118 THE LABEADOE PENINSULA. CHAP. vii. 



caught some large speckled trout, wandered in the fine 

 forest which filled the narrow valley, and gathered some 

 beautiful and rare species of flowers which grew with 

 singular luxuriance in the moist woods. 



After breakfast the canoes were sent forward to the 

 beaver meadow, and we broke up camp. It was heavy 

 work carrying them up the steep, 320 feet up an incline 

 of 45, the remains of former land-slides, thinly covered 

 with slippery black mould. This morning's work bruised 

 the shoulders of the men, and damped their spirits. We 

 were compelled to use the line with the big canoe, and 

 haul it inch by inch up the steepest parts. The remains 

 of Indian lodges are not uncommon after reaching the 

 plateau ; but the vegetation loses its luxuriance, and 

 dwindles to stunted spruce and birch. But an old 

 beaver meadow in the valley of a little streamlet, at the 

 foot of a rock from 600 to 700 feet in perpendicular 

 altitude, was the most charming little bit of scenery we 

 had yet found. It was the perfection of seclusion, and 

 a most delightful place to camp in ; wood and water in 

 abundance, a green sward fringed with low-growing 

 spruce, a huge purple rock sheltering this lovely spot 

 from the midday sun, and near at hand the rotting tent- 

 poles of Indian lodges, telling a sad tale of former life in 

 this now desolate wilderness, and speaking as if from the 

 grave of a race that has passed away. The mosses and 

 lichens grow here with even more luxuriance than 

 on the Grand Portage, and Michel tells me that as 

 we get near the dividing ridge, the country is covered 

 with mosses richer, deeper, and more beautiful than we 

 sec here. 



