiently indicated by those rivers winch send down such enormous quantities of ice to the ocean, and which are themselves ice-bound for eight months in the year. The central depression traversed by the Yukon partly corresponds with the natural parting line between the two sections of the country, draining one to the Arctic, the other to the Pacific waters. At one point near Fort Yukon the Arctic circle itself touches the Kg. 02. — IsOTHEllJIAL LlXES OF AlASKA. Scale 1 : 20,000,000. WesfoF. G --™ 40 Miles. course of the river, and after intersecting the tundras crosses Kotzebue Sound, leaving Bering Strait entirely within the temperate zone. Hence the climate of the northern section resembles that of the Polar Archipelago. During Ray's residence at Barrow Point the glass never rose to 6-4° F., while it often fell to — 13°. A temperature of — 52° has even been recorded, but the region south of Bering Strait is much warmer, the mean heat being several degrees higher than under the corresponding latitude on the east side of the continent.* This comparative mildness is due to the disposition of the mountain ranges, * Contrast between the west and cast coasts of America under the same latitude : — Sitka, on the west side, 57° Lat. . . 41° F. mean teinpsrature. N;iin, on the east side, 57° 10' ,, . 26° ,, „ THE CLIMATE OF ALASKA. 131 which shelter the southern coastlands from the polar winds. On the other hand, the great curve of the peninsula of Alaska, continued westwards by the Aleutian Chain, deflects towards Asia all the cold waters from the Frozen Ocean, while the tepid stream from Japan penetrates freely into all the bays and inlets along the southern seaboard. The winter snows are soon melted, and the harbours are covered only by thin sheets of ice, so that vessels are able to ride at anchor throughout the year. But if the winters are mild, the summers are moist and relatively cold. The sky is mostly overcast by the clouds gathered up by the prevailing south-east winds, and precipitating their contents almost incessantly.* Being interrupted by numerous breaches, the mountainous Aleutian Chain receives a slighter rainfall than the coast-ranges sweeping round in the direction of British Columbia The precipitation is heavy, especially on the coastlands which begin at St. Elias, and which lie at a right angle with the winds and currents of the north Pacific, the annual rainfall here rising to several yards. Fort Tungas, the southernmost station in Alaska, is the wettest spot on the whole American seaboard, from Bering Strait to Tierra del Fuego. But on the opposite slope of the mountains, in the Tanana and Kuskokvim valleys, the climate assumes a more continental character. Throughout the interior of Alaska, the ground is permanently frozen below the surface, in some places to a depth of at least 30 feet. The moisture is thus prevented from filtering through, and the upper strata, even on the slopes of the hills, become swampy in the warm season. On the other hand, the carpet of mosses and lichens covering the ground arrests the effect of the solar rays in the depths of the sub-soil. f The main current of the Japanese "Black Stream" strikes the southern extremity of the Alaskan seaboard, here ramifying into two branches, one of which flows south-eastwards along the Oregon and Californian coasts, while the other turns back along the shores of Alaska and the Aleutian Chain. Within this vast semicircle, the water has a mean temperature of 48° to 50° F., that is, a few degrees higher than the neighbouring coast. But north of the Aleutians, the mean temperature of the oceanic waters diminishes rapidly, though shifting with the seasons according as the various secondary currents predominate in the Bering Strait. According to most navigators, the southern waters prevail during the greater part of the year ; but throughout the winter a glacial north-west wind penetrates into the strait and is accompanied by large quantities of water which usually follow the Asiatic coast, while the more tepid currents turn back along the A merican coast. Thus is produced a sort of eddy, which is revealed by the Rainy days at Sitka, 2S.5 in the year (Dall) . t Meteorological conditions at various points of Alaska : — Extremes N. Lat. Mean Temp of Cold. of Heat. Kainfall Barrow Point . . 71° 18' . . — 4° F. . . —52° F. . +65' F. . 1 inch. Fort Yukon . 67° 12' . . +15° . —36° . . +66° . — St. Michael . 63° 27' . . +24° . —54° . . +75° • 2 (?) Sitka . 57° 3' . . +41° . — 4° . . +75° . 81 Fort Tungas . 54° 46' . . +44° 0° . . +91° . 84 Analashka . 53° 29' . . +36° 0° . . +77° . 4 132 NOETH AMERICA. drift ice, but which disappears when the Strait is annually closed by the ice-pack. In the inlets along both sides of the horn of Alaska, the tides rise to a great, height, over 50 feet in the Kuskokvim estuary, and in Cook Strait forming a bore of 26 feet. In these waters the " woollies," or sudden squalls sweeping down from the surrounding uplands, are much dreaded by mariners. Floha of Alaska. To the difference of climate corresponds a striking contrast in the aspect of the two seaboards facing one another on Bering Strait. The Asiatic side, washed by cold waters, is almost destitute of vegetation beyond mosses, lichens, or a few dwarf bushes in the sheltered places, while on the American coast flourish whole forests of shrubs, growing to a height of 20 feet, and yielding abundant crops of berries. In spring, the plains are diversified by the brilliant colours of flowering plants, and the terraces of Cape Lisburn, at the north-west angle of Alaska, look like a garden.* But the northern coasts, between Kotzebuo Sound and the Mackenzie estuary, are completely destitute of trees, driftwood being the only timber known on this seaboard. Nearly the whole region extending ncrth of the Arctic Circle is a mere stretch of marshy plains or tundras perfectly liniform in appearance, frozen or spongy according to the seasons, and thickly dotted over with argillaceous knolls a few yards high. To cross these dreary wastes, the traveller has to jump from knoll to knoll at the risk of falling into the intervening depressions and getting entangled in the matted roots of the herbaceous or woody vegetation. North of the Yukon the willows and alders are mere scrub and grow not in continous forests but in scattered clumps on the less spongy mounds and knolls. Even the Aleutian Islands have no forests of spontaneous growth, the only large trees being the firs or pines planted since the beginning of the present century. These trees have struck root, but do not germinate, and unless carefully protected the little woodlands of Amakuak and Unalashka must soon disappear. The herbaceous vegetation of this archipelago nowhere presents any Asiatic types ; American in the east, it becomes purely Arctic towards the western extremity. The European clover thrives well in South Alaska. Great forests, chiefly formed of conifers, begin with the semicircle of coast- lands sweeping round southwards in the direction of British Columbia. The section of Kadiak Island facing westwards is still under grass, while the opposite side is already covered with timber, the parting line between the two zones corresponding with the difference in the atmospheric currents. The west is exposed to the cold Asiatic winds, the east to the gales from the American uplands, which blow with such fury that the trees, especially in the Alexander Archipelago, are all inclined in the direction of the west.f These southern forests, where the most valuable species is the yellow cedar (cupressus nutkatensis), are scarcely less * Berthold Secman, The Voyage of the "Herald." t Seton Karr, Alaska. z •Jl < a O 3 m z fc> •- 7, 2 o> Range of Chief Axdial Species ej Alaska. Scale 1 : 20,000,000. 165: V'te^z cf L^ee f1 wicH Tundras. Limit nf Dwarf Willow. Rancre of Conifers. Limit of Murray Pine. Limit of American Larch. . £20 Miles. fragrance, and the fruits of their flavour. The berries gathered in the neighbour- hood of Sitka are almost tasteless. Fauna. According to Dall, the Alaskan fauna comprises 62 species, all of which occur elsewhere— in Siberia, the Arctic Archipelago, British America, and the United States. The northern continuation of the Rocky Mountains forms the divide between the Canadian and Arctic types on the one hand, and those of Oregon on the other, both zones merging together towards the horn of Alaska (Dall). The white bear is met only in the regions facing the Polar Sea, black and brown bears IB J NORTH AMERICA. being common everywhere else, and especially in the Kinai peninsula and St. Matthew Island. The caribou wolf and the orignal are disappearing, as is also the tebai or "mountain sheep" (haplocerus americanus), a kind of chamois with long white fleece. The reindeer is found only in the wild state, although the Chukches, on the opposite side of Bering Strait, possess large herds of tame reindeer. The musk ox is extinct, but its remains occur along the banks of the Yukon. Alaska is much frequented by the rhodostethia rosea, loveliest of the mew family, and distinguished hy its peach-coloured plumage. On the other hand the mild summer climate of the southern woodlands attracts a Mexican species of humming-bird, which ranges to the north of Mount St. Elias (A. R. Wallace). No reptiles or batrachians are found anywhere in Alaska, except ?■ solitary species of frog. The southern rivers teem with fish, and the salmon, smaller than that of Oregon, ascends the Copper River to the foot of the glaciers and snow-clad slopes. The remarkable houlakan {thaleichthys pacificus), found in all the coast rivers from South Alaska to the fjords of British Columbia, is so fat that the natives use it for lighting purposes, whence its English name of the candle-fish. Although constituting the chief resource of Alaska, the families of seal and cetaceans frequent only a small number of islands, and can no longer be regarded as all belonging to the general fauna of this region. Nevertheless seals occur even in the inland lakes, and notably in thelliamna basin (Petroff). The northern manatee (rhytind Stellcri) was completely exterminated towards the close of the last century ; the whale, also formerly pursued by hundreds of American vessels in the Bering waters and even in the Arctic Ocean, has almost disappeared from the strait and taken refuge behind the floe-ice in the Polar Archipelago, returning to the open sea after the deparhire of the whalers. Inhabitants. The few inhabitants of North Alaska, and even of the Aleutian Islands, are of Eskimo stock, and constitute one-half of the whole population. The Tinneh, who occupy the valleys of the Yukon and its affluents, are, on the contrary, true " Red Skins," while the Thlinkeets and Haidas of the southern archipelagoes and coast- lands belong to the same group as the peoples scattered along the shores of British Columbia and Vancouver's Island. The Eskimo, who appear to be least affected by foreign influences, form wandering communities along the Arctic seaboard. They are now reduced to about 400, and like most other Innuits are rapidly diminishing in consequence of the extermination of the marine animals by the American whalers. Some villages have lost half of their inhabitants since the middle of the century, and in many places occur the ruins of former habitations, dating from remote times, when " men spoke like the dog." The tribes are still in the stone age, and those met by Ray at Barrow Point even refuse the gift of matches, preferring to strike fire by the primitive method of friction. These Eskimo of Barrow Point are the most peaceful and gentlest of mankind. INHABITANTS OF ALASKA. 135 They have no chiefs, either elected or hereditary, and dwell in a state of absolute equality. Neighbouring septs are never at war, and even crimes, if committed, go unpunished. The idea of personal property is scarcely developed, except in respect of boats ; hence the people make no scruple to help themselves to what- ever takes their fancy, unless it be in a cabin or a cache. On the other hand when in their turn deprived of anything, they make no demand for restitution. Wrangling is unknown, the children are left to amuse themselves in their own way, and the women are treated on a footing of perfect equality with the men. Fig-. 54. — INHABITANTS OF ALASKA. Scale 1 : 20,000,000. 0to50 Fathoms. Dopths. 50 to 500 Fathoms. 500 fathoms and upwards. , 320 Miles. No contract is considered settled until ratified by them, and not even the shortest trip is undertaken without their advice. But the marriage tie is easily broken, especially on the occasion of long hunting or fishing expeditions, when the weaker women remain in the village with the old and feeble, while the others accompany the men. There are no funeral rites, although apparitions are much dreaded. They also fear Tunya, the invisible spirit, dwelling in the earth, the water, and the heavens ; Kiolya, the spirit of the aurora borealis, is likewise dreaded, and when 136 XOETH AMEBIC.!. obliged to be abroad during the starless nights they arm themselves with an ivory wand against the malevolent genii. In certain districts the aged and children are killed during times of scarcity. As amongst the Siberian Chukches, the old people themselves ask to be despatched, whereupon they receive a close of nux vomica ; then their throats are cut and they are delivered to the dogs, who will be devoured in their turn. The Eskimo of Alaska seem to have lost some of their skill as carvers and sculptors. In the American museums are preserved admirable carvings on bone and wood, repre- senting deer and other animals in all attitudes, carvings which no native artist could now execute. The Alaskans also cultivate pottery ; but as boat-builders and fishers they are greatly excelled by their kindred of Greenland, and their arms are also of a very rude type compared with those of the eastern Innuits. The Alaskan villages have always their kashga, or place of assembly, a large structure where are held public deliberations and theatrical performances. In the Kuskokvim district, these " municipal buildings " are furnished with benches disposed in amphitheatrical form. The ordinary dwellings consist of interlaced branches covered with a thick layer of hard earth and lighted by a block of ice placed in a narrow opening on top. The Aleutians, so named by the Russians, call themselves Unungun, or Kaga- taya Kungios, that is, " People of the East," thus attesting their continental origin. All the early travellers describe them in much the same language that Ray applies to the Eskimo of Barrow Point. Thus Cook speaks of these islanders as the most peaceful and inoffensive people he had ever met, who might serve as examples for the most civilized nation on the globe. The Aleuts are in truth the most patient and resigned of mortals, never uttering a complaint or shedding a tear ; yet they are animated by the deepest affection for their families, and have been known to die of hunger in order to leave their children the remaining stock of provisions. As long as they enjoyed independence the Aleutians were a cheerful people ; but after enduring the hard yoke of the Russians they became moody and de- pressed. No indignity had been spared them, and their manhood was so com- pletely broken, that they henceforth submitted to everything with absolute resignation. Hence during the first period of the Russian rule, they rapidly dim- inished in number, and phthisis threatened to sweep away the whole race. Accord- ing to Jelikov, the island of Kadiak alone had formerly 50,000 inhabitants ; but in 1779 the whole population of the archipelago had been reduced to about 20,000. Fourteen years later they numbered little over 8,000 and in 1840 were reduced to 4,007. But since then they have again begun to increase, while the national type has been greatly modified by crossings. Although the "Creoles," as the half-castes are called, resemble their Aleut mothers more than their Russian fathers, the race on the whole seems to have been physically and morally improved. The Unalashka islanders had already been half Russified in character and usages fully fifty years ago. Hence the usages of the Aleuts are known mainly by tradition and the discoveries made in the old habitations and graves. In the Shumagin Archipelago INHABITANTS OF ALASKA. 137 Piuart has explored one of the burial caves, where the bodies were surrounded by various objects, such as carved and painted masks, some differing little from those of the ancient Toltecs, while others were applied to the face, doubtless in order to beguile the evil spirits, and avert their malice. The dead were stretched on mossy beds containing a complete collection of the implements and utensils at that time manufactured by the natives. In other graves the skeletons lie in a crouched attitude, the head resting on the knees, as in the case of the Peruvian mummies. The Eskimo apply the term Ingalit, that is, " Unintelligible," to the Alaskan Indians, whose language they do not understand. These Indians, a branch of the widespread Athabascan or Tinneh family, occupy the Yukon basin above the low- lving alluvial tracts, and towards the south they reach the coast between Cook Inlet and the mouth of the Copper River. But in many places the transitions between the various races are so gradual that various tribes are grouped by some observers with the Eskimo, by others with the Red Skins. They are collectively called " Siwaches," this term being nothing more than an English mispronunciation of the Canadian " Sauvages," and they have themselves adopted the designation of " Boston Siwaches," thereby betraying a consciousness of their ethnical kinship with the United States Indians. On the Upper and Middle Yukon the Canadian trappers group them, under the name of Loucheux, with the neighbouring Indians within the British frontier. The special tribal names are for the most part derived not so much from any particular or characteristic features as from the localities occupied by them. Thus have been named the Yukon-Kuchins, or " People of the Yukon," the Tenan-Kuchins, or "People of the Knolls" (on the Tanana), the Kocha-Kuehins, or " Lowlanders," near the delta, the Hun-Kuchins, or " Foresters," the Atna-Tana, or "People of the Atna " (Copper River). These last, if not all the others, speak an Athabascan dialect, and Allen has detected a striking resem- blance between them and the Mexican Apaches, who are also members of the Athabascan family. Lying beyond the sphere of Russian and American influence, the Indians of the Tanana basin have preserved their primitive usages. They still paint their faces, wear head-dresses of feathers, insert bits of bone or stone in the cartilage of the nose, and adorn their skin robes with fringes and glass beads. The Tanana valley is probably the only part of North America where the Red Skin may still be seen in his primitive state. In one of the Upper Yiikon tribes customs survive which recall the time when the widow sacrificed herself, as in India, on the funeral pyre of her husband. When the flames begin to dart up between the fagots, she is required to clasp the corpse, and allow her hair to be singed, and then thrust her hand through the blazing fire to touch his breast at the risk of her life. In return the ashes are placed in a pouch which she wears for two years round her neck.* One of the most numerous and original of these tribes are the Kinai or Thnaiana, that is, " Men " who dwell in the Kinai Peninsula, east of the horn of Alaska. Amongst them the Shamans are by far the most respected members of the community. But they are expected on all occasions to recite songs, and to * Sheldon Jackson, Ala ka. VOL. XV. L 1S8 NORTH AMERICA. compose new verses in order to astonish and propitiate the genii. The most revered of superior beings is the constellation of the Plough, supposed to be the ancestor of the race. The raven is also venerated as their father, and this deity is the centre of all their national myths. "Water, islands, rocks, everything in nature is peopled by spirits, who must be invoked to secure success in all their undertakings. Klush is the " great lord of the hill-tops," and he must be offered eagles' plumes, fish, seal-oil, in return for the anticipated game. The populations scattered along the South Alaskan seaboard, south-east of the Copper River and in the adjacent archipelagoes, are known by the collective names of Thlinkit and Kolosh. The latter term, which has fallen into abeyance since Russian times, appears to be a corrupt form of the Aleutian Kaluga, meaning " disk," in reference to the lip ornament, analogous to the botoque of the Bolocudos, worn by the Thlinkit women. Since 1840 the Thlinkits are said to have decreased from about 20,000 to 7,000 or 8,000, subdivided into numerous tribal groups, according to the islands or river valleys inhabited by them. Such are the Chilkats and Chilkuts of Lynn Sound, the Thahk- Inches about the headwaters of the Yukon, the Sitkas, from whom the capital of Alaska takes its name, the Stickeens, Tungas, and others. The Haidas of the Queen Charlotte Islands are also represented in South Alaska. All these natives are distinguished by their prominent features, so different from the flat Eskimo face, and presenting a certain Jewish physiognomy. Although almost indifferent to cold, owing to their fish diet, they suffer much from the ravages of leprosy, by which some are disfigured beyond all human form. They are also infested by a particular species of parasite, the staphylinus pedicuhis. Their spacious and substantial habitations are embellished with intricate carvings, in which the initiated are able to read the family history. Formerly almost every house was also guarded by one or two wooden pillars 30 to 50 feet high, carved from base to top with figures of men, animals, and diverse objects, and at first supposed to be the creation of a grotesque fancy. Now they are known to be genealogical trees, in which each figure represents an ancestor of the race. The totems, or symbolical images distinguishing every family, are introduced, like the heraldic emblems of the European nobles, to commemorate the fame of their illus- trious forefathers. In front of many houses stand two such trees, one for the paternal, the other for the maternal line. Certain villages on the seashore present forests of these sculptured posts sheltered by the natural pine forests of the back- ground. The two great divisions are those of the Raven and the Wolf, subdivided into the secondary clans of the Frogs, Geese, Owls, Eagles, Bears, Sharks, Whales, and others of high and low caste. Some of the figures are executed with surprising truth to nature, attesting the marvellous powers of observation of the natives. But others, such as that of a crocodile on the grave of a chief, represent forms which the Thlinkits can never have seen, and have evidently reproduced from hearsay, or more probably from traditions handed down from times anterior to the migration to their present homes. All agree in the belief that their ancestors came originally from the south-east. INHABITANTS OF ALASKA. 139 Under foreign influences the artistic sense is waning, and already the finest specimens found in their houses and graves have been removed to the American and European museums. The missionaries, also, in their excessive zeal, endea- vour to suppress all the old mortuary rites — exposure of the body on a plat- form or in a canoe, burial in the house or neighbouring forest, submersion in the sea or streams, lastly, cremation, which is held up to special obloquy. Fig. 55.— Tomb of Thlinkit Chief. Although generally of a mild temperament, the Thlinkits do not submit like the Eskimo to oppression. Intertribal wars are frequent, and in 1851 the Chilkats, crossing the Rocky Mountains, joined the Thahk-hiches in an expedition 500 miles from their homes, against Fort Selkirk, which was interfering with the local trade. Most of the tribes have chiefs ; who, however, are bound to conform to custom — they cannot declare war without the assent of the council, and all abuse of power is promptly resented. On the other hand, the greatest honours are paid to them, and formerly human victims were even immolated on their graves. l2 140 NORTH AMERICA. The last captives reserved for these funeral rites were ransomed by the Russians towards the middle of the century.* The whites are scarcely represented in Alaska, except by the " Creoles," nearly all half-breeds of Russian and Aleut descent without any strain of Indian blood. A few Norwegian fishers and American miners reside in the southern districts ; but the recent attempt to attract Icelanders to Kadiak was unsuccessful, those islanders preferring the dryer though colder climate of Manitoba. Topography of Alaska. There are no American stations north of Bering Strait. Barter Island, west of the Mackenzie estuary, is, however, visited periodically during the fair, which is frequented even by the Asiatic Chukches. Barrow Point was occupied for two years only for meteorological purposes ; but a station or harbour of refuge must soon be established for the whalers, either here or at Port-Clarence, -an. excellent haven sheltered by the extreme headland of the American continent. The village of Kinging (Kingegan), facing East Cape on the Asiatic side, is uninhabited except in summer, when it is frequented by the Eskimo from all quarters for trading purposes. During this season the island of St. Lawrence also does some traffic in furs, ivory, and whalebone with the Asiatic continent. On the south side of Norton Sound are met the first white stations, Unalaklit, at the mouth of the river of like name, and St. Michael, an excellent harbour sheltered by a large volcanic island forming the natural port of the whole Yukon basin. Here is the chief station of the Fur Company ; but the surrounding swampy district yields little produce to support an export trade. Throughout its whole course of over 2,000 miles the Yukon has no larger centre of population than its little port of St. Michael. Fort Selkirk, at the con- fluence of the Lewis and Pelly, within the Canadian frontier, has remained a ruin since its capture by the Chilkats, and is now replaced by Forts Reliance and Belleisle, built by Mercier for the Hudson Bay Company. Fort Yukon, con- veniently situated at the Porcupine confluence, was formerly a busy station during the barter season ; but it had to be abandoned when the geographical surveys showed that it stood, not in British, but in American territory. Some 20 miles below Nuklukayet, at the junction of the Yukon and Tanana, the new station of Mercier or Tanana was founded in 1868 by a French Canadian company. It is already one of the most important trading places in Alaska, and here are brought the best peltries by the Atna-Tanas and other Indians, sometimes from distances of over 300 miles. Farther on, the banks of the Yukon are almost completely deserted since the destruction of the Nulatos and other riverain tribes by wars and epidemics. Anvik, at the head of the portage across the tundras to St. Michael, marks the parting line between the Indians and Eskimo, neither of whom ever cross the common border. Ikogmut, on the southern bend of the Yukon, at the terminus of the Kuskokvim portage, is the centre of the Russian missions * Hooper, The Tents of the Tuski. .ARV 'HE ILLINOI: TOPOGEAPHY OF ALASKA. 