Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1894-02-25

These rocky hills, as they approached,
they found covered with moss, and
there were also many boys or low places,
covered with a bed OF soft reindeer
moss. In the winter deer live On Che
moss In the woods, and in the plains in
the summer. The weather had been
execrable. Slow dragging clouds
gloomy days, rain and general discom-
fort, were the features Of nearly every
day. The progress through the woods
had been toilsome and slow, and now as
they launched their canoes, they were
happy again to glide between the low
banks and look across the frozen vast
ness, for al this plain was a frozen
waste, and the dint of the heel struck
on the ground hit the frozen soil be-
meath. II Is a fact that most Of the
North never thaws out, except for
few inches ia depth. At York Factory,
on the south Of Hudson's Bay, It thaWs
in the summer TO the depth Of seven
feet, aud below that for many fathOms
lies the perpetual frost.
Strange to say, there was great
abundance OF small wild flowers, scat
tered over the plain, sometimes In
blooming clusters mauy yards in extent,
and again fringing some hillock or dot
ting the edge OF some little lake. y.
W. Tyrrel made collection Of $50
different species OF flowers, which has
been sent to Prof Mscoun, Of Ottawa,
TO be classified. 1t is the only cOllec-
ton ever made from the region be-
tween the Mackenzie river and Hud-
sons Bay, aud the most interesting
since Sir John Franklin's collection.
As they advanced, day after day
through this great plain, the evidence
OF glacial action were everywhere ap-
parent. MAGNIFICENT "kames" of sand
hills, extended in long strings
aud knobs of most fantastic
shapes At one place a ehain OF
these kames extended into lake,
and formed a promontory beyond which
il extended a series OF iSlets, across the
lake far as the eve could reach. In
other places there were rocky ridges,
plainly glaciated, and there Is little
doubt that this was one of the last
places where the eternal glacier raised
it's foot, ere it retreated forever to the
Arctics.
For a time they could find small
quantities of trees and bushes hid in
ravines, in isolated places, but most of
the time they could only gather black
moss for fuel. The reindeer moss on
which the deer fed, is rather lichen
than a moss. Their course was north,
ten degrees east aud dsy after day they
gllded along for ZOO miles after they
had got out OF the thickets. Still the
weather was weeping, and low clouds
dragged across the wet plain. North
westardly lay the great valley OF the
Mackenzie, and away of east, some
where, a thousand miles away, lay
Hudson's Bay. They found a curious
feature of the landscape never
described before; moss glaciers,
from twenty to thirty feet high which
consisted OF great masses OF moss, frozen
together and sloping down to the edge
of the water. The current would bear
the bottom OF these "moSS glaciers
away, and they would break off in huge
cakes, into the lakes and streams, where
they soon fOated away. They climbed
some of these glaciers and found them
not only coated with moss, but that the
moss was all through the bed OF ice, as
thick as 10 could be. The banks OF the
river, whose current was rapid aud
which was very broad, we're low, show
ing that il had begun TO run since the
retreat Of the great glacier. For the
first hundred miles, said Mr.. Tyrrell,
lit had the appearance Of spilling over
the ground" Still the same mOnotO-
nous progress, still the dark weather,
still the river and swelling lakes and
Seemed the lengthening landscape,
ever more the same"
v
At length, about half way down, they
came after camping each night, hauling
their canoes out and wrapping them
selves q their rabbit skin blankets, to
another of those numerous lakes, In
which this stream abounds. IL was
about fifty miles long, and as they
cossted along, one Of their half-breeds
called their attention to something two
or three miles distant, moving along
the shore. Their provisions were al
most entirely exhausted, for sooth TO
saw they had started with insufficient
suDp'ies, thinking with their good
rifles and ish-hoOks 20 be able 70 re-
plepish their larder. So far there had
been no game. Not even a bird had
been seen 90 the water or on the land eX-
cent two or three white partridges, and
thew were alert at their discovery. On ap-
preaebing the shore they we're rejoiced
70 see q vast herd o. reindeer, snd sup