In a later report the same year, Inspector Jennings states that the Karluk had killed nine whales during July, making twenty in all for two seasons with an approximate value of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. He had also fur to the value of ten thousand dollars received in trade. On leaving Baillie island on August 14, the Karluk cruised along the south and west coast of Banks Land, north of Cape Kellett, to north latitude 72·31°. She left Herschel on August 26 and reached Nome, Alaska, on September 3.
THE ARCTIC PRAIRIE
CHAPTER XIX.
THE BARREN LANDS OR “ARCTIC PRAIRIE”.
Topography, Soil, Climate and Flora.
Explorers Declare The Term “Barren Lands” a Misnomer.—Some Notes About the Chief Rivers and Known Lakes—An Inland Waterway for Steamers via Chesterfield Inlet a distance of Five Hundred and Fifty Miles Into the Interior.—The Progression of the Seasons.—The Country Similar to the Tundra of Siberia.—A Limited Amount of Agriculture may be Possible in Places.—Natural Prairies in the Valley of the Thelon.
Most of the recent explorers and travellers who have visited the vast sub-arctic region extending from the present boundaries of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta to Arctic sea, and lying between Hudson bay and the heights of land defining the eastern limits of the watersheds of Mackenzie river and of the rivers flowing into the Arctic sea, north of Great Bear lake, have protested against the application to the country of the term “Barren Lands.” For instance we find Mr. David T. Hanbury (See p. [21]) in his well known volume “Sport and Travel in the Northland of Canada” writing:—“I have always maintained that ‘Barren Ground’ is a misnomer for the northland of Canada. No land can be called ‘barren’ which bears wild flowers in profusion, numerous heaths, luxuriant grass, in places up to the knee, and a variety of moss and lichens. It is barren only in the sense that it is destitute of trees, hence the name ‘Dechin-u-le’ (no trees), which is the Indian name for it.”