141 for the whole of Alaska. Lower down, near the bifurcation of the delta, stands the factory of Andreierskig, one of the most important of the Company's trading- places. In this low-lying region there are several large camping-grounds, such as Kaskumuk, Kongiganagamut and Kinagamiut, with a total population of about 3,000 full-blood Eskimo enjoying a relative degree of prosperity. The walrus still frequents the neighbouring coasts, and the natives display as much skill as their ancestors in carving the ivory obtained from the tusks of the animal. On the Kuskokvim the chief station is Kolmakovskiy, founded in 1839 by the Russians 200 miles above the estuary. From Port Alexander, at the mouth of the Nushagak river or Bristol Bay, are exported the skins of the musk-rat, all of which are sold in France and Germany. But the whole trade of the Yukon basin, at most £5,000 a year, has greatly fallen off with the decrease of the native popu- lation, caused by the scarcity of game, drink, and general demoralisation. Nor are the American employes of the Company any longer satisfied with the modest pay which the English and Russian traders formerly gave to their trappers. Not more than fifteen whites are at present engaged in the peltry trade throughout the vast basin of the Yukon, where blankets are still the currency in all transactions with the Eskimo and Indians. The Eskimo inhabiting the islands of the Bering Sea live almost exclusively on fish and game ; but despite the abundance of animals in these waters they are at times prevented by the pack-ice from procuring sufficient supplies. Thus in 1878 as many as 400, including nearly all the children and over a third of the women, perished of hunger in the island of St. Lawrence, out of a total popula- tion of about a thousand. On the other hand the little Pribylov islands have become the chief source of wealth for the whole of Alaska, since the American Company has here established its famous fur-seal " rookeries." The archipelago, long known to the Aleuts under the name of Atyk, comprises, besides a few islets and reefs, the two islands of St. George and St. Paul, discovered by Pribylov in 1786 and 1787, the first 930 feet high, the second lower and dotted over with cones and craters. They -were originally uninhabited, but were soon frequented by Russian and afterwards by English fishers, who pursued the fur-bearing seals so recklessly that these valuable animals were threatened with total extermina- tion. The chase was thus necessarily interruptecl, and would have ceased altogether had not some speculators conceived the idea of converting the island into a vast marine farm, and systematically working the fisheries with a close season. In a few years they were repeopiled, and at present contain on an average about 5,000,000 seals, of which 100,000 are yearly killed by the chartered company which has obtained the concession of the islands from the American Government at a yearly rental of £52,000. The same " Alaska Commercial Company " leases from the Russian Government the Siberian islands of Bering and Copper for a royalty of two roubles for every captured seal, or about £1,000 a year. The whole population of the Pribylov Archipelago, about 400 Aleuts and Creoles, depends directly or indirectly on the company, U2 NOETH AMElil* A. being paid at the rate of fort}' cents (one shilling and eightpence) a skin, besides provisions and housing. But they are unable to dress the pelts, which are forwarded in the raw state almost exclusively to the London market. Rats have not yet appeared in the islands, which, however, swarm with mice ; to exterminate this pest cats have been introduced, which in a few generations have been Fig. 56. — The Seal Islands. Scale 1 : 1,200,000. O to 25 Fathoms. L>epths. 25 to 50 Fathoms. 50 Fathoms and upwards. rm Milts. greatly modified in form, the tail becoming shorter and the voice much changed.* Besides the fur-seal, diverse other marine animals visit the archipelago, and * See a graphic account of the Pribylov Islands and their seal-rookeries in H. W. Elliott's Arctic Province : London, 1886. TOPOGRAPHY OF ALASKA. 143 are pursued by the servants of the company. From 20,000 to 25,000 sea-lions (eumetopias Stelleri) inhabit the island of St. Paul during the summer, and 7,000 or 8,000 pass the season in St. George, where they numbered 200,000 or 300,000 at the close of last century. The Aleuts prefer their flesh to that of the fur- bearing seal, and utilise their skins to cover their baidaras or fishing-boats. The walrus is now met only in Walrus Island, a steep rock rarely visited by the whites stationed at St. Paul. The natives hunt the walrus for its tusks, and the sea-otter for its costly fur, which is usually valued at £12, but which has fetched as much as £100. The sea-otter has been almost completely exterminated in the Fig. 57. — Island of St. Paul. Scale 1 : 240,000. West oF Gree Depths. Bachelors. 32 Feet ;iud upwards. Seal Families. 6 Miles. Pribylov Archipelago, as well as in Cook's Inlet ; but from 5,000 to 6,000 are still annually captured in the group of Saanak islets south of the horn of Alaska. Since the occupation of Alaska by the United States, this valuable animal has gradually increased in numbers by the enforcement of a close season. In the Aleutian Archipelago the chief station is Uuiliuk (I/foolook), better known by its Russian name of Unalashka, on the north side of Unalashka Island at Captain's Harbour, a well-sheltered haven, free of ice throughout the year. The neighbouring island of Unimak does some trade in sulphur, and before the introduction of firearms supplied the Aleuts with obsidian for the manufacture of 144 NORTH AMERICA. knives and harpoons. Nearly all the islands west of Unalashka are at present uninhabited, except Atkha, which has some permanently occupied hamlets, and Attu, at the extremity of the chain, whose inhabitants since the disappearance of the sea-otter have introduced the blue fox, and have also domesticated the wild goose. Near the south-west extremity of Alaska Peninsula, some Norwegians, who have abandoned their mother tongue for English, have established themselves on a deep inlet near Belkovsky, whither they bring the produce of their fisheries and the sea-otters captured in the neighbouring Saanak islets. Recently, attention has been directed to the shoals of cod which abound on this seaboard as far as the Bering Sea on the one hand and the Juan de Fuca Strait on the other. The Alaskan cod, however, is far less appreciated than that of Newfoundland, probably because not so carefully cured for the European and American markets. The Scandinavian settlers at Belkovsky have also perhaps another source of future wealth in the carboniferous deposits of Unga in the Shuniagin group, although the coal is very sulphurous. On the mainland follow other stations at intervals of about 60 miles. But in these waters the most important is St. Pan/, on the east side of Kadiak Island, which till 1S32 was the capital of all the Russian American possessions. But the seat of the administration was, for no apparent reason, then removed to Sitka in Baranov Island, which certainly possesses less advantages than Kadiak. Here the rainfall is less copious, the forests are more accessible, leaving a few open spaces for cattle-breeding, the surrounding waters are richer in fish, and due north of Kadiak runs Cook's Inlet, where salmon attains its greatest perfection in size and flavour. The average weight is no less than 50 pounds, and some have been taken weighing as much as 100 pounds. Nuchek or Port-Eehes, on Nuchek Island, near the mouth of the Copper River ; Yukafat, an abandoned penal settlement near the foot of Mount St. Elias ; and Lituya, on the magnificent land-locked harbour below Cape Fairweather explored by Laperouse, are mere fishing hamlets or stations visited chiefly by explorers. Towards the middle of the century as many as 400 whalers were occasionally assembled in these waters : in 1S80 not more than forty visited all the Alaskan seas. Juneau City, or Marrisburg, at present the largest place in Alaska, stands east of the St. Elias Alps and Cape Spence, at the foot of a steep forest- clad hill not far from the most productive gold mines in the whole territory. The richest deposits are in Douglas Island, separated by a narrow channel from Juneau, which also prepares considerable quantities of preserves and of salmon for the Californian market. Sitka, the Nom-Arkhancjehk of the Russians, was founded in 1799, and became the capital of Alaska in 1832, when it was also declared a free port for the whole world. Nevertheless, it has remained a wretched village of some 300 inhabitants at the head of a sound on the east side of Baranov Island, which is still almost entirely covered with pine forests. Its gold, copper and coal mines TOPOGEAPHY OF ALASKA. 145 are abandoned, and its industries are reduced to fishing and some trade in timber. The town is not vi-ible from the sea, being marked by headlands and numerous islets ; but at the issue of a winding channel it is seen grouped on a rising ground near the bold headland of Cape Edgecumbe aud at the western foot of the superb Mount Verstovia. Westwards the port is sheltered by Japonskiy Island, and, although obstructed by reefs and islets, is spacious enough to acconi- Fig. 5S.— Sitka Bat. Scale 1 : 200,000. ;-:': . West oF ureenwich I35°I5 Tepthi ' | | 320 to 640 Feet. to S3 Feet. 32 to 320 Feet. 640 Feet and npwai'ds. n-.odate a whole fleet, but is scarcely visited except by the regular sttamer from San Francisco. Sitka is regarded as an unhealthy place, doubtless owing to the spongy nature of the soil. The streets are scavengered chiefly by a species of singing raven (corrus cncatotl), a bird which is sacred in the eyes of the natives, but which preys upon the poultry and even attacks swine. Some 20 miles south of Sitka flows a copious thermal and sulphurous spring, which has always been much frequented by the Thlinkits. On the slopes of Verstovia have been discovered some deposits of very pure bismuth. 146 NOETH AMERICA. Farther south the other so-called " towns," Wrangell and Fort Tunyis, are inferior even to Sitka in population and traffic. They are merely factories, which till recently enjoyed some little importance as military outposts against the Indians. But TVrangell was really a large place during the four years between 1 N 74 and 1879, when the Californian miners were flocking to the placers of Cassiar, in British Columbia. From TVrangell they received their supplies and through it forwarded their gold dust. Administration — Instruction — Trade. Although an American possession by right of purchase, Alaska really lies almost beyond the United States from the administrative point of view. Military posts had to be established along the seaboard, the natives having resented the transfer of their territory to new masters. But there were no revolts, the report having been spread that these new masters " had many guns ; " the garrisons were consequently withdrawn as useless. The central government has also incurred some expenditure in the exploration of the country ; but the scientific missions have not been carried out on a strictly systematic plan. The sums voted for the instruction of the natives have not been directly applied, and even the custom- house, introduced at first in Sitka, has been everywhere abolished. In fact Alaska had been considered unworthy to occupy the attention of the Washington Legislature, when the Government felt itself called upon to protect the interests of the Alaskan Company leasing the Pribylov Islands, by declaring the Bering Sea a " closed " basin, and interdicting seal and walrus fishing to all foreign vessels even bevond the line of 3 miles from the shore. But these pretensions seem incompatible with the precedents of international right, and will scarcely be accepted by Great Britain, the power most interested in the question of the fisheries in the northern seas. In 1821 Russia had also attempted to close the Bering Sea ; but although at that time she held possession of both coasts, the claim was not admitted by the other naval powers.* In religious matters the Russian Government has reserved a certain degree of authority, for it still remains the official protector of the Orthodox Greek religion and subsidises the churches of Sitka, Kadiak, and Unalashka. The Russian prelate residing at San Francisco is the spiritual head of all his co-religionists in Alaska. For the education of the natives in Russian, English, Eskimo, or Thlinkit the authority remains in the same way, not with the federal government, but with the Russian priests and the missionaries of various denominations. These religious bodies have in many places taken upon themselves to decree compulsory instruction for all native children between the ages of five and nineteen, and in Sitka they have even exercised judicial functions, condemning to a day's imprison- ment pupils playing the truant. Nevertheless, general instruction cannot, have yet penetrated very deeply, for the whole of Alaska is still without a single periodical of any kind. * J. G. Kohl, Getehiehte der Entdttkung Amerika'i. '- Z > - m z m ADMINISTRATION OF ALASKA. 147 Before 1884 there were neither justices nor police, and except in Sitka, Kadiak, Juneau, and Unalashka, justice was irregularly administered by the missionaries, white landowners or passing sea-captains. In the trading districts the real administrators are the representatives of the Alaska Commercial Company, owners not only of the seal-rookeries, but virtually also of the natives themselves, who, however, are far better treated than during the Russian sway. The whole import trade of Alaska was valued in 1888 at £'04,000. Sitka and the other southern seaports are now connected by a fortnightly steam service with San Francisco, and in summer the magnificent scenery attracts numerous American and other tourists. The project has even already been mooted of a railway to run from the Canadian Trunk Line along the east foot of the Rocky Mountains to the Fpper Yukon basin. The fertile tracts along the Peace River as well as the mineral districts of the Stickeen Valley would thus be opened up for colonisation, and a few immigrants would then undoubtedly find their way to the more attrac- tive parts of Alaska. Sitka is connected by a telegraph with the North American system ; but the line intended to cross Bering Strait and connect the Old and New "Worlds was abandoned in 1867, when this project was rendered useless by the success of the Transatlantic Cable. CHAPTER V. THE DOMINION OF CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. I.— GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. )HE vast stretch of lands occupying all the northern section of North America, and politically defined as the " Dominion of Canada," constitutes no distinct geographical unit. The frontier towards the United States is in a great measure purely conventional, running for about 1,300 miles from Juan de Fuca Strait to the Lake of the Woods along 49° north latitude, an ideal limit which crosses lofty ranges, plateaux, and rivers, irrespective of all mountain axes or divides between the fluvial basins. Thus the headwaters of the Culumbia river lie within Canadian territory, while its lower course flows through the north-west corner of the United States. So also the Upper Missouri affluents rise north of the political frontier, and on the other hand the Red River of the north, main branch of a stream falling into Hudson Bay, takes its origin far to the south of the border near the sources of the Mississippi. Beyond the Lake of the Woods, which is traversed by a tortuous dividing line regardless of all natural conditions, the frontier follows the Rainy Lake and River, and an old portage to Lake Superior. In the region of the great lakes, however, the line coincides with the natural features, skirting the north side of Lake Superior to the Sault Ste. Marie, then dipping south of Cockburn and Great Manitoulin Islands, so as to enclose the whole of the peninsula formed by Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, and, lastly, following the left bank of the St. Lawrence as far as 45° north latitude. But here again begins another conventional line, keeping to the same parallel across rivers and lakes to the vicinity of the source of the Connecticut river. Beyond this point the common frontier runs at first north-east along a mountain crest, and is then further deflected in such a way that the State of Maine approaches at one point close to the right bank of the St. Lawrence and then encroaches on the greater part of the Upper St. John valley. The territory of the Dominion is geographically known in direct proportion to the density of its civilised populations. Canada, properly so called, that is, the part of the St. Lawrence valley comprised between the great lakes and fluvial GENERAL CONSIDERATION'S. 149 estuai - )', is at once the most thickly peopled and the most thoroughly surveyed. Farther west, the points astronomically determined become rarer, but are continu- ally increasing and drawing nearer to each other, thanks to the opening of the transcontinental railway and the rapid settlement of the country. Geological sections and charts are being multiplied ; the main directions of mountain ranges and rivers, hitherto roughly sketched, are being more accurately determined. In the southern regions, near the United States frontier, the early itineraries have Fig-. 59.- Chief Explorers op North America. ~^T ■ ' "W 's*O0r^s6y "— 7&>*tevLZU 4C< p\ pa"-'* 07 *- sj/~~~\ \ /«A<' "^gf 5 "^ 1 ' ^\ Ca&T'irr, ^ttfk^^jZe J»« ir9 A ■ 1 ** West oF Gr-ee 1494. J- C. John Cabot. 1669. Allonez. 1819. F. H. R. Franklin, 1862-73. Petitot. 1494-98. Sebastian Cabot. 1671 Marquette. Hood, and Richardson. 1866. Whymper. 1600. CortereaL 1673. Joliet. 1819-15. Franklin. ., Dall. 1524 Gomez. 1682. Cavelier de la Salle. 1821-30. Graah. 1S68. Ravmood. 1535. Cartier. 1721. De la Verandrye. 1826. Bch. Beechev. 1869-73. Butler. 1542. Cabrillo. ., Egede. 1831. Blosseiffle. 1870. 83. Nordenskliild 1576. Frobisher. 1727. Bering. „ J. C. Ross. 1873-86. Meieier. 1579. Drake. 1730. Gvozdiev. 1833-36 Back. 187f-87. Dawson. 1585. Davis. 1741. Bering and Tchirikov. 1836-43. Nicolet. 1879. Mourier. 1692 (?) Juan de Fuca. 1770-72 Hearne. 1837-39. Dease and Simpson. 1879 83. Schwatka. 1610. Hudson. 177S. Cook. 1842. Zagoskin. 1880-83. Perroff. 1612. Button. 1786. Laperouse. 1851. MacClure. 1881-82. Ray. 1613-15. Champlain. 1786-87. P. Egede. „ Collinson. 1883-84. Boas. 1615 Baffin. 1789-93. Mackenzie. „ Kellett. 1884. Holm. 1619. Monk. 1792. Quadra, Vancouver. 1854-60. Kane. „ Low. 1631. James. 1806. Clarke and LewiB. 1858. Palliser. ., Peck. .. Fox. 1818. R. Ross. 1859. MacClintoek. 1885. Bignell. 1634. Albinel. „ P. Parry. 1860-69. Hall. ., Allen. 1669-62 Chouard. 1818-22. Scoresby. 1862. Milton and Cheadle. 1888. Nansen. ceased to possess anything beyond an historical interest, having already been replaced by more regular surveys. But towards the north our knowledge of the general configuration of the land is still dependent on the broadly-traced routes of such explorers as Hearne, Mackenzie, Back, Bichardson, Petitot, or Dawson. In the northern continent, all the natural divisions mainly follow the direction of the meridian. Thus the Pacific seaboard, the coast ranges, the plateaux and 150 NORTH AMERICA. crests of the Rocky Mountains system, the terraced tablelands, median plain, more or less parallel ridges of the Laurentian and Appalachian chains, and lastly, the Atlantic coastlands are all disposed from north to south, or at least run in the direction from the polar to the torrid zone, whereas the frontiers of the two great continental states have been drawn transversely to all these natural limits. Even in the climates there is no approximate coincidence between the Canadian frontier and any isothermal line, the meteorological phenomena being distributed not so much according to latitude as along greatly deflected curves, which in many places run parallel with the continental coastlines. The zoological and botanical limits are also far from coinciding with the degrees of latitude. Were the Canadian populations grouped in a compact homogeneous mass, the Dominion might be freely developed in a distinct political nationality without en- during the inconvenience of the fantastic frontier traced along its southern border. But this vast region, exceeding the United States themselves in superficial area, is still sparsely peopled, the inhabitants being for the most part distributed along the frontier, and in some places alone, particularly the peninsular part of the province of Ontario, and the region of Lower Canada of which Montreal is the centre, this cordon broadens into loops, where the population is dense enough to constitute really independent groups and autonomous centres of political and social life. But elsewhere along the chain of towns and settlements, the common national senti- ment is weakened by the natural attractions of the conterminous communities irre- spective of fictitious diplomatic limitations. No great importance can consequently be attached to a precarious political frontier liable to be effaced by the least change of equilibrium. It will therefore be more convenient to neglect the geometrical lines traced on the maps by the diplomatists of London and "Washington, and deal separately with the natural regions as determined by mountain ranges, river valleys, and climates. On the other hand, the island of Newfoundland, as well as a portion of Labrador, may be regarded as fragments of the Canadian territory, although not yet forming part of the Dominion as officially constituted. II.— BRITISH COLUMBIA. Rocky Mountains— Queen Charlotte and Vancouver Islands. The limits of British Columbia, as fixed by legislation, are no less eccentric than those of the Dominion itself. In order to simplify the administrative requirements, it was thought sufficient to trace the divisions according to the rough charts at the time available, without any adequate knowledge of the physical conditions. Thus the northern frontier was drawn at G0° north latitude and the southern at 49°. Towards the east, one-half of the parting-line between British Columbia and the North- West Provinces was made to coincide with 120° west longitude, while on the north-west it follows the already described serpentine PHYSICAL FEATUKES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 151 Alaskan boundary. The only natural frontiers are, on the south-west, the Pacific coast, and on the south-east, the crest of the easternmost ridge of the Rocky Mountains. Had the limit been taken as indicated by the routes of tbe Canadian trappers, the discoveries and formal acts of possession made by Vancouver, and the first surveys of the Columbia estuary by Grey in 1792, the basin of this great river, as well as Puget Sound and the Juan de Fuca Strait, would have been assigned to Canada. But the English diplomatists displayed less energy than their American opponents, and the parting-line, as fixed by the arbitration of the German Emperor in 1872, left to the States all the islands and inlets lying south and east of the deepest channel between the mainland and Vancouver Island. The San Juan Archipelago, between the Haro and Rosario Straits, was also ceded to the Americans. Overlooking these arbitrary lines of demarcation, British Columbia may be regarded as a distinct geographical unit by studying separately the whole section of the Rocky Mountains which stretches from the sources of the Yukon to the middle course of the Columbia, and which is indented by innumerable fjords of the seaboard between the Alaskan Islands and the Juan de Fuca Strait. This region has an approximate area of 370,000 square miles, with a scattered population of scarcely 150,000 Indians and whites ; the latter element, however, rapidly in- creasing, at least in the southern and more settled districts. The seaboard was exclusively explored by Spanish and English navigators, especially Quadra and Vancouver, as shown by the geographical nomenclature, although the large island is no longer " Quadra and Vancouver," as had been agreed between the two mariners. The interior has been gradually explored by the ti appers and miners ; but Mackenzie was the first scientific traveller who crossed the mountain ranges between the north-west plains and the Pacific in 1792. Mackenzie followed the middle course of the Fraser river, which he supposed to be the Columbia, and which in 1806 was named after the Scotch trader, Simon Fraser. The travellers, mostly servants of the Hudson Bay Company, who opened up this section of the Pacific Seaboard were nearly all Scotchmen, and the whole region was long known by the name of New Caledonia. Physical Features of British Columbia. The various chains of the Rocky Mountains comprised between Alaska, the Mac- kenzie basin, and the head-waters of the Peace River, under 50° north latitude, are known only in a general way through the reports of the traders and miners. But their geological survey has still to be made, and in this respect they remain a blank on our maps. The main range, running parallel with the Alaskan coast, east of the Lewes, or Upper Yukon basin, appears to be of moderate elevation, and forms only a secondary water-parting, being pierced by streams belonging some to the Arctic, some to the Pacific basin. Thus the upper afHuents, both of the Stickeenand of the Skeena, rise in the same regions as the tributaries of the 152 XORTH AMERICA. Liards and Peace rivers, which flow to the Mackenzie. In the? a ft^P^rT ^"so- West oF Greenwich i?4°^t Depths. n to 100 Fathoms. 100 Fathoms and upwards IS Miles. verging still closer, and rising in a series of terraces to heights of 4,000 or 5,000 feet. In the immediate vicinity of the coast a 200-fathom sounding-line does not every- where touch the bottom, and here and there the submarine slopes plunge into chasms 280 fathoms deep. In summer hundreds of cascades, tumbling from the edge of the cliffs, fill the gloomy gorge with an incessant din, and ruffle the surface with innumerable intersecting ripples ; in winter and spring the noisy waters are THE FJORDS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 159 replaced by crashing avalanches, whose thunders are re echoed from side to side of the rocky crags. Few Indians venture to navigate the fjord, whose shores are still uninhabited by the white man. Even the vegetation is scanty, and tbe hardy pine scarcely shows itself on the ledges of rock exposed to the gales from the high seas. Not only did the ice-streams at one time fill the now flooded fjords, but they also overflowed their banks, and in many places the islands on the coast were con- nected by crystalline bridges with the mainland. At that time the Columbian seaboard presented the same spectacle as that of Greenland, where so many marine straits are obliterated by ramifying glaciers. All the insular groups at the entrance of Douglas and Dean Inlets thus formed part of the continent, and the great Island of Vancouver itself acquired a peninsular aspect. At the narrowest part of the intervening waters, that is, at Johnstone Strait, Discovery Passage, and Seymour Narrows, the channel is considerably less than two miles wide, while the geological strata, granites or triassic rocks, correspond exactly on either side ; the stratified sands and gravels containing erratic boulders were evidently deposited on both sides by the same glacial stream.