The Gun Counter

by Larry McMurtry. Famous Shoes, the Kickapoo Indian, received his name because he walked EVERYWHERE exploring the known world. He walked far enough south to encounter the rainforests and monkeys. He walked far enough north that finally, the only trees he saw were little knee-high scraggly things and from that point on, an endless sea of snow.

My question is this...

Approximately how far into Canada must he have walked before he reached the "white line," beyond which no vegetation survives? Rather than just GPS coordinates, etc, I'd prefer something tangible I can reference on a map. Such as..."Famous Shoes would have had to walk approximately 1200 miles north of the Canadian border, putting him roughly parallel to blah, blah blah Alaska, or wherever." A latitude coordinate would also be useful. Thanks in advance. This question really has me intrigued!

The only problem is elevation also plays a HUGE role in how well and where vegetation survives.

Let's assume the central prairies, since he mentioned a sea of white, with no reference to hills, mountains, etc.

If you go here and scroll down, there's a table of arctic tree lines, showing several locations across North America. It is dependent on local geography, but varies from 69 degrees north to 56 degrees north.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_line

Here's a page with a clickable map, detail's not that great, but it's pretty damn far north:

http://www.athropolis.com/arctic-facts/ ... eeline.htm

skb12172 wrote:Let's assume the central prairies, since he mentioned a sea of white, with no reference to hills, mountains, etc.

Heck, there ain't no trees on the prairies anyway.

ETA: This page from the Atlas of Canada calls the Southern Arctic above the tree line. If you click on the map link at the page, it shows it as the lighter gray area.

http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/auth/english/m ... ecozones/1

You kinda got me going on this, maps and geography appeal to me.

This was a huge help. It seems the usually accepted border is the Arctic Circle, or just beneath it. Much farther north than I suspected it would be.

Was there a time frame mentioned? (I realize its fictional, and McMurtry has some issues getting Houston geography to make sense, so...) In 1816, there may have been continuous snow much farther south.

Yep, I was thinking the same thing -- little Ice Age.