46 Rhodora [Marcu 
(about six miles northward of the narrows or outlet of Mattagami 
Lake), gneisses with some granitoid patches and occasional bands of 
micaceous and hornblende schists were the only rocks met with in su 
all the way to Rupert’s House.” “The rocks consist principally of a 
variety of schists, such as dioritic, chloritic, hornblendic, and micaceous 
and also slatey arkose, alternating with massive greenstones” (Bell, 
l. e. 83, 84A). In other words, Pinus Banksiana stops in its north- 
western range along the Noddoway as soon as it reaches the region 
of dioritic and hornblendic schists and greenstones, i. e. the calcareous 
region. Furthermore the drift of the region, derived from the shores 
of James Bay, contains a "certain proportion from the Manitounuck 
and Devonian rocks of James Bay, the percentage of these latter 
increasing as we went northward. Beyond Mattagami Lake this 
percentage became very considerable” (Bell, 1. c.). The Manitounuck 
of James Bay is described as "made up mostly of limestones . . . 
sandstones and quartzites, shales, ironstones, amygdaloids and 
basalts" (Bell, Rep. for 1877-8, 11, 12C) while the Devonian rocks 
of James Bay consist *of dark grey bituminous limestone, interstrati- 
fied towards the bottom with earthy drab limestone" (Bell, Rep. for 
1875-76, 316). The drift material from Mattagami Lake northward, 
where the percentage of Manitounuck and Devonian fragments 
becomes *very considerable" is, therefore, also calcareous, and it is 
more than a mere coincidence that at this point the range of Pinus 
Banksiana along the Noddoway should abruptly end. 
In the Nipissing and Temiscaming region “Jack-pine, called by 
some pitch-pine, or bastard spruce (Pinus Banksiana) is very often 
encountered in the more barren and rocky areas, and its presence 
seems an almost certain indication of the extreme poverty of the 
underlying soil" (Barlow, n. s. x. 34I). Somewhat farther west, 
in the area northeast of Lake Nipigon, “ The height of land region . . . 
though level and swampy, is mostly of a sandy nature," “The timber 
in the height of land region is small spruce and tamarack with Bank- 
sian pine on the sand plains and higher land" (W. A. Parks, n. s. 
xv. 220A). Still farther west in Ontario, in the region west of Thunder 
Bay, “The greater part is occupied by Archaean rocks" (McInnes, 
n. s. x. 6H), and Pinus Banksiana is reported to be the most abundant 
tree of the region (McInnes, l. c. 11H). 
Farther northwest, in Keewatin, in the valley of the Kanuchuan, 
“Everywhere, excepting on the muskeg areas, there is an open forest 