* In these narrows the opposing tidal waves produce formidable whirlpools, all the more dangerous because of the reefs rising in mid-channel. At times the tides rush through with a velocity of 10 or 12 miles an hour, irresistibly sweeping along all sailing vessels, and sometimes even steamers. Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Islands. The general aspect of Vancouver Island and neighbouring coastlines, with their hummocky rocks, boulders, clays, and gravels, has led to the conclusion that all the southern part of the island was formerly covered by an ice-cap at least 650 feet thick, and that this glacier, descending from the continental snowfields, advanced for about 60 miles seawards. t Since that epoch erosions have again sculptured the islands, many of which are composed of conglomerates overlying sandstone, and rising in vertical cliffs above caverns, through which rush the roaring waters. Although at present separated by a marine channel about 130 miles wide, the Queen Charlotte and Vancouver Islands belong to the same geological formation, constituting a single chain, which runs parallel with the Rocky, Selkirk, Gold and Cascade ranges. Of the Queen Charlotte group much of the relief has dis- appeared. An intermediate valley has been transformed to a strait, the Skidegate Inlet and the Archipelago is thus divided into the two large islands of Graham in the north, and Moresby^ in the south ; the latter continued southwards by a chain of reefs and islets, and rising in some of its peaks to a height of 5,000 feet. The more compact island of Vancouver presents a more regular chain of mountains, which culminate about the geometrical centre of the island in the Victoria peak (7,670 feet). The disposition of the granites, triassic and cretaceous rocks, in both groups is such as to leave little doubt of their geological continuity. Like the * Alfred R. C. Selwyn, Geological and Natural History S irvey of Canada. t (i. M. Dawscm, op. tit. lfiO NORTH AMERICA.. continental seaboard, the west coast of Vancouver is indented by fjords, one of which, the Quatsino Sound, ramifies through the interior nearly to the opposite coast. Farther south is the smaller but better known Xootka Sound, visited by so many great navigators since Cook's voyage in 1778. Columbian Lakes a> t d Rivers. In the interior of Columbia, the lakes, although partly filled up by debris and fluvial deposits, are almost as numerous as the fjords of the seaboard. Thev abound especially in the region formerly occupied by the vast freshwater sea between the Skeena, Fraser and Peace valleys. Here still survive the Tacla, Trembleur, Stewart and Francois reservoirs, all of which send their overflow to the Fraser through the Nakosla or Stewart River. Lakes Chilco, Quesnelle, and Shuswap, belong also to the Fraser basin ; while the southern lakes — Kootenay, Arrow, and Okanagan — drain to the Columbia or its affluents. All these still flooded or dried up basins occupy fissures in the terrestrial crust uniformly disposed either north-west and south-east, parallel with the axis of the Rock)' Mountains, or else north and south, or west and east. By their intersection, the three systems of fractures develop a network of lines, which are frequently disposed in symme- trical triangles, a phenomenon analogous to that observed in the South of Norway. The Columbian rivers, which were formerly, and to some extent still are, chains of lakes, also flow in many parts of their course through fissures in the terrestrial crust, little modified by erosion and sedimentary deposits. The Taku, which falls into the Alaskan fjord of like name, is joined by headstreams flowing through narrow fractures running parallel with the coast. So also the Stickeen, a very copious river, which rises in the lacustrine region of Columbia, and which in its lower reaches is also comprised within Alaskan territory. Several of its upper tributaries, as well as the main stream itself, present a zigzag course, turning abruptly at right angles in the clefts of their rocky beds. A little above its mouth the Stickeen is interrupted by falls, below which its banks are skirted right and left by glaciers, thrusting their frontal walls and moraines right into the current. Farther south the Nasse, near which rises an extinct volcano, flows entirely within Columbian territory. It has given a definite form to its valley, whereas the far more cojnous Skeena still retains throughout a great part of its course the aspect of a chain of lakes. Lake Babine, one of these narrow basins, is no less than ninety miles long. It was so named by the Canadian trappers from the "babine," or lip-ornament, worn by the Indians dwelling on its banks, and resembling: the " kolosh " of the Thlinkits and Haidas. All the lower course of the Skeena. is still a narrow fjord dominated by mountains over 0,000 feet high. Excluding the Columbia, whose upper course alone lies within Canadian territory, the Fraser is the largest river in British Columbia. It rises in the Yellow Head Lake, whence it flows first north-west, parallel with the axis of the Rocky Mountains; then it bends at a sharp angle round to south, in order to follow a fissure which is disposed in the direction from north to south. At this angle it IUVERS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 101 is joined by several of i(s upper affluents, such as the Bear, Willow, North Fraser and Stewart (Nakosla) ; this last, which is the largest of all, comes from the north- west highlands, and is fed by numerous lakes, all taking the form of long narrow basins. In its upper course the Fraser receives affluents converging almost from every quarter except the north; here, Lowever, the Punais, or Parsnip River, flows Fig. 65. — Northern Bend op the Fraser. Scale 1 : 1,700,000. /feyo Serfs : Trout • Sji/ce^] ., 0I - ^--' - Falls'* '~- S= i_- Mac\Lecd-ljAe - S •V' ^"n Ker/y 's - /sA e -■ V*£f % ~* J Wk West or breenwicti 30 Miles. in the opposite direction, as one of the main headstreams of the Mackenzie. The fault in the terrestrial crust, occupied by the two water-courses, thus belongs to the same fissure ; only it is inclined along two opposite slopes belonging to two different fluvial basins. South of its great bend, the Fraser, flowing henceforth almost due south nearly to the coast, receives from the west the dark current of the Blackwater, and then from the east the more copious Quesnelle rising in the tortuous lake of the same name. Farther down it is joined from the west by the Cbilcotiu, an emissary from a lake near and parallel to Bute Inlet. In this part of its course the pent-up stream flows at a great depth between the mountaius, and in many places it is impossible to follow its banks. Hence to ascend or descend its valleys, the traveller has to 162 NoKTII AMF.IiirA. scale the overhanging bluffs, or even to cross the lateral passes. Thus at the issue of the little lake Seton, near its west bank, the route till recently followed was deflected westwards, rising through a series of lacustrine terraces to Summit Lake, Fig. 66. — Southern Bend of the Frasee. Scale 1 : 950,000. 122 io We s t or v f ~ e o n w icH i^Y? * * ' •*'«■-* •**< V ' ' ' -: Ilk - . /— I2l°30' 30 Miles. and thence turning southward in the direction of the Lower Fraser through another chain of partly navigable lakes. Summit Lake, which stands at an elevation of about 1,800 feet, presents the peculiarity of discharging its waters through two different channels into the Fraser.* Henceforth the transcontinental railway, * K. C. Mayne, Four Tears in British Columbia. RIVERS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 1G3 which descends to the Fraser through the valley of its eastern affluent, the Thompson, relieves travellers from the necessity of following the round-about route of Summit Lake. The Thompson, after issuing from the winding basin of Lake Shuswap and collect iug several large affluents from various directions, emerges on some broad grassy valleys, which have already been brought partly under tillage. But here and there it plunges into some gloomy gorges ; of less formidable aspect, however, than the "dalles," or canons, in which the Fraser contracts its bed below the con- fluence. The first miners attracted to the upper valleys in quest of gold have left graphic accounts of the dangers of this route, with its " hell-gates," before a carriage road and railway had triumphed over the obstacles by bridges, viaducts, and levellings. In several places the vertical walls rise 500 and even 1,000 feet above the stream, which rushes in a series of falls and rapids through these gloomy narrows. Many hives were lost in the attempts to ascend or descend the " Crazy River," as it was named by the miners, in reference either to its changeful moods, or to those who were mad enough to face such perils in their search of wealth. The Fraser is really navigable only in its lower course, where it changes its direction from south to west. Here the mean depth is no less than 50 to 60 feet, and for over 30 miles above its mouth ships find good anchorage close to the shore, exposed only to the danger caused by snags drifting with the current or stranded on the sandbanks. The river is lowest during the first three months of the year ; but with the melting of the snows in April it rises rapidly, by mid- summer reaching 50 feet in the canons, and 25 to 30 below the narrows, and flouding the low-lying plains at its mouth. The sediment brought down with the current has encroached on the Gulf of Georgia, developing a marshy delta with constantly shifting channels. The " Sturgeon Bank," or bar, which half closes the mouth of the Fraser, presents no serious obstacle to navigation. The United States having taken the lion's share of these western lands, Great Britain had to abandon the greater part of the Columbia basin, retaining only the upper valley as far as the confluence of Clarke's River. Thus the upland region enclosed between the two semicircles of the Upper Columbia and Kootenay lies all but its southern extremity within the Canadian frontier. Few geographical formations are more remarkable than this upland region occupied by the Selkirk Mountains, and encircled like an enormous fortress by a moat of navigable waters. The Columbia also presents the almost unique phenomenon of a river already fully developed at its very source. Expanding at once into a navigable lake it is separated from the Eootenay, here also navigable, only by a low isthmus 2,660 yards broad, through which a canal has easily been cut. The long depression which is traversed in opposite directions by these two rivers has obviously been sculptured by the same geological agencies. Dawson has shown that the general t ilt of the valley was formerly in the direction of the south ; it was in this direc- tion that were transported all the erratic boulders and other glacial debris. At present the Upper Columbia, alternately lake and river, develops a course of about 200 miles along the west foot of the Rocky Mountains ; then, after an 1C.4 Nol;TII AMEBICA. abrupt bend, like that of the Upper Fraser, it trends also to the south, both rivers thus presenting the same disposition in their ujsper reaches. After forming the Upper and Lower Arrow Lakes, a continuous sheet about 100 miles long, the Columbia is joined by the Kootenay, the two streams, which almost touched at their sources, thus merging in one some 450 miles from their origin. In point of fact, the same fold in the Rocky Mountains, from the southern bend of the Kootenay in the United States to the Cassair district under 56° north latitude, Fig. 67. — SOUBCES OF THE COLUMBIA. Scale 1 : 570,000. w .■ i 50 -- fk - '■'■ : !"! ■ ■ . SO' V s ' MFlJiSmet West ot~ Greenwich 116° M j sife ¥ II5°50' 12 Hiles. is successively occupied by the Kootenay, Columbia, Fraser, Parsnip and other basins. The changes produced in the level of the two rivers and their lakes are attested by the old water marks, visible at various elevations on the flank of the mountains, as well as in the Alaskan fjords, Cook's Inlet, and Prince William Sound. These parallel terraces, or "benches" as they are locally called, are one of the most general features in the relief of the land, and are numerous, especially in the Fraser and Columbia basins. In several districts they are disposed like the steps of a building, rising with perfect regularity to a height of nearly 4,000 feet, and in one place near the great northern bend of the Fraser to 5,250 feet. These benches are evidently of diverse origin, marine beaches, margins of lacustrine basins or river beds, according to the thousand oscillations of the ground.* * G. M. Dawson, op. cit. CLIMATE OP BRITISH COLUMBIA. Climate of Columbia. 1G5 The south-west angle of British Columbia, that is, where the mean tempera- ture is highest, is intersected by the isothermal of 50° F., which corresponds to Fin' OS. — Columbia and Kootenay Valleys. Scale 1 : 3,000,000. 52' - . /-■■ -■; '- - i,'\i' \ ii -■ yf ■■£* -* : - M-^ f-e<>7",rb^ v /^.:s j ■ \-: 49' 3£ , sr -Wn^ Mi&r3 c h. ^.y L^v ., # •1""V tt€c^ 7^ '; £v >f^ - ■ - ft : 119° We 5 t iffiiL . G2 Miles that of Paris. But beyond this point the heat diminishes gradually northwards and eastwards, and at the north-east extremity of the province the annual isotherm falls to about 35° F., answering to that of Winnipeg. Under the 106 NOETI1 AMEBIC A. influence of the winds and marine currents the isotherms are deflected far to the north along the coastlands. Thus, instead of coinciding with the parallels of latitude, they run south-east and north-west, and on the northern seaboard even follow the coastline. By a strange 'anomaly, showing how little the climate at times depends on geographical position, the summer heats are greater in Vancouver Island than in California, as far south as Monterey, which is nearly 900 miles nearer to the equator. This curious reversal of the climatic conditions is due to the influence of the Japanese " Gulf Stream " on the west coast of Vancouver.* But notwithstanding the mildness of the western and southern districts the climate of Columbia is in general inferior to that of Europe, the winters being longer and colder, the summers shorter and hotter. Winter begins usually in September or October, and lasts till May, and is marked by much snow, rain, frosts, and fogs. The inland lakes and rivers remain ice-bound for weeks together, and even the lower course of the Fraser has occasionally been frozen. The mean eleva- tion of the land, scarcely less than 4,000 feet, tends to increase the rigour of its climate, which, however, is not the chief obstacle to its settlement. European colonies have been founded wherever the soil is productive, the moisture not exces- sive, and the communications easy. Thanks to the general conformation of the country, the different regions all receive some share of the rainfall, although the contrast is great between the dry eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and the west side exposed to the moisture- bearing winds from the Pacific. In the south Vancouver acts as a sort of screen, receiving most of the rainfall on its western slopes, and leaving comparatively little for the east side and the opposite coastlands. In the north there are no islands large enough to intercept the supply, which is consequently almost entirely discharged on the uplands of the mainland. Flora and Fauna. The vegetation corresponds to the distribution of the rainfall. In the southern and drier regions, the slopes are covered with bunch-grass, which makes such excellent fodder, and which contributes so much to the wealth of the colony. These pastures, on which the cattle graze throughout the year, ascend the hill-sides to a height of 3,000 feet, at which elevation much wheat is also grown. Most of the territory receives sufficient moisture to support a large forest vegetation, and in some places the woods are so dense and continuous that many of the early travellers speak of British Columbia as one vast forest. According to Dawson, about two-thirds of the country is under timber, the prevailing species being the conifers, some of which acquire gigantic proportions. The yellow or Douglas pine, most valuable of the Columbian trees, in some places » Temperature of New Westminster, South Columbia, 49° 12' north latitude :-— July, hottest month, 61° F. ; extreme, 88° F. January, coldest month, 34° F. ; extreme, 16° F. Fearly average, 47° F. Annual rain ami snow fall, 03 inches in HIS days. FLORA OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. grows to a height of 350 feet with a perfectly straight stem branchless for 100 feet. No timber excels it in strength, elasticity, and power of resisting extremes of temperature ; it thrives especially in the southern districts and Vancouver Island. Another useful conifer is the pinus Lambert iana, which yields a sweetish resin, used by the natives instead of sugar. The maples, poplars, and aspens, rival most of the pines in size, while the o > i ! arbutus becomes in Vancouver quite a forest tree. Columbia is especially rich in shrubs bearing edible berries, which are gathered by the natives, and even ex- ported to San Francisco. All the vegetables of Central and North Europe thrive well, and most fruit trees yield excellent crops. Large animals are somewhat rare, the formidable grizzly bear being seldom 168 NORTH AMERK'A. seen except in the Rocky Mountains, while elsewhere the black bear alone is met. This variety never attacks man, and equally harmless is the puma (felis concofor), which ranges northwards to the Fraser Valley and Vancouver. The superb mountain sheep bounds from crag to crag on the rocky heights, and lower down the caribou (rangifer caribou) and wapiti frequent the grassy plateaux, plains, and islands, while deer abound, especially in the wooded islands along the coast. Wolves seldom leave the depths of the forest except in severe winters, and a few bison from beyond the Rocky Mountains are said still to roam over some of tbe grassy districts. In Columbia are found nearly all the fur animals of Alaska and the Mackenzie basin — the marten, fox, beaver — and the sea otter is even said to survive on the north-west coast of Vancouver. On the other hand there are no venemous snakes, but several harmless serpents, regarded by the native hunters as a great delicacy. The avifauna is represented by numerous families, including even several species of the humming-bird, which are seen flitting from bush to bush even before the snow has disappeared from the slopes of the hills. But in the number and variety of its fishes, British Columbia probably surpasses all other regions of the temperate zone. The marine inlets and rivers teem with salmon, trout, sturgeon, whitefish, herrings, sardines, anchovies, and many species unknown in Europe. The cod-bank off the south coast of Alaska is continued along the shores of Columbia, and the waters between Queen Charlotte and Vancouver islands are frequented by the " black cod," whose flesh is said to be superior to that of the ordinary species. There are no lobsters, but crabs and prawns, as well as oysters and mussels, are found in great quantities. Such was the abundance of fish in the Columbian rivers in the early period of colonisation, that during the season, the banks below the falls were strewn with innumerable salmon, which had failed to surmount the obstructions. They were taken in hundreds and thousands with nets or casks, and even raked ashore. .The hulakan, or " candle-fish," is used by the Indians, as by the Alaskan Eskimo, for lighting their houses. Inhabitants of British Columbia. British Columbia is scantily occupied by an indigenous population, broken into distinct tribes numerous in proportion to the vast territory over which they are scattered. They are estimated altogether at from thirty thousand to forty thou- sand, while the tribal groups are reckoned by the score, each with its distinct denomination, though often differing little from their neighbours in origin, appear- ance, or usages. Hence the impossibility of classifying these various groups according to their real affinities, or even according to their languages, of which most observers are profoundly ignorant. It is now, also, too late to study the extinct tribes, or those whose primitive features have been effaced by servitude and the demoralisation so often resulting from contact with Europeans. In a general way the natives are divided into islanders, coastlanders, and inlanders, a classification to some extent based on social habits, some being fishers INHABITANTS OF BEITISH COLUMBIA. 169 or seafarers living on a fish diet, others hunters dependent on the produce of the chase. In the absence of airy common national designation, the iusular and coast tribes have been collectively grouped as " Columbians," a term also applied to the seaboard populations of Washington and Oregon in the United States. The inland peoples are in the same way called "Red-skins," or " Indians," and several are undoubtedly related to the prairie Indians beyond the Rocky Mountains. Still, they must often differ greatly in origin, or at least the dispersion must have taken place at very remote times, for there are few regions where the languages current amongst apparently kindred tribes present more profound differences. A perfectly distinct family is that of the Ilaidas, who occupy the Queen Charlotte Archipelago, and nearly the whole of Prince of Wales Island, as well as the opposite Alaskan and Columbian coastlands.* The various clans take their names from the districts or rivers occupied by them — as, for instance, the Nasse, Skeena, and Bellacoola tribes. The Haida domain stretches eastwards to the Upper Fraser Basin, and may be estimated at about 80,000 square miles, with a population certainly less than fifteen thousand. In Queen Charlotte the natives, formerly numerous, are now reduced to less than two thousand. The Haidas are generally supposed to be more akin to the northern Thlinkits than to their southern neighbours, although the two languages are quite distinct. Those who have not been degraded by European vices, are distinguished amongst all the western populations by their shapely figures, their strength, skill, graceful carriage, and regular features. Nevertheless, the prevailing type is still that of other American aborigines — broad face, prominent cheekbones, small sparkling eyes, shaded by overhanging superciliary arches. The women are very muscular, but as a rule less good-looking than the men, and till recently disfigured themselves by the hideous lip ornament so generally worn along this seaboard. Amongst some tribes, especially the Bellacoolas, the heads of the children are flattened, and till lately the custom prevailed of painting the body in colours, which changed with the different feasts and ceremonies. For the dance they wear animal masks and figures of quadrupeds, birds and fishes painted on the breast ; but when excited to a pitch of frenzy, these Corybantes will often throw aside the mask and fall upon a dog, tearing it to pieces with their teeth and devouring the flesh. Formerly their fury was vented not on dogs but on men, who were treated in the same way to appease the spirit agitating them. Before the arrival of the Europeans, a conspicuous object in the Haida villages was the chief's house, or assembly room, sometimes spacious enough to contain an audience of seven hundred persons. Some of the houses are decorated with wood carvings, or else, as amongst the Thlinkits, marked by " genealogical trees." The Haidas display great skill, especially in building and adorning their canoes, which are propelled with remarkable speed by means of shovel-shaped oars. The finest, made of cedar, are those of the Kaigani in the Prince of "Wales Archipelago, who are renowned far and wide for their beautifully carved pipes, and other objects embellished with eccentric designs. Strange to say, the Queen Charlotte Haidas, * G-. M. Dawson, On the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands. VOL. XV. N 170 NORTH AMERICA. who resemble the Polynesians in so many respects, are quite ignorant of the art of swimming.* Power belongs to wealth, and many of the chiefs exercise a despotic authority. The nephew inherits from the uncle through the female line, and in many tribes matriarchal customs still survive. There are no settled laws, though the murderer who fails to pay the appointed fine is often put to death. Slavery exists either by purchase or capture, and the chiefs frequently immolate human victims at burials, Fig-. 70. — Xootka Island and Inlets. Scale 1 : 7,630,000. &i Tr »TirlgwW I97°<>0' West or breenwicH Lieptljs h In .-.II Fathoms. 50 Fathoms andupwaids. or to render incantations more efficacious ; for these chiefs are above all magicians credited with power over the spirits, whom they pretend to keep shut up in a mysterious box in order to have them always at their service. Several of the Haida communities have been demoralised by drink and gambling; nevertheless some progress has been made, and the Queen Charlotte Islanders, formerly sea-otter hunters, have now become skilful agriculturists, exporting large quantities of potatoes to the coastlands. The Chimsyans of the Metla-Katla * Fr. Poole. Queen Charlotte Islands. INHABITANTS OF BEITISH COLUMBIA. 171 district have also abandoned their old usages, and are now under the absolute sway of a missionary, at once king, priest, and general controller of the public property. These Christians, now dressed like Europeans, have recently been obliged to migrate northwards into Alaska in consequence of religious wranglings and commercial rivalries between their theocratic master and the English traders. The Nootkas of Vancouver and the opposite coast have been so named by Cook for no apparent reason, the term being unknown to the natives themselves. Several of the Vancouver tribes are collectively called Ahts, from the ending of Fig 1 . 71. — Old Nootka- Indian Woman. the special names borne by them. On linguistic grounds the Nootkas might be grouped in four distinct families ; but they are usually named from the districts they inhabit. They are on the whole more robust than the Haidas, with shorter figures and less expressive features. The oblique eye, flat beardless face, and yellow brown complexion give to some a strikingly Chinese appearance. Before the arrival of the Europeans the heads of the children were flattened and the crown compressed to a point by means of cloth and bark bandages. The head of a young girl measured by Mayne towered no less than eighteen inches above the eyes.* * Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island. n2 172 NORTH AMERICA. Traces of matriarchal institutions survive amongst the Nootkas ; the wife is regarded as equal to the husband, and in case of divorce has the right not only of taking her personal effects, hut even keeping a share of- the common property. The medicine-men still retain much of their baneful influence, though they no longer excite to those scenes of massacre and cannibalism described by the early travellers. As amongst the Haidas the dead are usually cremated, but also occa- sionally deposited in hollow tree trunks, or on raised platforms, sometimes decorated with symbolic figures representing the totem of the clan. The Nootkas have shown themselves very obdurate to missionary teachings ; Kg. 72. — Aboeioines of Beitish Columbia. Scale 1 : 13,000,000. West of Greenwich . 