Volume 4, 1951 - The Arctic Circle - Home

The forested region around Nejanilini Lake, about
130 miles northeast of Churchill, is much more extensive
than around Baralzon Lake 45 miles to the northeast, and
ls a source of fuel and tent poles for a small band of
Chipewyan Indians who make their summer camp near the local
Hudson's Bay Company post.
Caribou were reported ln the vicinity toward the
middle of August, and Mr. Horace Flett, manager of the post,
stated that their normal movement was back north later in
the season, prior to making their final trek southward,
giving the natives three 6pportunities of securing meat, of
which the winter supply is taken in the fall. ln an open,
swampy area near the post were the antlers and bones of
scores of caribou that had met this fate.
ln contrast to the subarctic coast of Manitoba at
and north of Churchill, where the recorded vascular flora
numbers some 370 species, the flora of the Baralzon-Nejanilini
district is relatively poor, only 83 species being collected.
The greater richness of the coastal flora may be explained
by the occurrence of large forested areas near Churchill,
the presence of extensive rock outcrops (none were observed
in the Baralzon-Nejanilini district), the restriction of
numerous species to the coastal salt marsh habitat, and the
prevalence of a more humid, foggy climate, doubtless influenced
by the voluminous discharge of the Churchill River.
The cold waters of the Bay are responsible for a
northward trend of isotherms parallel to its shores between
York Factory and Baralzon Lake. The daily mean temperature
for July of these two localities, as weIl as of Churchill,
averages between 54 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit, the same as
for Great Bear Lake, more than 400 miles farther north.
Similarly, the July isotherm of Brochet, near the Saskatchewan
border and midway in latitude between York Factory and
Churchill, is the same as that of Moose Factory, at the
southern tip of James Bay, where the influence of the cold
water ls still evident, and a subarctlc flora exists at a
latitude only 60 miles north of that of Regina. Durlng
englneering operations at Port Nelson, before the decision
was made to make Churchill the terminus of the Hudson Bay
railway, lt was found that permanently frozen ground there
extended to an average depth of about 30 feet. Richardson
states that, in October, 1835, the summer heat at York Faotory
had thawed the ground to a depth of three feet, beneath which
was a frozen layer seventeen and a ha If feet thlck. At The
Rock, about 100 miles up the Hayes, frozen clay banks were
seen by the writer along a small shaded stream in mid-July,
1949, but it ls known that frost penetrates further lnto the