CHAI>. xiv. TREACHEROUS WALKING. 223 



through the moss, sometimes without touching bottom. At 

 the time I thought I had fallen into a fissure in the rocks 

 over which the moss was grown, but the experience of 

 the next few days told a different tale, and laid open the 

 remarkable feature in this country, which might have 

 escaped attention if the fire had not destroyed the 

 beautiful covering which hid from view the chaotic mass 

 of erratics which were piled one above the other in these, 

 treacherous glades. 



Our observation for latitude showed that we were under 

 the same parallel as the Touchwood Hills in the valley 

 of the Saskatchewan, forty degrees of longitude farther 

 west. What a difference in climate and vegetation at 

 nearly the same height above the sea level! We find in 

 the prairie country luxuriant vegetation, an infinite num- 

 ber of wild-fowl, vast herds of buffalo, and a summer heat 

 sufficiently long to ripen early varieties of Indian corn. 

 In the rocky eastern country, the rivers and lakes arc 

 frozen from October to the end of May, the woodland 

 caribou replaces the buffalo, birds are few in number, and 

 their species very limited, consisting of a few varieties of 

 duck, geese, the spruce partridge, the ptarmigan, wood- 

 peckers, and gulls ; the trees in general stunted, and only 

 represented by the birch, spruce, larch, and Banksian 

 pine ; flowers almost arctic in their character, and in place 

 of rich and nutritious grasses, lichens and mosses grow 

 over the rocks and swamps, covering everything witli 

 green, grey, yellow, purple, or black. 



Formerly many animals extended much farther east 

 than they do at present, having been destroyed by the 

 Indians. 