185 Miles. the few that have accepted Christianity are treated as outcasts, and if not actually killed are allowed to die of hunger. Many of those formerly occupying the sites of European settlements hang about the outskirts of the towns, where they become thoroughly debauched and are soon carried off by drink, disease, and misery. In their intercourse with strangers the Nootkas speak the Chinook jargon, so named from the powerful tribe living farther south in United States territory. This lingua franca comprises about 550 words, including, besides Chinook, several English, French, and even Polynesian terms. Through imperceptible transitions the Nootka type merges in that of their INHABITANTS OF BRITISH COLiniBIA. 173 eastern kindred, the Columbians, who are collectively known as Shuswaps from the lake situated about the centre of their territory. The Shuswaps are subdivided into numerous septs, such as the Nicouta-mush (the " Couteaux " of the Canadian trappers), who occupj' Lake Shuswap and its affluent, the River Thompson ; the Atnahs, or "Strangers," of the Fraser Valley above the gorges; the Kootenays, so named from the river sweeping round the southern extremity of the Selkirk range. The Shuswaps, and esjjecially the Kootenays, contrast favourably with the Columbians of the seaboard by their more muscular frames, graceful figures, and noble carriage. They keep no slaves and are generally more hospitable, frank, and valiant than their western neighbours. Unfortunately, this nation was ex- posed to the first rush of the gold-hunters, the sudden irruption being followed by the spread of epidemics, the extinction of several clans and general demora- lisation. In the north-eastern districts of British Columbia dwell the true Red-skins of Athabascan stock, akin to those who roam the plains east of the Rocky Mountains. From the Canadian trappers they have received the well-earned named of Porteurs, the " Carriers " of English writers. One of their tribes, the Tah-killies, who occupy the plains between the great bend of the Fraser and the Peace River, are closely related to the " Beavers " residing beyond the Rocky Mountains. Like certain Yukon peoples, the Carriers burnt their dead, the widow being obliged to pass her hand several times over the breast of her husband, after which she was doomed to serve his family for one or more years before laying aside her mourning. On the lower Fraser begins the domain of the Salish, Sahaptin, Skagit, Chinook, and other Indian tribes, whose territory stretches far into the United States. The special names of these people terminate in the syllable tin, corresponding to the word finneh or dene, that is "men," which is applied collectively to the Indians of Alaska and the North-West territory. Resources of British Columbia. The white population already outnumbers the aborigines more than three times, and the discrepancy is steadily increasing from year to year. At present the white element is estimated at over 100,000, nearly all of British or American origin and of Anglo-Saxon speech. They have been followed by the Chinese, who will probably monopolise certain industries, unless some repressive measures be adopted, as in California and Australia. The colonisation of British Columbia began scarcely fifty years ago, and was largefy due to the " gold fever." Although the Indians had long collected small quantities, the discovery of extensive deposits was not made till the year 1856, first on the banks of the Fraser, and then in the Thompson valley. Miners were immediately attracted from California ; fresh dis- coveries were made, and in 1858 occurred the great rush. All the Columbian rivers, without exception, send down auriferous sands, though not in sufficient quantities to cover the working expenses. At first the 174 NORTH AMERICA, largest quantities were yielded by the Lower Fraser aud Thompson districts ; then followed the Caribou region, south of the great bend of the Fraser ; after which the miners pushed north towards Gardner Channel, the Skeena basin, aud the valley of the Omineca, a tributary of the Peace River. Lastly, in 1872, the stream was directed by the discoveries of Thibert and MacCulloch towards the Cassiar Country, between the Stickeen basin and the Liards River, near the Alaskan frontier, where a few patient gleaners, chiefly Chinese, still linger. During the first years the Columbian mines yielded from £800,000 to £1,000,000 annually, rising in 1861 to £1,400,000. At present many of the grounds are exhausted, the miners have disappeared, and the total yearly output varies from £120,000 to £200,000. The total yield from 1858 to 1888 is valued at £11,240,000. Columbia also possesses some productive deposits of native silver. The general conformation of these highlands shows that the gold is here distributed in the same manner as in California, and the workers are accordingly able to profit by the experiences of their precursors. In the districts where they have not yet been expelled, the natives are employed on most of the laborious operations. Other mining industries, such as that of bituminous coal, have also acquired considerable importance. From the first days of the colonization passing steamers were supplied with coal from Vancouver. Then mining operations were systematically developed, and at present many villages look like suburbs of New- castle, with their heaps of shale, their lifts and machinery. The pits, situated, so to say, on the very quays of the seaports, already yield enough to support an export trade. But the anthracite on the banks of the Skidegate Channel, in the Queen Charlotte Archipelago, has not yet been regularly worked, although said to be equal to that of Pennsylvania. Stock-breeding, especially for the Californian market, is also acquiring a considerable development, while the fisheries yield abundance of excellent salmon tinned on the spot, and exported in yearly increasing quantities. Capitalists have also begun to work the vast forests of the coastlands, and a brisk lumber trade has already been established. Topography. Of no other region can it be said with greater truth that a single railway con- stitutes its vital artery. But for the trunk line traversing it from east to west, British Columbia would be cut off from the commercial world, except at a few isolated points along the seaboard ; nor could it maintain any direct relations with the Dominion of Canada. The first whites who settled in the country nearly all reached it from California, and when the rush of miners was directed towards the new Eldorado, most of the precious metal was shipped to San Francisco. From year to year the communications with the States became more direct and con- tinuous. Despite the political ties, Vancouver and the neighbouring settlements became more and more associated with the great republic, and the British Govern- ment had reason to fear that this remote colony might, by the very force of events, inevitably become a political dependency of San Francisco. z z ■4 z p - < z •2 OF RSlTYoflLI TOPOGRAPHY OP BRITISH COLUMBIA. 175 To counteract this current it was found indispensable to connect the St. Lawrence and Fraser basins by a rapid line of communication, although considera- tions of economy naturally delayed the execution of this costly project. When it Fig. 73. — Victoria and Esquimau. Scale 1 : 650,000. 123°"°' West oF Greenwich I23°20' Depths. Sands exposed ai low water. to 50 Fathoms. 60 to 100 Fathoms. 100 Fathoms and upwards. 18 Miles. joined the Dominion of Canada in 1871, British Columbia exacted the condition that a trans-continental railway should be constructed across the Rocky Mountains by the year 1891. But such was the urgency of this work that the company, 176 NOETH AMERICA. aided by the liberality of the Canadian Government, was able to complete the line from ocean to ocean in 1886. All the centres of population and traffic naturally gravitated towards this great artery, which traverses the Lower Fraser valley to its mouth over against Juan de Fuca Strait and Pnget Sound. Vancouver Island, lying south of the Queen Charlotte group, nearer to the mainland, and opposite the excellent harbours of the inland waters, was sure to attract the attention of the early colonists. Nevertheless, very little of the country has been settled, and not more than 15,000 acres were under tillage in 1881. The first arrivals came by the sea route, and grouped themselves round a station of the Hudson Bay Company, which is supposed to be the Cordoba, or Gamosin, discovered in 1790 by Manuel Quinipe, at the south-east corner of the island opposite Puget Sound. On the discovery of gold in the Fraser basin, Fort Victoria, as the factory was named by the English settlers, became the rallying-point of speculators and miners flocking from California. Within a twelvemonth, as many as 30,000 persons were crowded round the station in log huts or under canvas, and a regular town rapidly sprang up, with fine thoroughfares crossing each other at right angles, squares, quays, and harbour works. At present Victoria is a pleasant little English town, adorned with shady walks, a beautiful park, and a reservoir abundantly supplied from a lake six miles off. The bay is bridged by a handsome viaduct, and several avenues lead north-west to the well-sheltered port of Esquimau. Here the British and Canadian Governments have constructed an arsenal and dockyards, and both places are connected by frequent steam service with Alaska, California, and the opposite coast. Victoria will also, sooner or later, form the terminus of the transcontinental railway, which is to cross the Seymour Narrows by a long viaduct, and then traverse the channels of Valdes and other islands, reaching the mainland at Bute Inlet, and penetrating inland through the Homathco and Chilcotin valleys. A branch of this projected line already connects Victoria with JVanaimo, which lies 70 miles north-west on a good harbour, and in a district yielding the best coal on the Pacific seaboard. This coal is exported to China, the Sandwich Islands and California, and also supplies the British squadron stationed in these waters. The mines are reached bj' a shaft over 650 feet deep sunk in the very centre of the town, and giving access to galleries which run a great distance under the ground and neighbouring Gulf of Georgia. Nearlj- a thousand hands were at work in these galleries when a sudden explosion of fire-damp destroyed 149 miners, and since then the pits have been almost abandoned. But those of Wellington, a little farther north, are actively worked by a Belgian company. Other coal- fields occur towards the middle of the east coast, and industrial populations must soon be attracted to these deposits, which are conveniently situated for smelting the excellent iron ores found in Texada Island. The Queen Charlotte Archipelago is also one of those Columbian regions which, thanks to its mild climate, fertile soil, and geographical position, might become the centre of a considerable population. Yet it has hitherto been almost entirely neglected by European settlers. Discovered in 1774 by Juan Perez, its insular TOPOGRAPHY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 177 formation was first determined by the American trader, Grey, in 1789. Since then it has been frequently visited by trappers, while its geology, natural history, and ethnology have been carefully studied by G. M. Dawson, the chief scientific explorer of the Canadian " Far West." But the first white colonists only made their appearance siuce the rush to the Columbian goldfields. Here also some auriferous sands have been found, but nowhere in sufficient abundance to establish a regular mining industry. Missions have been founded on the coasts of the Queen Charlotte group, notablv of Masset, on an inlet which ramifies in a series of lakes far into the Fig. 74.— Naxatsio. Scale 1 . 500,000. Depths. 0to50 Fathoms. 50 to 100 Fathoms 100 Fathoms and upwards. 6 MileB. interior of the northern islands. On Skidegate Channel has been established an important factory for extracting the oil of the dog-fish. But the white population increases very slowly in the Archipelago, while the native Haidas are disappearing in still more rapid proportion. On the mainland itself every fjord has its trading station, its fisheries and tinned provision industries. In the Stickeen Valley the most flourishing place is Glenora, situated at the head of the navigation 130 miles above the estuary. Fort or Port Simpson, in Chimsian Island, is not a military post, but a market frequented by various Indian tribes. Hazkton, at the head of the navigation on the Skeena river, is the chief resort of the miners engaged on the Onimeca gold- 178 NORTH AMEEICA. fields, and Port Essington, near the mouth of the same river, has acquired some importance as a fishing and trading station. In the valleys of the Upper Fraser and its affluents there are scarcely any centres of population, and Lilloet, on a terrace overlooking the Fraser, has even Fig. 75. — Queen Chaklotte Islands. Scale 1 : 2,100,000. V, e s J -- ol~ Greenwch 13J. C .Miles. diminished in size since the abandonment of the route which through Summit Lake connected the middle course of the river with its delta. Kamloop, "metropolis of the interior," stands at an elevation of 1,140 feet at the conflu- ence of the two forks of the Thompson, whence its name, meaning the junction of TOPOGRAPHY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 170 two streams. This section of the Thompson is navigated by steamers, and numerous herds graze on the surrounding pastures. Lytion, at the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson, is too confined by the river gorges to develop any great commercial activity. Yale, at the southern entrance of the canons and rapids, and at the head of the fluvial navigation, was at one time a busy centre of the mining industry, and a few Chinese still wash the Fig. 76. — Chuisiax Islaxd. Scale 1 : 1,200,000. V/est of' u^een wich UtoSO Fathoms. Depths 50 to 100 Fathoms. 100 Fathoms and upwards. 16 Miles. sands for gold. Here begins the romantic route which winds through the uplands in order to avoid the impassable gorges of the Fraser. Then follow Hope, till recently a mining centre ; Agassis, the nearest station to the famous sulphur springs of Harrison; lastly near the estuary New Westminster, which for a time ranked as a capital, and still retains some public buildings. Here are grouped the dockyards, sawmiDs, and " salmonries " of the Lower Fraser, and here will be constructed the viaduct across the Fraser, which is to connect the Canadian trunk ISO NORTH AMERICA. line with the Oregon and California railway systems. "Westminster is connected by a daily service of steamers with its fluvial port of Vancouver, which has become the Pacific terminus of the transcontinental railway on Burrard Inlet. The first terminal station was erected at the head of this inlet on the spot still indicated hy Fig. 77. — Mouths of the Feasee. Scale 1 : 445,000. 123*20 I22°50 Sands exposed at low water. ^3 to 32 Feet. Depths. 32 tn 320 Feet. . 6 Miles. 320 Feet and upwards. the little village of Port Moody ; but the railwa}' was afterwards pushed farther west to Vancouver on a little creek well sheltered by a peninsula projecting in the form of a fishing hook. In May, 1886, the spot where now stands this flourishing town, was still covered by dense forests ; but the buildings sprang up as if by enchantment, and when all but one were consumed by a raging fire, Vancouver again rose rapidly < UNIVERSITY of Ri TOPOGRAPHY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 181 from its ashes. Unlike any other Canadian settlement, it was a large place from the very first, and as soon as its name was heard in Europe it was already a great commercial centre of British North America. Its regular streets cover a space large enough to accommodate a population of 100,000 ; it possesses several public monuments, banks, churches, and hotels ; its thoroughfares are lit with gas and electricity and it is well supplied with good water from the hills lying north of Burrard Inlet. Railways branch off to the north and south of the city ; bridges cross the estuary of False Bay running to the south and parallel with Burrard Inlet; quays, pontoons, and warehouses have been erected; the transcontinental line is continued by steamer to Vancouver Island, Oregon, California, Alaska, Japan, and China, and other lines are projected towards New Zealand and Australia. Vancouver has thus at a stroke become the chief station on one of the great trade routes encompassing the globe. A fine park, 1,000 acres in extent, occupies the north-western peninsula, which half closes the entrance to thejiort and completely shelters it from the west winds. III.— NORTH-WEST TERRITORY. Athabasca-Mackenzie and Great Fish River Basins. With the exception of Labrador the great division of the Dominion draining to the Arctic Ocean is less known than any part of British North America. The Mackenzie basin has doubtless been traversed in various directions ; but it has been studied only along the line of widely distant itineraries. Consequently many of its geographical features have yet to be determined with precision, as is evident from the numerous discrepancies occurring even on the most recent maps. A century has elapsed since the whole region was traversed for the first time. Doubtless the Canadian trappers had penetrated far beyond the permanent European settlements ; but none of them appear to have advanced northwards beyond the sources of the Athabasca. It was surprising enough that solitary traders could have ventured even so far beyond the extreme posts held by the whites, passing from tribe to tribe in the midst of enemies or doubtful friends, and making their way through forests and across innumerable lakes, rivers, and portages hundreds of miles from their base of supplies. The young Canadians, whether whites or half-breeds, took pride in plunging into these formidable western solitudes, and returning inured to every hardship, accustomed to face all dangers. Such a training made men, and to it may largely be due the tenacity with which the French Canadian nationality has held its ground in the midst of the Anglo-Saxon world. Progress of Discovery. The first purely geographical exploration was that of Samuel Hearne, despatched in 1770 by the Hudson Bay Company northwards in the direction of the Arctic waters. After pushing westwards to the Athabascan basin Hearne reached the shores of the Frozen Ocean ; but the account of his voyage remained in the 182 NORTH AMERICA. possession of the company for twenty years, when it was at last published in com- pliance with a promise made to Laperouse. A few years after Hearne's expedi- tion the Beaulieu family, Canadian half-breeds, founded a settlement north of Lake Athabasca, and in 1778 a fort was erected on its margin. Then Pond, an Englishman, guided by these half-castes, advanced to the Great Slave Lake, and seven years later Mackenzie descended the course of the river which bears his name, and thus reached the shores of the Arctic Ocean, which he supposed to be the Pacific. The following year he again penetrated into the same basin and after ascending the Peace River crossed over to the western slope of the region now known as British Columbia. Thus was opened a first transcontinental route across North America. This memorable expedition was followed by others in the same direction ; but no record was preserved of these voyages made in the service of the two rival companies, that of the " North-West," heir to the Old French Association, and that of " Hudson Bay." Both alike employed French and Scotch whites and half- breeds ; but their resources were chiefly employed in thwarting one another, in stirring up feuds between their respective Indian subjects, in seizing their oppo- nents' factories and taking possession of the routes and portages. Geographical studies were not furthered by these underhand struggles, which more than once broke into open hostilities. After Mackenzie's expedition no great voyage of discovery was undertaken till 1820, when Franklin traversed the north-west territories between Lake Winnipeg and the Arctic Ocean. Five years later he descended the Mackenzie to its mouth, and carefully surveyed the delta, while his companions, Back and Richardson, explored the regions stretching eastwards to the Coppermine River. A few years later Back resumed his polar explorations, and discovered the source and the mouth of the Great Fish River, or Back's River, as it is sometimes called. Afterwards Dease and Simpson coasted the shores of the Frozen Ocean between the Mackenzie and Back estuaries, and when Franklin and his com- panions were lost among the Arctic lands, this region was traversed in various directions by search parties under Rae, Richardson, Pullen, Hooper, Anderson, Stewart, Hayes and Schwatka. Catholic missionaries, notably Petitot, also contributed to a better knowledge of the Mackenzie and other rivers flowing to the polar seas. The official limits of the North-West Territory bear no relation to its physical features, and in any case have only been laid down provisionally in anticipation of further changes. In this enormous region the single province of Athabasca has alone been constituted, its frontiers, as is so often the case in America, being traced in geometrical lines along the degrees of latitude and longitude, except on the east side, where they partly coincide with the course of the Athabasca and Great Slave Rivers. But beyond this district, the territory official!}' com- prises the whole section of the Rocky Mountains between Alaska and British Columbia, as well as the vast spaces extending north to the Arctic Ocean and east to Hudson Bay. THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY. 183 Physical Features. Including the not yet organised province of Keewatin in the south-east, the North- West Territory with the polar archipelago comprises more than half of all the lands constituting the Dominion of Canada. But if the country be taken within its natural limits, that is, leaving to Alaska the Yukon basin, and to Manitoba the tracts draining to Hudson Bay, all the Canadian lands whose waters flow to the Frozen Ocean present an area of about one million square miles, or nine times that of the British Isles. Yet the whole population, whites, Indians and Eskimo, scarcely exceeds fifteen thousand ; in other words, this region is still almost uninhabited. This vast triangular space sloping towards the Arctic Ocean is intersected by the chain of lakes running from the Canadian " Mediterranean " to the Great Bear Lake parallel with the axis of the Rocky Mountains and the west coast of the continent. This chain of inland waters forms a parting line between two quite distinct regions. So early as 1823 the American explorer, Long, traversing districts far to the south of the Mackenzie, had noticed the remarkable fact that the lacustrine depression coincides with the line of contact between two different geological formations, and the same remark has since been extended to the other great freshwater basins of British America. On the east the rocks consist uniformly of crystalline masses, on the west of far more recent sedimentary strata. The aspect of the country corresponds to the nature of the soil, the gneiss and granite formations being studded with innumerable cavities of all sizes forming meres, tarns or wooded lakes, while the stratified rocks of the west constitute rolling prairies disposed at a comparatively gentle incline. On the west side the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains occupy a consider- able part of the North-West Territory, and some of the advanced spurs even rise in isolated groups above the undulating plains extending east of the main range. Moreover, a number of eminences, which here and there develop into ridges, branch off from the Rockies in the direction of the Arctic Ocean. These " ribs " of the spinal axis, disposed for the most part in parallel lines, are pierced at intervals by the emissaries of lakes which were formerly pent up, but which by long erosive action have gradually found an outlet seawards. One of these transverse ridges begins with the Bighorn group immediately east of the headwaters of the Athabasca, and forms the watershed between that basin and the Saskatchewan. Towards the sources of the Churchill, or English River, which flows to the Hudson Bay, the ground falls between that basin and the Clearwater, an affluent of the Athabasca, and here is the famous La Loche or Methy Portage, formerly crossed by all travellers proceeding to the north-west. It consists of a long sandy plateau about 1,550 feet high, or nearly GOO above the plains sloping towards Lake Winnipeg. Between this lake and La Loche, regarded as the common limit of two distinct territories, there occur as many as thirty-six other portages where boats have to load and unload. A second line of hills branching from the main range north of the sources of the 181 NORTH AMEIIHA. Athabasca rises to a height of from 2,000 to 2,800 on the shores of the Lesser Slave Lake, and then trends northwards across the course of the Peace River, by which it is pierced through a series of falls and rapids. The various sections of the Fig. 78. — Disposition of the Canadian Lakes. Scale 1 : 30,000,000. West oF breen*v!cH Primitive Land. Secondary Land. - r.'n Miles. chain are known as the Raspberry, Birch and Bark Hills. Then follows the Caribou range, forming the divide between the Peace and Ilay Rivers, and crossing the main watercourse between the Athabasca and Great Slave Lakes. Other sandstone aud calcareous chains running in the same direction rise beyond RIVERS OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY. 185 the Great Slave Lake to heights of over 1,000 feet, and near the ocean attain an altitude of over 5,000 feet. In this region the Rocky Mountains, or at least a range belonging to the same orographic system, approaches the Mackenzie, and here forms the waterparting between the Yukon and the rivers flowing to the Arctic Ocean. According to Petitot masses of phonolith abound in these northern mountains, and several cones near the east side of the Mackenzie delta at a distance resemble heaps of scoriae ; MacClure reckoned as many as fifteen emitting wreaths of smoke and by him compared to " limekilns." In several districts are met small cones similar to the maccalube of Sicily, and occasionally emitting smoke, whence their Canadian name, boucanes. When in a state of activity they deposit sulphur, salt and other chemical substances along the course of their rivulets, and diffuse an odour generally like that of petroleum. They usually occur on the banks of rivers in the neighbourhood of bituminous schists, lignites and saline rocks. Elsewhere a huge bed of porous sandstone, satu- rated with mineral oil, burns like coal, and salt is found especially amongst the hills west of the Mackenzie, where, according to the natives, whole mountains are composed of rock salt. On the other hand the granites in the eastern region between the Arctic and Hudson Bay basins, contain deposits or traces of gold, silver and especially cojjper. So early as 1715 copper ores had been procured by the agents of the Hudson Bay Company from the Coppermine district. A process of upheaval appears to have taken place along the Arctic seaboard, unless the ocean has here receded northwards. West of the Coppermine estuary Franklin collected driftwood at an elevation far above the present sea-level, and the same phenomenon was observed by Richardson on the west side of the Copper- mine basin. On both sides of this river old marine inlets have been observed, which are now severed from the open sea by low beaches and narrow strips of sand. Eskimo Lake near the Mackenzie delta would seem to be such a forma- tion, its water still being somewhat brackish.