Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat

Author:Farley Mowat
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781551991856
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2008-06-04T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

The Coming of the Bucks

TOGETHER THEY HURRIED TO THE shore of the nearest lake and looked down into the clear green water. They could see the lazy forms of trout ten feet below the surface. A flock of late ducks rose and wheeled overhead. Out on the lake a pair of loons cried their idiot laughter.

Then they walked to the nearest stand of trees. Jamie looked up to the swaying tops of the spruces with a speculative eye. “A good spot to build a cabin,” he said.

Before Awasin could answer there was a diversion. The little fawn suddenly went tearing off through the trees. Awasin caught a glimpse of distant movement and unslung the rifle. Then he and Jamie ran to the edge of the woods for a better view.

They were in time to see a herd of about fifty buck caribou come leisurely out from among the trees and begin grazing on a patch of sedge.

Awasin’s face was alive with excitement. “Those bucks must have been here all summer long,” he said. “And I’ll bet they stay all winter too! If they do, we can have fresh meat whenever we need it!”

Quietly they retreated so as not to disturb the herd. Jamie noticed that the fawn was still missing. “I guess we’ve lost our pet,” he said.

“Never mind him now,” Awasin replied. “Let’s explore the rest of this valley.”

For the next two hours they examined the new world they had found. The valley was not large—perhaps four miles long, and not more than half a mile wide at any point. Each little lake had its own stand of tamaracks, and spruces huddled under the northern wall of the valley.

Because it offered easy walking, the boys climbed a queer sand ridge that ran down the center of the valley. It was about forty feet high and three feet wide at the top. The sides were so steep that the boys were winded when they reached the crest. A well-marked game trail, packed down by the feet of wolves and deer, was hollowed into the narrow top of the sand ridge. The ridge itself ran the full length of the valley and it was so regular in shape that Jamie, in astonishment, suggested that it looked like an old highway embankment. “Looks more like a riverbed upside down,” Awasin said. And he was closer to the truth.

The sand ridge was an esker—and eskers are among the most curious formations on earth. They were produced by the great glaciers that once covered the Barrens plains to a depth of several thousand feet with solid ice.

When at last the glaciers began to melt, they formed rivers on their surfaces. Gradually these rivers cut down through the ice until they were running through vast tunnels. Often they cut through pockets of gravel and sand that had been scooped up by the moving ice sheet, and before long the rivers were building beds for themselves in the center of the icecap.

After many more thousands of years the glaciers disappeared, and their rivers vanished with them.

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