CHAP. vni. VEGETATION IN LABKADOR. 135 



the valley, where spruce and larch and birch grow freely 

 in clusters. But the soil is composed of sand only a few 

 inches deep, which the lichens have separated and rains 

 have washed from the terraces above. The mosses and 

 tea-plant protect the shallow soil from the sun and retain 

 the moisture. A streamlet runs through the valley in the 

 early spring when the snows are melting, and the beaver 

 have taken advantage of this, and put a dam across the 

 valley half a mile lower down. This has changed the 

 aspect of some hundred acres over which its influence has 

 extended. A beaver meadow has been formed. Rich long 

 grass grows in its centre, and the spruce has invaded it 

 and formed a margin of forest. The centre is marshy and 

 soft, and vegetable soil has accumulated to the depth of 

 two or three feet on each side of the valley. Just be- 

 yond the boundary of the gneiss terraces the hills are 

 sloping, and the birch, alder, willow, and aspen grow, 

 which formed the food of the beaver when they revelled 

 in these solitudes. 



Such is the aspect of a part of this portage, and such 

 scenes are constantly recurring on the elevated portion of 

 the rocks, whose shape will not admit of the accumu- 

 lation of vegetable matter, or whose constituents are as 

 unyielding as the hard and impenetrable gneiss. 