* But according to Petitot the Sitiji, as this lake is called by the natives, is merely an expansion of the small river Natowja, which reaches the coast east of the Mackenzie. Rivers and Lakes. The Athabasca, main upper branch of the Mackenzie, has its southernmost source in the so-called "Committee's Punch-bowl," a lakelet situated on the east flank of Mount Brown in the Rocky Mountains. On the opposite side of the Yellow Head Pass, the streams flow west to the Columbia basin, and north-west to the Fraser, while the Athabasca, or Whirlpool River, escapes from the hills north- eastwards, and is soon joined by several affluents such as the Miette, Baptiste, MacLeod, and Pembit a. But the hydrographic nomenclature of this region is in a very confused state, every watercourse being differently named by the English, the Canadian trappers, and the various local Indian tribes. The term Athabasca * John Richardson Franklin's Second Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Volar Seas. VOL. XV. O 186 NORTH AMERICA. itself is rarely used, the Canadians calling it the Bic/ie, a term which they also apply to other rivers. But according to Petitot, the Athabasca is wrongly named the Elk River on some English maps, for the animal formerly called the biche by the Bois-Brule trappers is not the elk of English writers, but the icajiiti, or "reindeer of the rocks." From the west the Athabasca receives the drainage of the Lesser Slave Lake, as well as the overflow of several other lakes. Beyond a gorge cut through the sandstone rocks to a depth of over 300 feet, its valley broadens out, and in several places is studded with those extinct or still active " boucanes " which are numerous especially in the basin of the Mackenzie pnxper. At the foot of the Bark Mountain, the Athabasca traverses the " Great Rapids," a perfectly uniform inclined plain about 60 miles long, where the water is uninterrupted by a single fall, and its smooth surface ruffled only by rocks of various size projecting above the surface. Some 550 miles from its source, the Athabasca enters the large lake of like name, at a point a considerable distance from its former mouth. At present the alluvial delta extends about 30 miles towards the north-east, and is intersected by a multitude of channels, which change their direction and relative size with every fresh inundation. The chief branch retains the name of Athabasca, and another is known as the "Riviere des Embarras," owing to the numerous snags washed down with the stream. The delta is also joined by channels from the Clear Water and from the Peace River, and in some years, notably 1871 and 1876, its whole surface has been transformed to a shallow muddy bay. The former herbaceous vegetation of the islands has been replaced by conifers, and the term Athabasca, meaning in the Algonquin language, " grassy carpet," and doubtless originally restricted to the deltaic region, has lost its significance. The lake, standing about 500 feet above sea-level, takes the form of a crescent with its convex side facing northwards. But its shores are very irregular and deeply indented by inlets, and like other lakes of this region, it occupies a depres- sion in the granite rocks, which here form steep but low banks. A few rounded hills of Laurentian and Iluronian formation, offshoots of the Caribou Mountains, appear only on the north side, so that Hearne was scarcely justified in naming this basin the " Lake of Hills." It is joined on the east by several considerable streams, mostly emissaries from smaller lacustrine basins. Hearne, however, was wrong in connecting with this hydrographic system the Wollaston and Deer Lakes, which drain through the Churchill to Hudson Bay. At its western extremity the lake receives its great tributary, and here also lies its outlet, so that the deltaic region is common both to affluent and effluent. But owing to the gradual desiccation of the land, the streams have a tendency to be deflected eastwards. The main branch of the effluent, which here takes the name of the Great Slave River, also winds between low-lying plains alternately dry and flooded. But it is rapidly increased in volume after receiving the various channels through which the Peace River ramifies at its mouth. The Peace rises in British Columbia, on the elevated plains formerly occupied by a vast lacustrine basin, RIVERS AND LAKES OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY. 187 while its chief branch, the Panais or Parsnip River, takes its origin north of the great bend of the Fraser, the two streams being connected, according to Petitot, by a portage scarcely more than 300 yards long. After escaping from its upper valley, the Parsnip is joined by the Finlay, the united stream taking the name of Unshagah, or " Peace," * and forcing its way through a romantic gorge in the Rocky Mountains down to the plains. After rushing over a limestone ledge 8 or 10 feet high, it enters the Athabascan depression through a fertile region abound- ing in grassy prairies, magnificent forests, and herbaceous slopes. Fig. 79. — Swampy Delta of the Athabasca. Scale 1 : 1,200,000. Old Fortdes. ^*_._Embarpas . ■ or hreenv/ic'n 112° IS Miles. Being formed by the united waters of the Athabasca and Peace rivers, the Great Slave is a very copious stream ; but at its passage through the Caribou hills its course is obstructed by long rapids, so that the boatmen have to cross seven portages successively between the confluences of the Dog River from the east and of the Salt from the west. Below these granitic barriers, begins under another name the true Mackenzie, the Des Ncdhe, or " Great River," of the natives, which is henceforth perfectly navigable for about 1,450 miles to its estuary in the Arctic Ocean. It flows at first between wooded alluvial banks, beyond * Daniel Gordon, Mountain and Prairie. o 2 188 NOBTH AMEEICA. which it ramifies through several branches in a now dried up lacustrine region to its mouth in the Great Slave Lake, so named from the Indians occupviug its western shores. This inland sea, one of the largest in North America, fills a depression running south-west and north-east parallel with the series of rocky ridges traversing the North- West Territory from one extremity to the other. It is no less than -300 miles long, with a varying breadth 60 miles at the widest points, and a total area roughly estimated at 10,000 square miles, or some fifty times that of Lake Geneva. The western section is shallow, being half filled up by the sedimentary matter deposited by tbe Great Slave, Hay, and other affluents. But. the eastern section, encircled by steep cliffs or banks, is said to have a depth of over 650 feet. Here also the shores are more indented by long narrow inlets, the two easternmost of which are separated by a sharp peninsula, terminating in a headland of black serpentine, called the " Rock of the Pipes," because it supplies the niaterial with which the Yellow Knife Indians make their calumets. Each of the inlets of the Great Slave Lake has its affluents, themselves emis- saries from other lakes. Thus the long northern gulf receives the overflow from Pike, Marten, and Graudin Lakes ; Christie Bay in the south-east some smaller tributaries, and MacLeod Bay in the north-east the discharge from Aylmer, Clinton-Colden, Artillery, and other basins, all draining through the " Queue de l'Eau." Some 12 miles above its mouth, this affluent tumbles over the Parry Falls, said by Back to be 400 to 500 feet high, and so contracted that one fancies one might take it at a bound. Vapours rise in clouds hundreds of yards above the chasm ; but during the eight winter months, the chief beauty of the cascade is due to the pendant icicles fringing the overhanging ledges, and protruding from the cavities of the rocky walls. An endless variety of tints is imparted to the scene by the green mosses and ruddy ferruginous cliffs, producing an effect to which even that of Niagara cannot be compared. On the Hay River, another affluent of the lake, other cascades occur, which have also been described by enthusiastic explorers as " finer than Niagara." The Great Slave Lake, whose northern waters are crossed by the sixty-third parallel, forms with the tributary basins a parting line between two climates. On emerging from the lake through its north-west outlet the Mackenzie enters its Arctic valley, where it expands at first into almost stagnant basins, then contracts its banks and falls rapidly down to its confluence with the Liards, a large tributary from the south. Like the Peace, the Liards or " Poplars," rises on the west slope of the Rocky Mountains, and after collecting the overflow of the Dease and other lakes, escapes through a very precipitous breach in the mountains. Below the confluence the mainstream almost everywhere maintains a width of at least 2,000 yards ; but at many points, especially above the mountain gorges, its banks recede as much as 4 or 5 miles, while the lateral terraces, standing at various elevations up to 350 feet above the present stream, attest the enormous volume of water discharged through this fluvial bed at a former geological epoch. Several rapids, of which the Sans-Saut alone offers any dangers to the navigation, follow along this part RIVERS AND LAKES OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY. 189 of its course down to the neighbourhood of the Fork Lake, where the river ramifies through the branches of its delta. The Great Bear Lake, like the two other large lacustrine basins belonging to the Athabasca-Mackenzie hydrographic system, lies to the east of the Mackenzie, > I I bo iS u.,u. . ,-...- . SMbd& from which it is separated by an isthmus some 60 miles broad. Although not so long, the Great Bear is much wider than the Great Slave Lake, and also appears to cover a greater area and to contain a larger volume, judging at least from the soundings of Franklin, who failed to touch the bottom with a 45-fathom plummet. 190 NOETH AMERICA. The basin consists of five bays with intervening rocky promontories from 6o0 to 800 feet high, beyond which stretch the north-eastern solitudes, snowy wastes swept by the Arctic winds and covered witb a snow-cap for the greater part of the year ; in 1838 the lake itself was ice-bound for ten months. All tbe bays receive affluents except the north-western, wbich is separated by a portage only a few hundred yards wide from the Hare-skin River, now flowing to the Lower Mackenzie, but at one time apparently a tributary of the lake. On the other hand the Lake of the Woods on the north side probably sends its overflow through an underground channel to the Great Bear Lake. According to Petitot's map, the vast delta of the Mackenzie extends north and south a distance of 90 miles with an area of 4,000 square miles, and is still rapidly encroaching on the sea. This delta, however, is common also to the Peel or Pluniee, which joins it from the west, and whose mouth has been mistaken by Franklin and other navigators for a branch of the Mackenzie. After issuing from the Rocky Mountains the Peel winds between this range and a lateral limestone ridge through a desolate level plain, whence its Canadian name of Plumee (Deplumee), that is, " treeless," " waste," or " arid." According to MacTsbiter, a forked channel sends its two navigable branches, one to the Peel, the other to the Pat, an affluent of the Yukon. Since 1887 the Athabasca- Mackenzie, which has a total length of nearly 2,700 miles and a catchment basin of at least 460,000 square miles, has been regularly utilized for the transport of provisions and merchandise. Steamers starting from Lake Winnipeg ascend the Saskatchewan to a large rapid, which is turned by a short railway, beyond which the navigation is renewed. Then a carriage road 100 miles long runs to the Athabasca, which is descended by alternate steamers and flat-bottomed boats to Fort Smith on the Great Slave River. Here occurs another portage of 12 miles, beyond which steamers drawing 5 feet ply regularly on the Mackenzie to its estuary as well as on the Peace and Liards rivers and on Lake Lease. Thus is presented on the united Saskatchewan and Athabasca-Mackenzie basins an almost completely navigable waterway of about 7,500 miles, beyond which the navigation might be continued along the Arctic seaboard to Bering Strait at least for three months in the year. The Anderson, MacFarlane, and other streams flowing east of the Mackenzie in parallel courses to the Frozen Ocean are of comparatively small size, and traverse a dreary solitude, where the rocky cavities are flooded with innumerable little lakes, which send their overflow either through surface channels or underground passages seawards. The Coppermine, so named from the native copper collected on its banks, is, however, a very large river with a course estimated at 3(30 miles, while its valley forms the northern continuation of the Yellow Knife, a tributary of the Great Slave Lake. Being long known to the Indians and trappers for its mineral wealth, the Coppermine was selected as the object of the first scientific expedition sent to the north-west under Samuel Hearne in 1770. In the lower part of its course it is completely obstructed by numerous falls and rapids, the last of which has been named Bloody Fall in memory of the Eskimo here massacred EIVEBS AND LAKES OF THE NOETH-WEST TEBBITOEY. 101 by the Indiuus. It lies 10 or 12 miles above Coronation Gulf, a broad basin separating tbe insular masses of Wallaston, Prince Albert, and Victoria Lands from the continent. A slight upheaval of the ground would convert this gulf into an inland sea like the Athabasca, Great Slave and Bear lakes, which would Fig. 81. — The Mackenzie Delta. Scale 1 : 3,700,000. 70° 63 Miles. themselves be transformed to marine inlets by the opposite movement of sub- sidence. Xext to the Mackenzie the largest stream flowing to the Arctic Ocean is the Great Fish River, called also the Back from the daring explorer who descended its course in 1834. Its Indian name, Luetchor, that is, " Great Fish," has reference 192 NORTH AMEEICA. to the numerous whales frequenting the waters in the neighbourhood of its estuary. It rises in a lakelet so close to Lake Aylmer of the Athabasca-Mackenzie system, that it has often wrongly been described as connected with that basin. Throughout its whole course, estimated by Back at 600 miles, it flows through a dreary inhospitable waste of rocks and barren plains, whose monotony is unrelieved by a single tree. In its middle course it floods several large depressions, and is here obstructed by numerous rapids, of which Back reckoned as many as eighty- three. At its mouth, which is also barred by sand-banks, the Great Fish expands into a broad estuarv, opening upon a marine inlet which resembles Coronation Gulf with its complexities of bays, straits, and fjords, and which, like it, would be transformed to a lake by a slight upheaval of the land. On the other hand, a subsidence of a few yards would change to islands the large Boothia and Melville Peninsulas. The natural limit of the North-West Territory in this direction is the Rae Isthmus, marked by a double chain of lakes and meres between the Arctic Ocean and the northern straits of Hudson Bay. This angular limit of the continent is traced along a general line running south-east and north-west, and coinciding with the seaboard between Newfoundland and Boothia Felix. Climate of the North-West Territohy. In its oscillations south of the true North Pole, the meteorological pole usually passes above the northern lands, which for seven or eight mouths remain covered with snow, while the subsoil is permanently frozen beneath a thin layer of humus, which thaws sufficiently for a few Arctic plants to strike their rootlets into the ground. The whole of the Mackenzie delta, as well as the lower course of the Coppermine and Back rivers, belongs to .this polar zone, where for a long night of two months the sun never rises above .the horizon. The glass has occasionally fallen to — 62° Fahr. at the New Fort Good Hope in 66° 20' north latitude, and for six months, from October 17th to April 24th, the average temperature has been — 14° Fahr. at Fort Confidence in 66° 54' latitude. At these low temperatures the human breath rises in the air as dense white vapour, whose sudden condensa- tion into extremely minute icicles is accompanied by a slight crackling noise.* Snow seldom falls during intensely cold weather, and Petitot never observed it when the glass stood lower than 18° Fahr. The numerous kinds of snow, for which the natives have a surprising variety of terms, are produced under special conditions of the temperature, winds and vapours ; usually it is formed very near the surface of the earth in the lower stratum of fogs, while higher up the sky is * Meteorological records in the North-West Territory : — Mean Latitude. Temperature. Fort Dunvegan . . 55° 56' . .31° Fahr. . Fort Chippewayan . . 58° 43' . . 27° Fort Rae ... 62° 39' . . 22° Fort Good Hope . . 66° 20' . . — Extremes of r.,1.1 Extremes of Heat. —60° Fahr. . . 90° Fahr. —49° . 86° —40" . 78° -62° . — CLIMATE OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY. 193 perfectly clear with bright sun and stars. The Hare-skin Indians divide the year into sixteen parts, each specially named with reference to the snows or frosts, the winter darkness and the brightness of summer. But they scrupulously avoid uttering the name of the sun, which must be respectfully referred to by some complimentary periphrase. During the short summer the heats often appear intolerable even to the natives, who sleep away a considerable part of this period,, while much of the long winter night is devoted to the chase, travelling, and fur-dressing. When the sun remains forty-eight hours above the horizon the temperature scarcely changes from midday to midnight. Abrupt changes coincide with the shifting of the winds, the cold currents coming from the east, north-east, and even south- east, the relatively mild from the north and north-west. The latter, flowing from large marine surfaces, often assume the character of fierce gales ; prevailing especially in January, and at times tepid enough to cause a momentary thaw. In the southern part of the basin, notably in the Peace Valley where the mean temperature lies near the freezing point, the west winds have a like influence, rendering these regions habitable and even capable of supporting a considerable population. The so-called " Chinook Winds," setting from the Pacific Ocean and sweeping across the Columbian Plateau and Rocky Mountains, resemble the east winds of Greenland, the Swiss fohn and the "autan " of the Pyrenees, all developing a degree of heat through the condensation of the air after crossing the mountains. Thanks to the deflection of the isothermals north- westwards under the influence of these Pacific currents, the valleys of the Athabasca and Peace rivers are scarcely colder than that of the Lower St. Lawrence, while the summer heat suffices to ripen cereals. Here the chief dangers are the early and late frosts, which have been observed on the banks of the Peace River even in the month of August. On the other hand these regions are greatly favoured by the long duration of the solar heat, the sun remaining above the horizon at midsummer for over seventeen hours under 56° north latitude, that is, about the middle course of the Peace. Anemones flourish in this valley earlier than on the banks of the Ottawa 730 mil« nearer the equator. Flora and Fauna. The Athabasca-Mackenzie basin is naturally divided into two distinct botanical regions, the forest zone of the south and south-west, the treeless of the north and north-east. In the former the prevailing tree is the white pine, with which are associated other conifers, spruces, firs, cedars and larches, which, how- ever, scarcely reach so far north as 62°. The aspen and balsam are also common, their range extending even to 68°, and from them several rivers take their name. The white birch abounds in the forest districts, but is seldom allowed to reach maturity, the Indians felling all well-grown stems for their boats. Lastly the dwarf birch, alder and willow advance northwards to the region of mosses and trailing plants. Petitot even speaks of " gigantic " willows, apparently a distinct 104 NORTH AMERICA. species, on the banks of the Peel River. On the shores of the Great Bear Lake vegetation develops so slowly that pines four hundred years old have a girth scarcely exceeding 8 or 10 inches. Berries of all kinds abound in the forest region ; formerly the Indians of the Saskatchewan migrated every summer to the Peace Valley, 250 miles from their camping grounds, in quest of these fruits,* and owing to the failure of the crop hundreds of natives perished in 1889. In many of the forest districts prairies alternate with the woodlands, the disappearance of the timber being probably due partly to deficient moisture, but perhaps mainly to conflagrations. Where no fires break out for a number of years, trees begin to spring up again, the second growth consisting chiefly of the aspen, here and there of the birch ; but these soon perish and are replaced by the white pine, the characteristic tree of the north-western forest zone. The treeless boreal region, the "barren grounds" of English writers, occupy a vast space especially in the eastern parts bordering on Hudson Bay. The Great Fish River basin is entirely comprised within this zone. From the verge of the forests south of Chesterfield Inlet to the Frozen Ocean along the shores of Melville Peninsula or Boothia Felix the traveller may roam for over 600 miles across plains and plateaux covered with nothing but lichens, mosses and short herbage. Nevertheless, these boundless wastes also yield the blackberry, the wild raspberry, whortleberry, gooseberry, strawberry, saskatoon pembina (viburnum edule), supplying nutriment to the bear and even to man himself. In many places these " barren grounds " also yield abundant pasture to herbivorous animals, the reindeer lichen, commonly called the "bread of the caribou," covering vast tracts. Even the rocks are clothed with an almost edible vegeta- tion, such as the gyrophora proboscidea, which despite its disagreeable flavour has saved the life of many a traveller and fur-hunter. The parting line between the forest "and steppe zones coincides also with that of two distinct zoological regions. Many animals keep exclusively to the wood- lands and clearings, while others roam the boundless mossy plains. In the southern zone still survive a few herds of the forest bison, which scarcely differs from the prairie species. Here also are met the wapiti, the alee americanu$ and the caribou (rangi/er caribou), a species of deer also common on the northern plains. The beaver, like most other fur-bearing animals, whether carnivorous or her- bivorous, is confined to the woodlands, where the rabbit and its enemy, the lynx, increase and diminish in numbers by periods of seven to nine years. After multiplying prodigiously, they are swept away by some contagious disease, the few survivors preserving the stock, which in a few years again teems as before. In the northern steppes the mammals arc represented by a species of caribou [rangifer groenlandicus), the berry-eating brown bear, the musk ox, wolf, fox, Arctic hare, and other fur-bearing animals, most of which, however, migrate southwards in winter. Aquatic birds, which are very numerous, also shift their * Butler, The Great Lone Land. INHABITANTS OP THE NORTH WEST TERRITORY. 195 quarters with the seasons, and even marine fishes ascend a long- way up the estuaries. M. Macoun enumerates 32 speeies inhabiting the Mackenzie, including salmon, perch, and whitefish (coregonm albus), most esteemed of all. Travellers also frequently mention the " unknown " or " edentate " fish, which despite its Latin name, sal/no Macken&ii, is not a salmon, but rather a species of mullet, which ascends as far as the Great Slave Lake, and is also found in the Yukon. Snakes scarcely range beyond 56° north latitude, although some are found as far north as the Upper Yukon basin, while a solitary batrachian, a species of frog, is met in the upper valley of the Peel River. In the marine inlets English navigators have observed whales disporting themselves under shelter of the floe ice. Inhabitants. Despite their scanty numbers, the inhabitants of the North-West Territory belong to three distinct families, the Eskimo, Tinneh and Algonquin. The Eskimo are akin to the Innuits of Greenland, the Arctic Archipelago and Alaska, and in the Mackenzie district call themselves Tchiglit, a term synonymous with Innuit, that is, " Men." They number about 2,000, scattered along the seaboard between the Colville and Coppermine Rivers, and also penetrate up the estuaries some distance inland. In the Mackenzie Valley they even range beyond the estuary proper as far as the first gorges and rapids, their real limit being that of the tundras, while the forest zone belongs to the Red-skins. Being still pagans they despise their half-civilised Indian neighbours, and local traditions, as well as the direct evidence of the whites, speak of great battles between the two races. The Eskimo of the Peel River are tonsured like European monks, " in order," as they explain, " that the sun, our common father, may warm our brain and send down to the heart its beneficent heat." But in other respects the usages of the continental Tchiglits differ in no way from those of the insular Eskimo, and like them they are diminishing in numbers. Certain circular stone enclosures towards the estuary of the Great Fish River seem to attest a former higher state of civilisation, for the present local tribes, Nechiliks and Kideliks, would be quite incapable of erecting such fortified lines. North of the Great Slave Lake are also found some pyramidal structures, which appear to have been altars. The Tinnehs, a term also meaning " Men," are designated by many writers under the name of Athabascans from the lake and river Athabasca, and also Chippewayans, or " Pointed Skins," from the form of their cloaks. Petitot calls them Dene-Dinjie, which is simply a repetition of their own name under two different dialectic forms.