Note 57 — {95} CHAP. V.

Thus, four days after leaving Clowey, travelling in a northerly direction, they passed out of the wooded region and reached the barren grounds, though it is evident that there had been open barren grounds to the east of them for most of the way. Their course probably lay along the height of land east of Artillery Lake. The northern edge of the forest and southern line of the barren grounds crosses this lake near the middle, the most northern woods on its eastern shore being in latitude 63° 4' N., while on its western side the woods extend north to latitude 63° 11' N.

Artillery Lake is thus described by J. W. Tyrrell, who visited it in May 1900:—

"Artillery Lake was reached by our outfit on the 26th of May, more than two weeks after it had been first visited by Fairchild and Acres, when exploring and 'brushing' the trail for our voyageurs. Then its ice had been as solid as in winter, showing no signs of disruption or decay, whereas now it was rapidly decomposing, forming what is known as candle-ice, and making much open water along the shores. It lies in a north-easterly and south-westerly direction, and is fifty-five miles in length, ... and the superficial area of the lake is about one hundred and ninety square miles. Its shores are bold and high, in some places about two hundred feet above the lake, and for the most part they present a bare, desolate appearance, especially on the easterly shore where few trees of any kind can be seen.

"Such small groves as were found are shown on the map, but on the westerly side, about ten miles from the south end, the shore is quite well timbered with small spruce, and they continue northerly, although thinly scattered, for a distance of twenty miles, eight miles farther north than the last grove on the east shore. There the woods cease entirely." (Report on an Exploratory Survey between Great Slave Lake and Hudson Bay. By J. W. Tyrrell. Ann. Report, Dept. of the Interior, Ottawa, 1901. App. 26, Part III., pp. 17-18.)