48 Rhodora [Marcu 
Although Pinus Banksiana is, like other pronounced oxylophytes, 
“practically eliminated” from the vast limestone region to the south 
and southwest of Hudson Bay, it is important to note the adverb 
“practically,” for where ridges of acid gravels or sands occur Pinus 
Banksiana is likely to occur with them. Thus, in ascending the 
Kapiskau River which flows through the limestones and calcareous 
clays into the west side of James Bay, W. J. Wilson (already referred 
to) left the river to explore an isolated ridge, which proved to be a 
kame “composed chiefly of gravel” (W. J. Wilson, n. s. xv. 226A) 
which was “covered with Banksian pine, canoe-birch and poplar.” 
All explorers agree that the Banksian Pine “does not touch either 
James’ Bay or Hudson's Bay" (Bell, Rep. for 1879-80, 46C). Its 
essential absence from the region between the lower Noddoway and 
the Churchill River has already been sufficiently studied. How 
about the east side of James Bay? Low agrees with Bell that on 
the Labrador side it “does not come quite to the coast on Hudson or 
James Bay," adding the guess: “probably on account of the shore 
being generally low and swampy.” Yet is it not significant that near 
the entrance of the East Main River into James Bay from the east, 
there should be bands of limestone “a few miles above its mouth, and 
along the coast of James Bay in the vicinity of that river" (Low, n. s. 
viii. 200L); that the next large river northward, the Big River, has 
its banks for several miles above its mouth "composed chiefly of 
bluish white clay" (Low, n. s. iii. 387); and that, farther north, the 
lower stretches of the Great Whale River likewise flow through a 
“deposit of clay" which is full of “marine fossil shells” (Low, l. c. 
53d)? 
West and northwest of the calcareous “low lying lands to the south 
and west of Hudson Bay and James Bay,” the region so generally 
avoided by Pinus Banksiana, occurs the great western Archaean 
barren region, extending from Lake Superior west to Lake Winnipeg, 
and north to the Arctic; and here, naturally enough, the Banksian 
Pine extends "north-westerly to the Athabasca River, . . . and 
northerly down the Mackenzie River to the arctic circle" (Macoun). 
The accounts of discerning explorers through this tremendous tract 
all emphasize the abundance of the pine on the most sterile areas: 
thus, throughout his extended report (n. s. viii. D) on the Athabasca 
Lake region, J. B. Tyrrell continually refers to the abundance of 
Banksian Pine on the sandy plains; and so on without seeming limit. 