* They comprise a great number of tribes, the most important of which are the Athabascans proper, who roam the plains between the * Other tribal variations of Tinneh are: Dene, Dine, Dane, Dnaine, Tin, GoHnc, Koehin, Koisin, Dtnji, Dinja, &c. 106 NOETH AMERICA. Churchill River and the Great Slave Lake. Near this lake, and especially about its northern shores, also dwell the Dog-ribs, so named from the national legend of their canine descent. According to Petitot these Indians all stammer. At a recent epoch they were to a great extent exterminated by the Slave tribe, which occupies the western shores of the lake. Gentle, timid, and long-suffering, these "Slaves" had well earned the contemptuous name bestowed on them; but they were at last driven to turn on their oppressors. In the Mackenzie Valley the language of barter is the Slave jargon, a mixture of Slave, Kree, and French- Canadian elements. Many of the Chippewayans are distinguished by their natural intelligence, and King mentions a skilful musician who constructed an excellent fiddle, which he played with much taste.* They usually dress in the European fashion, and build themselves comfortable little houses ; nor do they any longer pierce the lips and cartilage of the nose for the insertion of buttons, bones, or shells. On the slopes of the Rocky Mountains are met the Beavers, the Carriers, the Babines, the Naanneh, or " People of the West," and others connected on one hand with the Slaves, on the other with the Tinnehs of British Columbia and with the Tanana Indians of the Yukon and its waterpartings. The Hare-skins, so-named from their costume, are an inoffensive nation scattered in small groups over the steppes bordering on the Eskimo domain. Lastly the Lower Mackenzie and the reo-ion stretching thence westwards into Alaska belong to the Loucheux, who were so called by the earty Canadian trappers on account of their sinister oblique glance. Mackenzie also gave them the uncomplimentary name of " Quarrellers," from their wranglings with the Eskimo, of which he had been witness. But Franklin explains the term Loucheux in the sense of "cautious" or "wary" in reference to their skill in looking both ways at once, to avoid the arrows of the enemy. According to Petitot they are ten times more numerous in Alaska than in the Mackenzie basin ; but it is chiefly on the banks of this river that they come in contact with Europeans for the sale of their peltries. They practise circum- cision, and some of their Eskimo neighbours have adopted the same rite, which is very rare amongst Indian tribes, though said by Mackenzie to be also general amongst the Dog- ribs. But despite this practice the Loucheux, as well as all the other Tinneh, except a few remote groups in the Rocky Mountains, have become fervent Roman Catholics. The third ethnical family in the Athabasca-Mackenzie basin are the Eyinisuks, or "Men," the " Cris des Bois " of the Canadian trappers, whence the Crce, or Kree, of English writers. They are a gentle, upright people, now reduced to about a thousand, all Catholics, like their Tinneh neighbours. The true domain of the Kree nation is the Upper Saskatchewan basin, whence they gradually spread beyond the portages northwards. Of all the Indians of the North- West they are most threatened by the rising tide of white im- migration ; some hundreds of whites and Chinese have already settled on the Upper Athabasca and on the Peace River in the Omineca and Cassiar terri- * Richard King. Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Oeam. INHABITANTS OF THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY. 197 tory, and these are regarded by all Canadians as the pioneers of many Fig. 82. — Indian Trappers of the Upper Tanana. millions destined to transform those vast solitudes into flourishing settlements. 198 NORTH AMERICA. Administration — The Hudsos Bay Company — Mineral "Wealth. Till recently the Hudson Bay Compmy had systematically reported that the climate was too severe, and the soil too unproductive for Europeans to establish themselves in the northern regions ; nevertheless there can be no doubt that the valleys of the Peace and Great Slave Rivers as well as many other tracts ia those high latitudes, might be profitably cultivated ; for wheat thrives as far as Fort Liard near the sixtieth parallel.* The Athabasca delta especially gives promise of magnificent crops, as attested by the samples shown at various agricultural exhi- bitions. At Fort Simpson in 6'2° north latitude a boat is every year loaded with potatoes to supply the station of Good Hope on the Lower Mackenzie. Here also barley is in ear 75 days after being sown, although within 10 or 12 feet of the surface the ground is permanently frozen for a depth of at least 7 feet. But on the other hand snow is seldom more than 3 feet deep in winter, and horses may pass this season in the open. Another advantage is the absence of locusts ; but no serious attempt will be made to occupy this region so long as so much rich land still remains fallow in Manitoba and in the provinces traversed by the Canadian trunk line. The vast North-"West Territory has hitherto practically belonged to a trading monopoly. In 1821 the two rival Hudson Bay and North- West Companies closed a long period of hostilities by merging in a single commercial association, with the result that the monopoly became absolute. This lasted till 1859, and even when legally abolished, the system maintained itself by the very nature of things. In 1869, after a profitable liquidation and reorganisation of the Company, it sur- rendered all its privileges to Canada for an indemnity of about £300,000, a grant of 7,000,000 acres in the most fertile part of the territory, the possession of all the trading stations, and a space of 60 acres round the enclosures. The Company ceded its dominion, but the colonists succeeded only to the southern part of its former domain. In the Athabasca-Mackenzie basin, the official survey of which has not even yet been commenced, the commercial supremacy of the Hudson Bay Company has not even been threatened. Thus the whole trade of the north is still in the hands of this all-powerful association. Although all restrictions have been removed, the theoretical right of freely trading with the Athabasca-Mackenzie Indians has hitherto tempted no outside speculators, who could scarcely hope to compete successfully with an association of capitalists who have for generations controlled all the trappers throughout a region six times the size of France. Great changes in the politic:! 1 situation were even required to deprive the Hudson Bay Company of its commercial monopoly in Alaska and the American states on the Pacific south of British Columbia. The official suppression of the monopoly in British territory has in no way disturbed the trading relations in these northern regions, and the natives them- selves may possibly have remained ignorant of the changed condition of things. * J. Richardson, op. cit. THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 199 On the other hand, the Company totally disregards the administrative divisions, and continues to divide its territory into districts not according to degrees of latitude and longitude, but according to the abundance and quality of the game. Each district has its "capital," that is, a factory or trading post, comprising a group of three or four wooden structures enclosed by a square palisade 15 to 20 feet high. Most of these " forts " being military only in name, the palisades remain unfortified except where some precautions are needed by the attitude of the natives. In 1875, the servants of the Company numbered about a thousand, mainly English, Scotch, Anglo-Saxon, and French Canadians, and Franco- Canadian half-breeds, these last being still the dominant element. The half-caste trappers in the Company's service have few equals in the world for physical strength, skill, endurance of cold and hardships, and coolness in the presence of danger. In the woodlands they have to discover the tracks by the scent of bear or caribou, or by the slight indications of their forerunners. From beneath the snow they have to disclose the lichens required to attract the musk ox. They thread their way unerringly across a labyrinth of dunes and rocks. Amid the endless intricacies of the lakes they detect the emissaries by the faintest landmarks. During the long winter nights, when dogged by wolves or bears, they guide themselves by the position of the stars. When they are associated together in small groups, they can lend each other mutual aid ; but at times they find themselves cut off from all help, and then their life becomes a continuous struggle with death. A wrong turn in the forest, a breakdown in crossing a portage, a false stroke of the oar in shooting a rapid, loss of supplies or failure to bring down the game, the slightest mischance in these boundless solitudes suffices to involve them in imminent peril. Against famine especially every precaution has to be taken, and no expedition goes unprovided, with the indispensable pemmican, which in like bulk contains almost more nutritious elements than any similar preparation. So satisfying is it that even the most voracious Indian can consume no more than five pounds in the twenty-four hours, the normal ration being half that quantity.* In the districts where no white settlements exist, the price of merchandise, blankets, and other woven goods, tobacco, ammunition, pemmican, and the like is always valued in peltries, this "currency" itself having an ideal value. Formerly it consisted of real beaver-skins, but each article having its tariff fixed at a given number of "beavers," the exchange is effected without this symbol itself, which in some districts cannot be procured, and which is at present valued at about two shillings sterling. With the changes of fashion and the greater or less abundance of game, the peltries themselves rise or fall in price. Thus ermine being no longer in demand, this animal has ceased to be hunted, thus escaping the total extermination by which it was at one time threatened. The beaver also has had a period of respite since its fur has ceased to be used in the manufacture of hats. In the same way, the black fox has fallen in price owing to the discovery of the secret by which other peltries may be dyed a glossy durable black. The use * Butler, The droit Lone land. •200 NORTH AMERICA. of strychnine to take wolves and foxes has indirectly caused the wholesale destruction of many other fur-bearing animals, amongst which are the glutton {gulo Imcus), respected for its almost human intelligence, and the skunk, dreaded less for its pungent odour than its bite, which causes a kind of rabies, different from but no less dangerous than that of the dog or wolf. Notwithstanding the importance of the fur trade, future settlers will probably be attracted to the North- West Territory by its mineral resources. The valleys of the Liards and its affluents, and especially the basin in which is situated Lake Dease, appear to contain gold in abundance. Here are the famous Cassiar mines, so named from the Kaska Indians of the surrounding uplands, and the village of Laketon on the delta of Dease Creek was formerly the centre of a busy floating population. As indicated by its name, the Coppermine Valley is rich in copper deposits, and the old writers tell us that the few aborigines of this region used the native metal without smelting, but simply hammering it with stones.* Salt beds have been found both north and south of Lake Athabasca, where also occur stores of gypsum, lignite and kaolin, while, according to the latest reports of the geologists, the reservoirs of mineral oil would appear to surpass all those hitherto discovered in the New World. Indications of its presence have been observed everywhere from the Saskatchewan basin to Cape Bathurst, a total distance of 1,400 miles north and south. In the opinion of the Canadians, these petroleum- fields should already he regarded as a chief future resource of the Dominion. The Government accordingly proposes to reserve a space of about 40,000 square miles between the Lesser Slave and Athabasca Lakes for future concessions to capitalists capable of working these treasures. Soundings recently made in the same regions have also revealed the existence of vast supplies of inflammable gases. Topography. In the absence of towns in the ordinary sense, the trading stations scattered over the North- West Territory possess vital importance as necessary rallying- points for all travellers, and as positions chosen on account of their natural advantages for carrying on the barter trade between the hunters and the agents of the Hudson Bay Company. Should future cities ever spring up in these vast solitudes, they will inevitably occupy such favoured sites, just as Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, Niagara, Winnipeg have grouped themselves round the forts erected by the early Canadian explorers. Some of the Athabasca-Mackenzie forts have already acquired a certain celebrity in connection with the names of Mackenzie, Franklin, Back, Richardson, and other renowned explorers. One of the most important of these forts is Jasper House, standing at an altitude of over 3,300 feet, at the confluence of the Miette and Tipper Athabasca opposite the Yellow-Head Pass, which leads westwards to the Fraser valley. But the largest place in the whole of the North- West Territory is the village and mission of Lake La Bic/te, which has a mixed population of (300 Krecs and French half- * Dobbs, Aoc&imt of Eudaotfa lUnj. TOPOGRAPH Y OF THE NOBTH-"WEST TEREITOPY. 201 breeds. It commands the portages connecting the Upper Athabasca, the northern fork of the Saskatchewan and the Churchill, not far from Athabasca Landing, which has lately become the most frequented port and the head of the navigation in the Athabasca-Mackenzie basin. Fort MacMurray commands the confluence of the Athabasca and Clearwater at the famous La Loche portage, which for a hundred years was the main route of Canadian travellers and trappers. At the western extremity of Lake Athabasca, Fort Chippewayan has several times shifted with the shiftings of the alluvial delta, and now stands opposite the mouth of the affluent and near the head of the outlet, not far from a mission and an orphanage which in 1888 contained 67 inmates, quite a large population for Fig. 83. — Posts of the Hudson Bat Coitpaxt. Scale 1 : 50,000,000. ----- West or Greenwich 030 Hiles. those almost uninhabited regions. Fort Fond dit Lac, at the eastern extremity of Lake Athabasca, is the most advanced station towards the regions which drain to Hudson Bay. In the Peace basin the chief station is Fort Dunvcgan, near the British Columbia frontier. Fort Smith, the much-frequented port at the portage of the rapids between the Athabasca and the Mackenzie on the Great Slave River, is followed northwards by Forts Resolution and Providence on the Great Slave Lake. These places have become famous in connection with Franklin's expedition, just as Fort Reliance is associated with that of Back. But the latter, founded only for the purpose of furthering the exploration of the Great Fish River, has now been abandoned, while Fort Rae, on the northern inlet of the Great Slave Lake, has been restored, at vol. xv. p 202 NOETH AMERICA. the joint charge of the British and Canadian treasuries, as the central meteorologi- cal station in the North- West Territory. In the region comprised between the Great Slave and Great Bear lakes, the chief station is Fort Simpson, at the confluence of the Liards and Mackenzie rivers, where it commands the route from the sources of the Stickeen to South Alaska. The new Fort Good Hope, -which replaces an old post swept away by the floods of the Mackenzie in 1836, occupies a position analogous to that of Fort Norman, at the junction of the Mackenzie and Hare-skin rivers. On the other hand, Fort Macpherson, on the Peel River, has been maintained in a state of defence since 1848, in order to command the Eskimo and Loucheux territories, which are conterminous about the Mackenzie delta. In the vast " barren grounds " stretching from the Mackenzie eastwards, the only factory maintained by the Hudson Bay Company is Fort Enterprise, which occupies a central position in the triangular space formed by the Great Slave Lake, Great Bear Lake and Coronation Gulf. Fort Confidence, which had been erected on the north-east gulf of Great Bear Lake, has been abandoned. IV.— LAKE WINNIPEG BASIN AND EEGION DRAINING TO HUDSON BAY. Alberta — Saskatchewan — Assiniboia — Manitoba — Keewatin. A large section of this territory, forming a portion of the former Ruperts' Land or domain of the Hudson Bay Company, has already been divided into administrative provinces, which, however, follow geometrical lines rather than natural frontiers. The four territories, cut into so many rectangles draining to Hudson Bay, are the Province of Manitoba, and the Districts of Alberta, Sas- katchewan and Assiniboia, which, with the whole of the Athabasca-Mackenzie basin, comprised the so-called " North-West Territory." Towards the east and north- east the region sweeping round the west side of Hudson Bay still remains open, either to be eventually divided into new provinces, or else assigned to one or other of the already constituted states of the Dominion. This undefined space, which merges imperceptibly northwards in the unexplored tundras between Hudson Bay and the Great Fish River, has been provisionally designated by the name of Keewatin, or " North Wind," a name fully justified by the rude climate of these bleak north-eastern wastes. On the south the Winnipeg provinces are limited by the forty-ninth parallel, the conventional boundary between the Dominion and the United States. Had the true parting-line been adopted between the Winnipeg and Mississippi basins, the first landmark would have been placed in the Rocky Mountains of Montana between the headstreams of the St. Mary and Milk Rivers, respective tributaries of the Saskatchewan and Missouri. From this point the water-parting runs north-eastwards for about 440 miles through Canadian territory, and then turns :arv PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE WINNIPEG REGION. 203 south-eastwards through North Dakota and Minnesota, so as to enclose the basins of the Red and Rainy Rivers, both affluents of Lake "Winnipeg. "Within the Canadian frontier the portage between this basin and that of Lake Superior lies a short distance to the west of the latter. In the absence of complete trigonometric surveys, the vast W r innipeg region, as officially circumscribed, can only be roughly estimated at about 850,000 square miles, with a white and aboriginal population probably not exceeding 200,000 in 1889. But the stream of immigration has ahead}' been directed towards these provinces, where vast tracts of productive soil have been opened up by the Canadian Pacific and other railways. The Pacific line, especially, traversing the whole region from Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains, has become the great artery whence life is distributed throughout the surrounding lands. It replaces the natural routes of the lakes, rivers, and portages, along which traffic formerly moved at a slow pace. Phtsicai Features. "Within the Winnipeg basin the Rocky Mountains throw off no branches, properly so called, to the eastern plains. Here the rolling prairies dash like billows against the foot of a rocky headland, and the transition is everywhere abrupt between the escarpments and the steppe lands. The heights scattered over the region between the Rocky Mountains and Lake Winnipeg resemble the fragments of plateaux eaten away by erosive action, and nowhere rise to any great elevation above the surrounding steppe. Taken altogether, the whole of this region may be considered as forming three terraces with parallel scarps following successively from the foot of the mountains to the Winnipeg depression, and standing at the respective altitudes of 3,300, 1,600 and 650 feet. The various eminences rising above the escarpments have the aspect of hills or ranges only when seen from the lower terraces. On the off side they merge in the plains themselves, or at least have merely the aspect of slight undulations. The western terrace, stretching along the base of the Rocky Mountains, has an average breadth of about 450 miles, and falls abruptly in ravined cliffs down to the plains watered by the Mouse, the Qu'Appelle, and the Saskatchewan, about the converging point of its two forks. On this plateau, which slopes gently east- wards, the heights which present most the aspect of a range, especially when half veiled in the rising mists, are the Cypress Hills, whose highest crests have an absolute height of 4,000 feet, and about 1,000 above the surrounding saline lacustrine plains. These almost isolated hills form a waterparting between the Saskatchewan and Missouri basins. They are encompassed by fluvial channels, some dry, some still flooded, which radiate in every direction, and which are connected by no well-marked high grounds with the Three Buttes (6,900 feet), in the neighbouring state of Montana. The Hand Hills, rising between the two great forks of the Saskatchewan north of the Pacific Railway, are also encircled by arid tracts, hard clays of the chalk epoch, where no shrub can strike root. Such, also, is the character of the other chalk p 2 2ol NORTH AAfKBIl 'A. or sandstone eminences rising from a few hundred to perhaps a thousand feet above the mean level of the plateau. In some districts the prairie is likewise traversed by ranges of dunes, and even shifting sands. Of all these rising grounds the most picturesque are the "Wood Mountains, which lie within the Missouri basin, their northern extremity being surrounded by affluents of that river. They are intersected from east to west by the frontier-line between Canada and the United States, thanks to which they were till recently a Fig. 84. — Cypress Hills. Scale S : 1,500,000. HO'50 West of ureenwich , 36 Miles. place of refuge for Indians escaping from the Republic. Here the famous Dakota chief, Sitting Bull, pitched his camp in 1862, after overpowering and massacring a detachment of American troops. The upland valley and neigh- bouring prairies were also roamed by myriads of bisons, which supplied superabundant food for the Red-skins. Now Indians and bisons alike have vanished. The scarp of the western terrace is uniformly disposed south-east and north- west parallel with the main axis of the Rocky Mountains. It takes the Canadian name of Coteau du Missouri, Coteau des Prairies, or Grand Coteau, and runs almost uninterruptedly for about 650 miles from 1he Missouri to the Saskatche- PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE WINNIPEG REGION. 205 wan across the conventional frontier. The Grand Coteau presents the aspect, not of a single scarp or continuous slope, but of endless buttes, or knolls, and rounded promontories consisting of boulders and gravels, evidently ice-borne during the glacial period. The finer debris, such as clays and sands, were carried farther afield, and then distributed by the running waters over the lower terraces. The Grand Coteau is interrupted only by a few gorges for the passage of rivers, which have developed meres, for the most part saline or brackish, along the face of the escarpments. The existence of ancient lakes is also attested by cavities now dried up, but filled with whitish efflorescences. On the plateau the chains of saline ponds and now empty lacustrine depressions mark the passage of old glacial streams, which have run dry during the present geological epoch. Altogether, it seems evident that the long rampart of the Coteau is simply the front of a vast moraine whicb was formerly carried from the Rocky Mountains down to the central depression of the continent. The blocks piled up along the frontal line belong to all ages from the Laurentian to recent times ; but the sands, clays, and surface rocks of the plateau itself are of chalk and tertiary formation. They contain vast deposits of lignite, whence the expression "plateau of the tertiary lignite," sometimes applied collectively to the upper terrace. The remains of large extinct animals have been found in several places, and are venerated by the Indians as belonging to some potent spirit. The intermediate terrace bounded on the west by the Grand Coteau is much narrower, scarcely exceeding 200 miles from scarp to scarp. Like the upper plateau, it presents isolated knolls, showing traces of erosion, and remaining as standing proofs of a former higher level reduced by denudation. The outer edge, broadly pierced by fluvial valleys, is far less regular than the Grand Coteau, being broken into separate masses, which present the appearance of mountains only on their eastern slope. Such are the Pembina Hills, west of the Red River of the North, the Riding Mountains, Duck Mountains, and Porcupine Hills, west of Lakes Manitoba and Winnepegosis. The groups scattered over the plateau also bear the names of animals — Turtle, Moose, Pheasant, Beaver Hills or " Moun- tains." Northwards the terrace itself falls abruptly down to the Saskatchewan valley. Lastly, the eastern and lowest terrace skirts the valley of the Red River and the "Winnipeg depression. These old alluvial tracts consist of a thick layer of humus containing in abundance the ashes of grasses yearly consumed by the prairie fires. The subsoil is also alluvial, but changed to a marly consistence by intermixture with the countless shells of freshwater mollusks. Few regions can compare with this for natural fertility. But a large part of the valley is occupied with marshy tracts, which it would be too costly to reclaim for tillage. They produce, however, an abundance of coarse grasses. Rivers and Lakes. The chief watercourse of this region is that known in its upper reaches between the Rocky Mountains and Lake Winnipeg as the Saskatchewan, properly 20G NORTH AMERICA. Kisiskatchiwan, or " swift-flowing river." Both of the main forks bear this name — North and South Saskatchewan — the former being fed by the largest glaciers, and flowing through regions where the rainfall is most abundant. The Brazeau and its other chief headstreams rise amid the glaciers of the Rocky Mountains immediately to the south of the sources of the Athabasca, their milky current flowing thence north-eastwards to their confluence with the Clearwater. Below the confluence the North Saskatchewan, winding between sandy, clay, and marly banks, remains a turbid stream especially during the floods. In the spring a few lakes send down a saline fluid, which dries up in the summer, Beaver Lake being the only lacustrine basin which sends a permanent emissary to the Saskat- Fig-. 85. — Coulees of the Great Prairie, Alberta. Scale 1 : 1,600,000. West cf Greenwich 30 Miles. chewan. At the confluence of this tributary the main stream sweeps round the Beaver Hills, beyond which it trends south-eastwards along the foot of the Grand Coteau. In this part of its course it is joined by the meandering Battle River. Like the north fork, the South Saskatchewan, better known because skirted by the Pacific Railway, is formed by numerous torrents flowing from the glaciers of the Rocky Mountains. Here the chief branch is the Bow River, which is followed by the transcontinental railway in its ascent to the Kicking Horse Pass. Rising in a glacial lake west of Mount Hector, the Bow River flows south-east- wards through the Banff Valley, and after receiving the overflow of the Devil's OF RSITYoflLI RIVERS AND LAKES OF THE WINNIPEG REGION. 