182 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xn. 



exquisite grace as they hang over a precipice or grow 

 under the shadow of a roche moutonne. Language fails 



O ' 



to express the beauty of the mosses and lichens. They 

 are of ahl colours, from frosted silver to vermilion, from 

 deepest orange to velvet black. All countries and all 

 climes have some peculiar beauty which they may claim 

 exclusively as their own. The .wilds of the Labrador 

 Peninsula in the interior have their mosses and lichens, for 

 ever eliciting expressions of wonder and admiration from 

 our lips, always making us regret that we could not carry 

 away some of those miniature gardens of beauty, or 

 preserve the wondrous time-stains, which, like fairy rings, 

 cling to the harsh gneiss, and clothed even it with 

 loveliness. From a mere time-stain to a thick, heavy, 

 and pulpy thallus, varying in colour from the most vivid 

 green through all the greys to the richest and deepest 

 velvet black, they creep over the harsh and unyielding 

 rocks, cover the deep cracks with a treacherous mantle, 

 beautify jagged points, growing and flourishing wherever 

 light can come. Sometimes the pendant usnea hung in 

 masses from old trees, and stunted forests for miles are 

 clothed with this hoary livery. 



The rock where we were seated is even now a favourite 

 c outlook ' of the Indians who hunt on the Moisie. It has 

 evidently been a spot to which they have resorted for 

 ages past. Michel was just saying that caribou were 

 common here once, and that we might see many old 

 tracks and paths in the valley below. 



I was engaged at the time in ' taking notes,' my 

 brother was sketching the landscape, when I heard a 