207 Lake, escapes through the " Gap " down to the plateaux. Here it receives the Belly River from the southern valleys, and is joined by all the glacial torrents within 130 miles of the Rocky Mountains. In the Grande Prairie of Alberta the Red Deer sends its waters to the South Saskatchewan ; but here many ravines, formerly flooded by permanent streams, have now only temporary rivulets, or even meres with no outflow, which dry up in summer, leaving on their bed selenite efflorescences. The Canadian word coulee or ooule has been adopted in English nomenclature to describe these valleys with recurrent streams or saline tarns. Below the Red Deer, the South Saskatchewan flows in a deep gorge through the terminal moraines of the Grand Coteau, beyond which it trends northwards to its confluence with the north fork, their united waters forming the main or great Saskatchewan. Formerly the southern fork probably continued its course through the Qu'Ap- pello, affluent of the Assiniboine. During the early explorations of the Great West, Palliser and Hector believed they had discovered in this valley a navigable highway between the Saskatchewan and the Red River of the North* On this almost level terrace the running waters easily change their course, a slight land- slip or the displacement of a sandhill sufficing to divert their currents from one basin to another. Here it was the shifting dunes that caused the South Saskat- chewan to bifurcate, deflecting the main current to the great valley of the north. The rivulet now occupying its old abandoned bed is called the Aitkov, or " River that turns." In the latter part of their course the two Saskatchewans flow nearly parallel north-eastwards. Below the confluence the main stream runs at an average width of about 1,000 feet between two high banks ; but here and there it expands into broad basins studded with sandbanks and islands overgrown with poplars and willows. On both sides the riverain banks are skirted by parallel watercourses, which, like the Saskatchewan itself, appear to be the remains of an old glacial stream. On the south side flows the Carrot, which is connected with the main stream by a transverse channel ; on the north the Big Sturgeon, and on this side the plateau is also studded with numerous lakes. Pine Island Lake, one of these large sheets of water below the Big Sturgeon confluence, communicates with the Saskatchewan through several mouths, which shift their course with the floods, at high water setting northwards to the lake, at ebb southwards to the river. Chains of lacustrine basins connected with Pine Island Lake follow north-eastwards and northwards towards the Nelson and Churchill rivers, and during the great floods a temporary communication is established between the latter and Lake Cumberland, an affluent of the Saskatchewan. f Below the junction of Pine Island Lake, the Saskatchewan describes the so- called "Big Bend" northwards, and then takes another turn to penetrate a narrow rocky gorge, the "Pas" of the Canadian voyageurs, where the water rushes * Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1860; Toule Hind, Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858. t Youle Hind, op. cit. 203 NOETII AMERICA. through in eddies and rapids much dreaded by the boatmen. Farther on the Saskatchewan winds between low banks across an old lacustrine basin of which a few reservoirs, with swampy margins, still survive. Such are the Moose Lake, the Devil's Drum, and Cedar Lake, this last being separated from the far larger Wionii^cgosis basin only by the mossy portage a little over 4 miles wide, which might easily be pierced by a canal. The Winnipegosis would thus become a tributary of the "Winnipeg, the difference of level being only about three feet ; in the spring all these lakes are united in a continuous sheet of water. At the outlet of Cedar Lake the Saskatchewan crosses a limestone hill, where the swift current can be stemmed by boats, and farther on again expands to fomi the Cross Lake. Here the stream is still 54 feet above the level of Lake Winnipeg, which is only about 12 miles distant. Consequently the fall is here Pig. 86.— The Saskatchewan Rapids. Scale 1 : 200,000. WesL of" Greenwich . 99°zo' '99°20' considerable, the river traversing two rapids successively, and then enteriug the lake through a formidable gorge 3 miles long, where it rushes at great velocity through yellowish limestone walls, on whose ledges are rooted a few trees. During a previous geological epoch the river doubtless plunged directly into the lake from a high rocky bed which has gradually been eroded and then transformed to a long gulley terminating at the two alluvial peninsulas which line the current at its mouth. Besides the Saskatchewan, from which it receives over half of its supjnies, Winnipeg is also fed by several other tributaries, amongst which is the Little Saskatchewan which enters the basin towards the middle of the west bank. This river is the emissary from Lake Manitoba, which gives its name to the central. and most important province in the Hudson Bay basin. The depression which it occupies is disposed parallel with Lake Winnipeg, and both lakes are fragments RIVERS AND LAKES OE THE WINNIPEG REGION. 2C9 of the inland sea which formerly flooded (he whole central region of the conti- nent. North-westwards Manitoba is separated only by a narrow isthmus from Lake Winnipegosis, or "Little Winnipeg," which is disposed in the same direction, the two basins having a collective length of about 250 miles, or nearly the same as Winnipeg itself. But they are narrower and shallower, and in summer Winni- pegosis is somewhat brackish, owing to the copious saline springs near the west side. It stands about 20 feet higher than Manitoba, into which it drains through the Water-hen River. Manitoba itself is 40 feet higher than Winnipeg, to which Fig. 87.— Lake Agassiz. Scale 1 : 8,000,000. ISO Miles. it sends its overflow through the stream which, farther down, after traversing another lake, takes the name of the Lesser Saskatchewan. It has been proposed to pierce the isthmus, about 12 or 14 feet high, which separates Manitoba from the Assiniboine River, a project which would double the extent of navigable highways about the city of Winnipeg. Although less copious than the Saskatchewan, the Red River of the North might from the geological standpoint be regarded as the main stream of the whole hydrographic system. It lies in the axis of the depression occupied by Lake Winnipeg, an axis which at the same time coincides with the central depression of the whole continent between the Rocky and Appalachian ranges. The Red River rises in the centre of Minnesota, about 1,800 feet above sea-level in the Elbow Lake, 210 NOETH AMERICA. whence it Hows first south through a series of lakelets to the shallow Otter-tail Lake, thence sweeping round to west and south. In its upper course it thus describes a complete semicircle in the reverse direction from that of the Upper Mississippi, farther east. The common region of their sources is a typical lacustrine district containing over 700 lakes, some of which are of considerable size, so that in many places the watery element is more extensive than the dry land. Navigable canals might easily be opened between all these basins, from the Eed River to the Mississippi and thence to the St. Louis and Lake Superior. Geologists hold that beyond doubt the Hod River was formerly a tributary of the Mississippi, through the Minnesota. Between the Traverse basin, whence flows an affluent of the Red River, and Bigstone Lake, source of the Minnesota, the divide is scarcely six feet high, and occasionally during the floods the northern sends its waters to the southern basin, thus temporarily restoring the old waterway. The upper Minnesota valley presents the aspect of a great fluvial bed, in which the present rivulet seems as if lost, and this valley is continued northwards by that of the Red River. With the eye we may follow the broad channel formerly excavated by the emissary of the great lake, of which only a fragment now survives. The overflow of this basin, to which Warren has given the name of " Agassiz," must have been discharged southwards, for on the north side it was barred by the rampart of ice at that time covering the whole of boreal America. But when this barrier gradually retreated northwards, affording the overflow an issue through Lake Winnipeg and the Nelson to Hudson Bay, the southern watershed between the Minnesota and the Red River again arose above the surface, and the Red River ceased to be a tributary of the Mississippi.* After escaping from the lacustrine region, the Red River winds northwards through a valley which mainly coincides with the meridian. From the Brecken- ridge meander to the political frontier the distance in a straight line is 190 miles, and 460 with all the windings. The fall is very slight, and at the frontier the placid current still flows 800 feet above sea-level through a prairie valley, whose uniformity presents a strong contrast to the asj^ect of most other rivers in their upland valleys. Its banks nowhere show any rocks except here and there a few erratic boulders, locally called " hard-heads." The soil everywhere consists of recent alluvia, resting on the sedimentary matter deposited by the former lake. In its iipper course the river, controlled by the numerous lacustrine reservoirs which it floods, remains at a somewhat uniform level throughout the year ; but lower down, where it traverses the prairies, the winter floods rise from 34 to 40 feet above low-water mark, and here steamers have been seen careering over the ploughed lands. These tremendous inundations are due to the irregular melting of the ice, which disappears first in the southern parts of the basin, where the water, being unable to break through its icy barriers farther north, accumulates and overflows its banks far and wide. At this period it is of a dirty white, not of a red colour, as might be supposed from its name. But according to the Indian legend * Wincliell, Popular Science Monthly, June auJ July, 1S73. RIVERS AND LAKES OF THE WINNIPEG REGION. 211 this name has reference to the blood that mingled with the stream during a fierce battle between some Saulteux and Assiniboine tribes. At the point where il crosses the frontier, the mean discharge is estimated at 2,800 cubic feet per second. In Manitoba the Red River receives the Roseau, the Rat and the Seine on its right bank, and on its left the Sale or Salle, originally Salee, that is " Saline," from the salt springs flowing to its channel. But on this left or west side the chief affluent is the Assiniboine, which gives its name to one of the great divisions of this region. The Assiniboine rises on an elevated part of the plateau west of Lake Winnipegosis, and flows at first south and south-east in the direction of the Fig. 88. — Bifurcation of the Saskatchewan and Qu'Afpelle Rivees. Scale 1 : 670,000. 106°4O' West op breenwich 106" .6 Miles. Mississippi. The plains traversed by it were till lately inhabited exclusively by the Salteux and the Dakota Assiniboines from whom it takes its name. It is also known as Stony River, not so much from its rocky bed as from its shallow current for a great part of the year winding between argillaceous or sandy banks, which are fissured by the heat and then fall in great masses into the stream when swollen by the melting snows. The Qu'Appelle, or Calling River, so named from the voice of an invisible spirit, joins the middle course of the Assiniboine, without, however, adding much to its volume, despite a course of nearly 400 miles. The discharge of the main stream itself scarcely exceeds 1,700 or 1,800 cubic feet per second in summer. A remarkable feature of the Qu'Appelle is the continuous line of communica- tion which it maintains with another river through a basin with a double outflow. 212 XOr.TII AMERICA. East of the "Elbow " of the South Saskatchewan, some sandhills, the highest of which rise from 60 to 70 feet above the ground, have gradually raised the bed of a deep valley excavated to a depth of over 100 feet below the plateau, without, however, completely filling it up, and the upper course of the South Saskatchewan is continued eastwards through this winding depression, which exceeds 5,000 feet in average width. At the point where the valley has been most elevated by the accumulating sands, some 70 feet above the low-water level of the Saskatchewan, the space between the dunes is occupied by a little basin which sends the Aiktow Creek in one direction to the Saskatchewan, and the Qu'Appelle in another to the Assiniboine. Along the bed of the latter a chain of narrow lakes at least 30 feet deep follows at intervals ; of these the most remarkable are the four Fishing Fig. 89.- Postages of the Old Eoutes between Lakes Supepjop. and Wjnsipeg. Scale 1 : G.OOO.Cim. 05° West of Greenwich 125 Miles. Lakes, which are separated by intervening alluvial plains deposited by the lateral torrents, the whole forming collectively a long basin of crescent shape. A similar bifurcation to that of the Aiktow Creek is said to occur at the base of the long scarp formed by the Grand Cotean of the Missouri, where the two little "Mouse Rivers" would appear to flow from a common basin, one to the Qu'Appelle, the other to the lower Assiniboine. After receiving the Qu'Appelle, the Assiniboine, here flowing through a broad deep channel, trends eastwards in the direction of the Red River. In this part of its lower course it is joined by the Mouse, which makes a great bend in United States territory, and it then flows within a short distance to the south of Lake Manitoba to the Red River at the spot chosen as the site of "Winnipeg City. During heavy fli ods, the Rat, flowing between the Assiniboine and Lake Manitoba, R1VEBS AND IjAKES OF THE WINNIPEG REGION. •213 is said to convey some of the Assiniboine waters to the late. It would be easy to construct a canal across the isthmus, while a barrage would suffice to divert the South Saskatchewan to the Assiniboine through the Qu'Appelle, thus transforming these two watercourses into a continuous navigable highway. At present the Assiniboine is scarcely available for navigation, despite the length of its course, the main branch of which is alone estimated at 800 miles. Below the capital of Manitoba the united waters of the Assiniboine and Red River keep the name of the latter stream, and continue to follow its general Fiff 00.— Lake of the Woods. Scale 1 : 450,000. 94°-ss • West op Greenwlcl 94°, s- G Miles. northerly direction. About 36 miles below the confluence the marshy plains through which the channels ramify present all the appearances of a delta, beyond which the vast expanse of Lake Winnipeg stretches away to the north. The time is approaching when this delta 'will merge in that of the river Winnipeg (Wi-nipi, or "Turbid Water," so named in the Rree language from the -white argillaceous sediment held in solution in its current), which enters the lake some 25 miles farther to the north-east. Although a less copious stream than the Saskatchewan, the Winnipeg is historically more important as the natural highway of communi- cation with Lake Superior and the other lacustrine basins constituting the Canadian Mediterranean. This route was followed by the hunting tribes, and after them by the Canadian trappers. The river itself drains a considerable area, rising within 25 miles of the west 214 NORTH AMERICA. coast of Lake Superior at the " Grand Portage," a rising ground about 20 feet high, which forms the parting line between the two basins. From this point, which stands 1,440 feet above sea-level, all the waters flow from lake to lake through steep gullies, where the boats rush the less dangerous rapids, and are carried across the portages where the falls cannot be navigated. Before the construction of roads and other improvements, the journey of 650 miles between the two great lakes occupied at least 28 or 30 days; in 1870 the British expedi- tion sent to suppress the revolt of the half-breeds took three months to march from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg. Of the other more or less difficult routes open to the daring trappers, one of the most frequented is that which has been chosen as the frontier line between the United States and the Dominion, and which the civil engineer, Dawson, has made comparatively easy by the construction of roads across the portages, and by canal- ising the lakes and connecting streams. Now, however, all these highways have been superseded by the Pacific Kailway, which covers the whole distance in less than a single day. The lacustrine region within the Dominion, separating the Superior and "Winni- peg basins, is even more studded with winding and ramifying sheets of water than is the State of Minnesota about the sources of the Red River. Within a space 370 miles long east and west, by 185 miles north and south, the labyrinth of lakes is as endless as is that of the islets in the lakes themselves ; everywhere an inex- tricable intermingling of land and water. Amongst the hundreds, the thousands of lakes, some are large enough to be regarded in any other country but Canada as great inland seas. Such is " Rainy " Lake, a term which, although adopted by the French Canadians (Lac de la Pluie), is really a popular English form of Rene, the name of its Canadian discoverer. The basin is encircled by dome-shaped cliffs from 300 to 500 feet high, with intervening swamps and thickets. The emissary, to which the misnomer " Rainy " has also been extended, never freezes above the falls by which its course is interrupted.' The Rainy River flows between somewhat elevated banks, which were formerly shaded by large trees. But at a distance varying from a few hundred to a few thousand yards, the surface of the ground is little better than a quagmire resting on masses of peat, into which a stake may be driven some 30 feet without touching the bottom. Of all the basins between Lake Superior and Winnipeg, the largest is the Lake of Woods, which is fed by the Rainy River, and which is no less than 400 miles in circumference. But it is divided by innumerable islets and promontories into secondary basins, which increase and diminish in extent with the floods and droughts. In the north-western part especially, the islands arc numbered by the hundred, all varying in size, elevation, and the character of their flora. Some are merely grassy stretches almost flush with the water ; some present wooded heights, and others rocky cliffs, either with vertical walls or else disposed in terraces, the whole offering an unrivalled variety of scenery. In some places the water is said to be 180 feet deep ; but the average scarcely exceeds 30 feet. Here occurs the so-called Canadian rice (zizania aquation), the folle aroinr or RIVERS AND LAKES OF THE WINNIPEG REGION. 215 "wild oats" of the Canadians, a plant characteristic of the Mississippi regions, and in Canada met only in the lacustrine district of the Lake of Woods. "West- wards this lake is continued by a muskeg or peaty tract, which was formerly flooded, and which cannot be crossed except in winter, when the whole spongy tangle is frozen hard and covered with snow. English River, which flows north of the Lake of Woods westwards to the Winnipeg River, is rather a succession of lakes than a river in the ordinary sense. Rising in the vast basin of Lake Seul, probably so named because of its desolate aspect, the English River forms the chief affluent of the Winnipeg River, which escapes through several channels, a kind of reversed delta, from the Lake of Woods, and which, during a course of ICO miles, falls 345 feet through a series of picturesque cataracts, whose lovely wooded islets contrast with the rugged granite rocks on both sides. According to Butler, the Winnipeg River has a mean dis- charge of about 140,000 cubic feet per second, or double that of the Rhine. The vast reservoir of Lake Winnipeg, where converge the Great and Little Saskatchewan, the Red River, the emissaries of the Lake of Woods and Lake Seul, besides many other less important streams, is one of the great lacustrine basins of the globe, covering an area estimated at 9,000 square miles ; it has a circumference of over 900 miles, and extends north and south at least 250 miles in a straight line. At its broadest part, opposite the mouth of the Saskatchewan, it is about 60 miles wide, but at the narrows it contracts to 6 or 7 miles. Winni- peg is thus disposed in two distinct basins, the "Little Lake" in the south, and the " Great Lake " in the north. The elevation is variously estimated at from 625 to 700 feet above Hudson Bay ; but it is a very shallow basin, the deepest parts scarcely exceeding 70 feet, and in many places the mud and sand-banks are covered with only 2 or 3 feet of water for great distances from the shore, which is subject to great fluctuations with the alternating wet and dry seasons. Here and there crystalline rocks fringe the east margin ; but the opposite side is bordered by low-lying and even swampy tracts for considerable distances, while towards the northern extremity the primitive contours have been masked by perfectly regular semicircular tongues of land, one of which bears the well- merited name of Mossy Point. Under the shelter of this long and slightly elevated promontory are collected the effluent waters, which, after forming a winding lake, ramify round a large island, below which they again converge in a common channel. The Nelson, or Bourbon as this great emissary was formerly called by Canadian trappers, rolls down a liquid mass estimated at no less than 280,000 cubic feet per second. But despite its enormous volume, the Nelson is so obstructed by stupendous falls, rapids, and "cauldrons," that it is navigable only by canoes which can be trans- ported overland across the numerous portages. During a course of about 400 miles it has a total fall of 650 feet. Below Lakes Fendu (Split) and des Muettes, its current becomes more tranquil, and deep enough for large vessels ; but its mouth in Hudson Bay is obstructed by a shallow bar. It is noteworthy that, despite the quantity of sediment brought down, the Nelson has not developed a 21 3 NOKTII AMERICA. delta beyond the normal coastline. It enters the bay through a funnel-shaped estuary, which penetrates a considerable distance inland, and which perhaps represents a partly obliterated fjord. On the banks of this estuary were interred, in 1612, the remains of the navigator, Nelson, whose name is perpetuated by the river. On its south side the same estuary is reached by the York, or Hayes, formerly Fig. 91.— TnE Nelson Emssaey. Scale 1 : 1,400,000. West oF Greenwich 98° , 18 Miles. the Sainte Therese, which, like so many other watercourses in this region, is rather a chain of lacustrine basins, varying in size and connected together by falls and rapids. Being shorter, less meandering, and freer from ice in winter than the Nelson, the Hayes is used by the trappers as the trade route between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay; they generally traverse the whole distance of 250 miles, including detours, in about twenty-five days. RIVERS AND LAKES OF THE WINNIPEG REGION. 217 The Hayes is one of those watercourses which present the rare phenomenon of a continuous flow to two different slopes. Near a place called the Painted Rock the current branches into two channels, one of which flows northwestwards to Hudson Bay, while the other joins the Winnipeg emissary. Next to the Nelson the largest affluent of Hudson Bay is another " English River," called also the Churchill and the Missi-nipi, or " Great Water," which flows at an average distance of about 95 miles north of, and parallel with, the Nelson. Its farthest headstream, rising near Elk Lake, bears the name of the Beaver, and here it skirts the outer foot of the terraced moraines, which were deposited during the glacial epoch far to the east of the Rocky Mountains. After receiving the overflow of Lake la Plonge and of several others through the streams descending from the portage la Loche, it takes the name of Churchill. Lower down it continues to be fed by the emissaries of numerous other basins, the largest of which is Reindeer Lake, the most extensive reservoir between Lakes Winnipeg and Athabasca. But Reindeer, or simply Deer Lake, which covers an area of many hundred square miles, is wrongly represented on most maps as forming a water highway between the Churchill and Mackenzie basins. This phenomenon of bifurcation, of which several instances are found in Canada, does not occur here, for at this point two fluvial systems are clearly separated by a ridge of rising ground. North of the Churchill other streams of much smaller size flow from the Keewatin plains to Hudson Bay. The largest is the Doobaunt, which, after traversing the lake of like name, enters the sea through the long Chesterfield Inlet, which is said to penetrate 250 miles into the interior. It is succeeded farther north in the direction of Melville Peninsula by the wider but shorter Wager Inlet. South of the Nelson and Hayes rivers the chief tributaries of Hudson Bay are the Severn, Weenisk, Equan, Attawahpiskat, and Albany ; this last has acquired a certain political importance as marking the frontier line between the province of Ontario and the Eeewatin Territory. Farther on the Oiignal, better known by its English name of the Moose River, is the last important stream belonging to the western slope of Hudson Bay, which it enters at its south-east angle. It receives the overflow of several con- siderable lakes, including Abitibbi, one of the most picturesque in Canada. In all these secondary basins, as well as in those of Winnipeg and the Upper Mississippi, the lakes, whether still flooded or already emptied by fluvial erosion, are found to be encircled by terraces rising in irregular concentric lines above their margins. The watercourses themselves are similarly fringed at some distance from their banks by riverain terraces which seem to indicate the broad channels of communication between the inland seas. Certain cliffs may be traced for hundreds of miles, and their true character may be studied on those maps where the changes of water level are systematically indicated. The marine shores themselves bear witness to secular changes of level. For a distance of about 200 miles between the mouth of the Severn and the Nelson estuary the seaboard is disposed in ridges running parallel with the coast, all VOL. XV. q 218 NOETH AMERICA. formed of gravel, aud separated one from the other at intervals of from 350 to 1,350 feet by shallow meres, whose water near the coast is still brackish, but in the interior quite fresh. Everything seems to show that the ground has been gradually upheaved. The ridges lying farthest from the sea are always the most elevated, and the driftwood found in the intermediate depressions consists of tree stems at various stages of decomposition, according to their distance from the present beach.* Some are still found at an elevation of over 50 feet above the present sea-level. Certain indications seem to show that at the mouth of the Churchill the relative subsidence of the sea has been about six or seven feet since the last century. Hudson Bay. This vast inland sea, so inappropriately designated as a "bay," must be regarded as belonging to the same geological region as the Winnipeg basin ; it was formerly covered by the same ice-cap, and its bed is inclined in the same way as the plains which slope gently from the foot of the Rocky Mountains eastwards and north-eastwards. From the same plains the marine basin receives its most copious affluents, while the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, notwithstanding their proximity to the bay, at least on the maps, are in reality separated from it by an elevated parting line which is rarely crossed except by a few of the surrounding aborigines. The vast plateau of Labrador also, which stretches east of the great northern "Mediterranean," constitutes a separate physical region, whose inhabited parts face towards the Atlantic. Even during the two and a-half centuries of rudi- mentary history which have passed over the boreal regions, Hudson Bay has always been intimately associated with the former territories of the company to which it gave its name. It was through the channel flowing between Labrador and Baffin Land, and through the . waters of Hudson Bay, that the ships of the powerful association brought their supplies to the stations founded by the trappers. Through the same water highway the settlers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan expect one day to forward their produce to England. Their future shipping ports lie neither on the St. Lawrence nor on the Atlantic seaboard, but at the mouths of the Nelson, Churchill, and Moose rivers. Including the secondary inlets and channels of communication, Hudson Bay- covers an area estimated by It. Bell at 520,000 square miles. Even the Bay proper, enclosed by the northern islands of Southampton, Manself and others, has an extent of 320,000 square miles, that is, about the same as the western section of the Mediterranean from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Sicilian waters. Its whole catchment basin comprises a region of at least 800,000 square miles, or more than one-fourth of the Dominion. From the southern extremity of James Bay, the extreme southern inlet, to the eastern entrance of Hudson Strait, there is a clear navigable waterway of over 1,250 miles. * A. P. Law, Geological Surra/ of Canada, Annual Report, 1S8G. t Mantel, not Mansfield, as given on nearly all maps ; so named by Button in 1612. HUDSON BAY. 219 But notwithstanding its vast size throughout most of its expanse Hudson Bay is little more than a flooded depression, which would be transformed by a slight upheaval to a part of the surrounding mainland. The whole of James Bay is a Fig. 92.— Hudson Bay. Soak 1 : 12,000,000. " West oP Gfeenwi S ^ Depths. O to 20 Fathoms. 20 to 40 Fathoms. 40 to SO Fathoms. 80 to 100 Fathoms. 100 to 200 Fathoms. 200 Fathoms and upwards. 1S5 Miles. sheet of yellowish water, where the muddy bed is churned up by the storm, aud where vessels are exposed to the danger of grounding on the shifting shoals or on some low island, such as Agoomska or Charlton. Even the central parts appear from the few soundings taken here and there to have an average depth of not more than 435 feet, and such is the uniformity of the gently sloping bed, that q2 220 NOETH AMERICA. were it dried up it would present the same general aspect as the American prairies.* Towards the centre and at the entrance the water is deeper, the soundings having recorded over 100 fathoms, while in Hudson Strait, through which the bay communicates with the ocean, the depth increases to 270 fathoms. The aspect of the shore corresponds as a rule with the depth of the neighbouring waters, being low where they are shallow, high and steep where they are relatively deep. On the coast of East Main, that is, the Labrador side, the waters are dominated by headlands 1,000 and even 2,000 feet high. The fauna is similarly varied, few marine fishes being found in the shallow, brackish waters of James Bay, whereas farther north the bay is frequented by nearly all the Polar species. Parallel with the steep Labrador Coast occur the dangerous reefs of eruptive rocks known by the name of "Sleepers," and apparently representing an old coastline about 250 miles long. Towards the north the bay is separated by the large gneiss island of Southampton from the broad Fox Channel and other passages ramifying through the Arctic Archipelago. Till recently this island was supposed to be much more extensive. Now, however, it is known to be separated by Fisher Strait from a southern island not yet named on the maps, and about the size of Mansel Island, which lies to the east, and which resembles an enormous gravel table. Hudson Strait is likewise studded with islands, huge masses of gneiss .and conglomerate plateaux. Despite the shallow waters, the west side of the bay is nearly destitute of islands. The best known, as a rendezvous of whalers, is Marble Island south of Chesterfield Inlet, whose dazzling white cliffs, however, are composed, not of marble, but of a coarse limestone with white quartzites and micaceous schists. The ocean tides are felt in all the inlets, but are much weaker in the south and west than in the north, falling from 3-5 or 40 feet at Ungava Bay, on the north Labrador Coast, to 12 or 14 in the Churchill and Nelson estuaries. From these tidal movements it has been argued that Hudson Strait can never be entirely blocked by ice, and that there is always an open passage through which the tidal waves are propagated. In such a climate, where the mean temperature is always several degrees below freezing-point, ice cannot fail to be abundant ; but the secondary bays and inlets alone are completely frozen in winter. Still the naviga- tion is discontinued during this season, and vessels seldom attempt the passage of Hudson Strait before July. They usually reach York station on the west side about September 4th, the earliest recorded being August 6 th, the latest October 7th. t Owing to the shallowness of the water, which is rapidly heated by the summer sun, nearly all the ice formed within the Bay is melted on the spot, so that very little of the floe ice drifts towards the Strait. The danger to navigation arises chiefly from the masses coming from Fox Channel in summer and obstructing Hudson Strait. These icebergs contain much mud and fragments of rocks, brought evidently from the islands of the Arctic Archipelago, and especially from Baffin Land. * Kobert Bell, Geological Survey, 1885. t A. E. Gordon, Report on the Hudson Bay Expedition of 1886. HUDSON BAY— CLIMATE. 221 Other dangers arising from the currents, tides, and fogs greatly impede the navigation, which for sailing vessels is limited to two months in the year. So skilfully have these vessels been handled that before 18(34, when two were wrecked on ^lansel Island, not one of the 133 were lost which were despatched by the Hudson Bay Company since the year 1789. By the aid of steam the navigation will be better regulated, and kept open for about four months from July 1st to the end of October. A more complete exploration of the seaboard will also probably discover the currents followed by the drift ice, and lay down the more favourable routes to follow. The first expeditions had been undertaken in connection with the researches for the North- West Passage, which was the exclusive aim of Hudson, Button, James, Fox, Alunk, Gibb, Middleton, Smith. The same goal was pursued in the present century by John Ross and Parry, when they explored all the inlets of Fox Channel. But henceforth the attention of navigators will be concentrated on the bay itself, the character of its coasts, the constitution of its rocks, the force and direction of its tidal and other currents. This systematic exploration has already been begun on the south side, along the Nelson and Churchill estuaries, and in the islands of Hudson Strait. Climate. The vast domain stretching from 49° north latitude to and beyond the Arctic Circle presents a great diversity of climates. While the isothermal line of 46° F. intersects the south-western region, in the north-east the mean annual temperature falls below 14° F., that is, nearly 20 degrees under freezing-point. In other words most of the territory, if not actually uninhabitable, is at least too cold for perma- nent European settlements. The true limit of colonisation is indicated by the iso- thermal of zero, which comprises all the upper Saskatchewan Valley and crosses the middle part of Lake Winnipeg, thus approximately coinciding with the monthly isothermals of 68° F. in July and 4° F. in January. Compared with the St. Lawrence basin, this southern zone of the Hudson Bay slope might contain many millions of inhabitants, and will probably contain them before many decades have passed. In the inhabitable region the climate is essentially continental, despite the vast expanses of water occupying a great part of the territory. The winters are very severe, the summers correspondingly hot, while the intermediate seasons, especially spring, are scarcely perceptible. Between the extremes the glass oscillates as much as 140° or 145°, and in Manitoba the discrepancy between the day and night temperatures is also greater than in any other British colony. In this respect the climate of the Winnipeg region recalls that of West Siberia. Yet these con- ditions agree perfectly with the general health and physical constitution of the white settlers, and scarcely any other region is more unanimously pronounced to be perfectly salubrious by the immigrants themselves. It is occasionally visited by fierce snow-storms ; but these blizzards come, not from the northern but from •12-2 NORTH AMERICA. the southern regions, and are usually of a much milder type than in the United States. In summer, after the sudden transition which changes the aspect of prairie and woodland as if by magic, the intense heats are tempered by the breeze which revolves with the sun. In this part of the continent, lying in the central depres- sion about midway between the Polar seas and the Gulf of Mexico, the winds coming from the frigid and torrid zones, from the Atlantic and Pacific, are nearly balanced, the most prevalent being those of the west and south-west, that is, the counter-trades of the northern hemisphere. At the foot of the Rocky Mountains the so-called " Chinook " winds sweep abruptly down from the uplands and Fig. 03. — Arable Lands of "SVest Canada. Scale 1 : 18,000,000. L-ea>- VK-. i&c&j^ cine-Hat,-^-! ° < $2" v vT *~" > -^ ^~-pj^\. yyv-'..;,v^ > . r? ■ -■>-:■ -\ ~ y- i v ' TnaThr'es Medic l Z~$SlJi "'feWWs West oP Gr-eemvlch I'O' Arable Land according to Talliser. Other Arable Land. S10 Miles. resume their original temperature, drying the ground, " lapping up the snow and drinking the water." In some districts, especially south of the Assiniboine and Qu'Appelle rivers towards the United States frontier the chief drawback is the deficient rainfall. The yearly precipitation supposed to be indispensable for profitable corn-growing is estimated at about 20 inches, and this proportion is considerably exceeded in the central parts of Manitoba watered by the Eed River, where most of the rains occur in summer, precisely when most needed by the crops. But there are also vast tracts where the annual rainfall is less than 20 inches, and here stock-breeding rather than tillage will probably form the staple industry of the future* The panegyrists of Manitoba deny that the southern districts destitute of * Meteorological observations on the Hudson Bay slope : — Annual Temp. Extremes. Rainfall. Heat. Cold. Winnipeg (49° 53' N.) . . 36° F. . . 95° F. —43° F. . . 2G inches. Fort York (.57° N.) 22° . 99° —45° • 32 „ CLIMATE OF THE WINNIPEG REGION. 223 arborescent vegetation, or even quite arid, suffer from a deficient supply of mois- ture. They protest especially against the term " desert " applied by Palliser to the region -watered by the Moose River near the United States frontier. Anyhow this region is studded with saline lakes, and even contains a certain number of closed basins, such as that of the " Old Wives," where the water disappears with- out any visible outflow. Very probably the southern terraces of the province of Assiniboia owe their scanty vegetation to the slight rainfall. In this respect they form a northern continuation of the continental region in the United States, where is seen a gradual transition from the argillaceous and saline desert to the grassy plains, and from the prairies to woodlands and forests. Doubtless the tracts under timber have been considerably reduced by forest fires ; but these ravages are themselves a proof that the local climate is not favourable to the development of large growth, and that, once destroyed, the forests are with difficulty replaced. Before the white colonisation small woods of the willow, poplar, and aspen grew in the moist hollows especially at the foot of the dunes, and in the glens of the uplands improperly described as "mountains." The woodman's axe has been more destructive than the incendiary fires caused by the Indians. Flora and Fauna. On the whole the general character of the Manitoban vegetation is much the same as that of Ontario, which, although lying more to the south, is traversed by the same isothermal lines. Nevertheless the beech, maple, and pine predominant in the southern province are not found in the Assiniboine valley, where even the oak and ash are rare. The commonest arborescent plants are the poplar, elm and willow, while here and there the wild briar, vine and other woody forms develop impenetrable thickets. The wild hop and other trailing plants spread their meshes over all the taller growths, and plants yielding berries of divers flavour and colour are as abundant as in the Mackenzie basin. Wild fruits, such as the plum and cherry, which in other provinces are very sour, have here quite a sweet taste, a phenomenon attributed by Macoun to the clear skies and dry atmosphere. The dunes are nearly everywhere covered with a species of trailing juniper, and with the kinnikinik {arctostaphylos urn ursi), the bark of which, mixed with tobacco, forms the most highly prized narcotic of the Indians and half-breeds. Two species of cactus range as far north as the Assiniboine basin, and the natives are also acquainted with a " fever tree," an aspen or trembling poplar, from the bark of which is prepared a decoction as a cure for the sharp attacks of ague. West of the plains the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, and even the isolated Cypress Hills, have a distinct flora of an essentially alpine and boreal type, contrast- ing with the vegetation of the surrounding prairies. The wild fauna comprises the same species as those of the conterminous lands; but several animals have already disappeared with the progress of colonisation. The " panther " of the trappers, that is, the puma (felts concolor), now very rare in the remote upland valleys, has lone vanished from the plains. The wapiti also 224 NORTH AMERICA. is rarely seen, and still more rarely the cabri, or pronged-horned antelope {antilo- carpa americana). The bison, herds of which are still said to survive in the Mac- kenzie basin, are now known only by tradition on the plains of the Saskatchewan, where they existed in countless numbers within the memory of man. They were systematically exterminated by the natives, the half-breeds and the whites, who formed a vast circle round a herd, which was gradually driven towards a palisaded or rocky enclosure, where all were slaughtered. The whites taking part in these butcheries often took nothing but the tongue, while the Indian used the flesh for food, the sinews as bowstrings or for sewing his garments, the skin for clothes, tent, or boat, the horns for keeping his powder. For a century the flesh of the bison had been the almost exclusive food of all trappers and travellers in the " Great Lone Land," where as many as ten millions were said to have roamed the boundless western prairies, and where a few of pure or mixed breed alone now survive in the preserves of some of the great cattle-breeders. As many as 230,000 are said to have been lulled in the single year 1855 on the United States frontier.* Of the smaller mammals the beaver, eagerly pursued by the trappers, has become rare, while the musk rat, protected by the nature of his retreats, still abounds in the boggy districts. The surprising fecundity of this animal, which breeds three times in the season, enables it to repair the losses caused by inundations and frosts penetrating too deeply into the ground or lasting too long. Fully as industrious as the beaver, the musk rat builds himself a spherical cabin by means of tall grasses interlaced and coated with clay. His bed of hay is placed above the level of the annual floods, and during the winter he maintains a system of ventilators in the ice of the neighbouring pond, his reservoir of fish, the holes being bordered with moss and plugged with clay. This is the only representative of the rat family in the Hudson regions ; but there are several species of other rodents who burrow in the ground and feed on the roots of plants. Such is the so-called " prairie dog " or gopher (spevmophilus, Frank.), which mounts guard in comic fashion at the mouth of its underground dwelling. The feathered tribe, poorly represented on the prairies, offers great variety in the Manitoba valleys, where Macoun enumerates as many 'as 235 species. Most of them recall European forms, such as eagles, owls, cranes, duck, gulls, partridges, swallows, sparrows, and chaffinches. The blackbird is most dreaded as a greedy devourer of corn, while the cow-bird (molothras pecoras), which builds no nests, is a great favourite, often keeping company for weeks together with the waggon teams across the plains, perching on the horses and snapping up the gadflies and other winged pests. As in British Columbia, a Mexican humming-bird passes the summer on the Manitoban plains, and is met as far north as the Churchill valley in 57° north latitude. Thus this tiny creature, which glows like a burning coal in the foliage, makes a journey of at least 3,000 miles in spring and autumn between its winter and summer resorts. Owing to the character of the soil and extensive river and lake systems, this region abounds both in fish and reptiles. In certain places the garter-snake : * Duncan G. F. Macilonald, British Columbia ami Vancouver's Island. INHABITANTS OF THE WINNIPEG KEGION. 225 (euteenia sirtalis) maybe seen in myriads coiled round the shrubs; lizards also swarm in the clearings, and have given their names to numerous lakes and mountains ; frogs deafen the ear in all the marshy tracts, and in crossing swamps and streams the wayfarer runs the risk of being covered with leeches. But the tortoise is rare and never met beyond 51° north latitude. Of the forty-two species of fishes enumerated by Moucon the most valuable for the natives is the whitefish (coregonus a/bus), which is taken in multitudes in the Hudsonian lakes. These waters also teem with sturgeon, salmon, trout, pike, carp, and " loach " (lota maculosus), the last mentioned being so named from its form and its gelatinous skin. The carp is noted for its almost incredible tenacity of life ; after being frozen up in the ice it recovers when thawed out, and survives decapitation a long time. The earth worms, so common in the United States, are wanting in Manitoba and the North-West Territory, so that Darwin's theory as to the fertilising action of these organisms is not here applicable. Inhabitants. The aborigines scattered over the vast region comprised between Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains east and west, the United States frontier and the Athabasca-Mackenzie basin south and north, belong almost exclusively to the widespread Algonquin family, which also at one time occupied nearly the whole of the St. Lawrence basin, and all the north-eastern states except the Iroquois enclave. The various tribes settled on the banks of the Saskatchewan, the Red River and Winnipeg are all allied to the Algonquins of Lower Canada and the States, the chief nation being the Krees, who also range northwards into the Mac- kenzie basin. Before the period of colonisation all the aborigines were grouped according to locality and manner of life, into the two broad divisions of Prairie and Forest Indians. The former, who comprise the Blackfeet aDd neighbouring groups, the Krees of the Saskatchewan, and the Assiniboines of the Qu'Appelle, hunted the bison, and dwelt in camps, obeying warlike chiefs, and maintaining a constant state of hostilities with the surrounding tribes. The latter, called also " Stone," Stony, or " Thickwood," and comprising the Krees of the swampy districts and the Saulteux or " Fall Indians " of Manitoba, were partly fishers and partly hunters. Roaming the forests in small groups in pursuit of the deer, they were generally peaceful, the chiefs, where they existed, possessing merely a nominal authority. Formerly the most formidable of these groups were the Blackfeet, who accord- ing to the national legend at one time dwelt on the alluvial plains of Manitoba, where the mud blackened their mocassins, whence their tribal name. Driven by the Krees to the western plains, they roamed till recently over tbe plateaux at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains between the headstreams of the Saskatchewan and the Cypress Hills. Nearly always at war with their neighbours, they were continually prowling round about the Krees in the east, the Assiniboines and Flat- 226 NORTH AMEEICA. heads of the south and soath-west, and the Kootenays of the west. The whites who visited their territory commanded their respect by constant vigilance and attention to their firearms. Three bands, who call themselves kinsmen and who all speak the same language, form the Blackfeet Confederation. These are the Satsikas, or Blackfeet proper, the Keina or Blood Indians, and the Piegans (Pigan, Paegan), called also Pagans by English writers, either through a popular etymology, or because they long re- jected Christianity ; till recently they still continued to celebrate the feast of the Sun. From a remote period the Sarsi or Gros Ventres, a branch of the great Arrapahoe nation, had also been admitted into the Blackfeet alliance, and for man}' genera- tions took part in their plundering expeditions. They spoke both their native tongue and that of their allies, which for its softness and harmony has been called the Italian of those regions. The Blackfeet were said to number 30,000 souls in 1836, that is, before the appearance of smallpox, and even about the middle of the century they were still estimated at 7,500. But in 1881 the three nations were reduced to 4,330, all settled in reserves which they are forbidden to leave. The Krees, properly so called, formerly occupied the Bed River basin, but they were driven westwards at an early date ; before the white invasion their domain comprised all the prairie region stretching south of the Churchill to the arid tracts on the Dakota frontier. They contended with the Blackfeet for the possession of the western plains, but, like all the other Indians, they are now confined to reserves. The Krees call themselves Nehiyawok, a word of doubtful meaning, but explained by Lecomte in the sense of "true men " or "chosen people." By their Chippeway neighbours they are called Kinistinok, the Knistineaux or Kristineaux of the early documents, of which Kree is supposed to be a contraction. Of all the Kree tribes those of the prairie appear to be of purest stock ; they are also the most valiant and industrious, and speak the most elegant form of the national language, for which a special syllabic alphabet has been invented. This aggluti- nating idiom was adopted as a kind of lingua franca amongst the surrounding Chippewaj', Assiniboine, Blackfeet, and Sarsi Indians, and the Krees also exercised a preponderating influence on their white visitors ; hence the Canadian trappers (coureurs de bois et de prairies) almost exclusively selected their wives amongst these Indians. The French half-breeds generally spoke Kree, and many even became members of the maternal tribe. The Muskegons, that is, Krees of the muskegs or swamps, hence called "Swampies" by English writers, have been long enough detached from the primitive stock to constitute a distinct group ; their dialect, however, still resembles the Kree of the prairie more than any other Algonquin tongue. They occupy the marshy regions bordering the North Saskatchewan, Lakes Winnipeg and Winnipegosis, north of the Saulteux or Chippeways. As indicated by their French name, these Chippeways (Ojibways) formerly dwelt near the Sault Sainte-Marie, through which the overflow of Lake Superior INHABITANTS OF THE WINNIPEG KEGION. 227 is discharged into the Huron-Michigan basin. The Assiniboines, who dwell on the river of like name, in the neighbourhood of the kindred Sioux (Dakotas), take the name of "Stony," either from their arid rocky domain, or else from the primitive custom of boiling their cooking water by means of heated stones. Like the Krees they are divided into prairie and forest Assiniboines, both equally reduced in power and numbers. Before 1780 they were said to be very numerous Fig. 94. — Blackfoot Indian. throughout the southern part of their territory, but were nearly exterminated by an epidemic of smallpox. Although the Canadian Government has always treated the aborigines with kindness if not justice, they are none the less disappearing, and this decay would appear to be largely due to the policy pursued with regard to their lands. The trifling sums granted for the purchase of their territory were nearly always paid exclusively to the chiefs,* while the tribes themselves were removed to reserves, to which they were forcibly confined. The children also have been removed * Mean price of 18 million acres bought from the Indians, one penny per acre.— (Youle Hind.) 228 NORTH AMERICA. from the family influence, taught the English language and brought up to some agricultural or industrial trade, the result being that, though they may become useful citizens, they necessarily cease to be Indians. The Bed-skins have had to accept the new order of things, settling down in the various reserves assigned to them by the Government, unless they were -willing to break the tribal connection altogether. But by taking this step they renounce their share of the collective pension, and accept a personal grant of land, thereby entering single-handed into the struggle for life with their English neighbours. Lacking all national cohesion, they must henceforth gradually become absorbed in the working classes ; they are already largely employed as navvies on the railways, as waggoners, herdsmen, and on the drainage works. Many have Fig. 95. — Indian Reserves in Manitoba and the Far West. . Scale 1 : 13,000,000. West © [-* ureenwich lSSlIibs. become successful agriculturists, especially along the banks of the Saskatchewan, where may be seen their well-tilled plots, neat cottages, outhouses, and agricultural instruments. In the reserves the most fatal maladies are the measles and consumption, the latter especially amongst the children of the half-breeds ; on the other hand the natives are said to be entirely free from cancer. Amongst the independent Indians the great scourge is famine, which has at times swept away whole tribes. Colonisation. Although the colonisation of the "Winnipeg basin has only recently been fully developed, it may be said to have begun with the explorations of Varennes de la Verandrye (1731 — 1745), after which alliances between the half-breeds and the Indians became more and more frequent. In order to protect the peltry trade De la V6randrye and his sons established factories on the lakes and portages, and *V$1 z S o o PH