﻿IS48. PORTAGES. 117 



the Cockscomb extends thirty or forty miles, and 

 discloses, in beautiful perspective, a succession of 

 steep, well-wooded ridges, descending on each side 

 from the lofty brows of the valley to the borders of 

 the clear stream which meanders along the bottom. 

 Cliffs of light- coloured sand occasionally show 

 themselves, and near the water limestone rocks are 

 almost every where discoverable. The Pinus hanks- 

 iana occupies most of the dry sandy levels ; the 

 white spruce, balsam fir, larch, poplar, and birch 

 are also abundant ; and, among the shrubs, the 

 Amelanchier, several cherries, the silver-foliaged 

 EleagniLs argentea^ and rusty-leaved Hippophcie ca- 

 nadensis are the most conspicuous. 



At the portage, the immediate borders of the 

 stream are formed of alluvial sand ; but six or 

 seven miles below, limestone in thin slaty beds 

 crops out on both sides of the river, and, to the 

 left, forms cliffs twenty feet high. A short way 

 further down an isolated pillar of limestone in the 

 same thin layers rises out of the water ; and soon 

 after passing it, we come to the White Mud Por- 

 tage {Portage de Terre blanche), of six hundred and 

 seventy paces, where the stream flows over beds of 

 an impure siliceous limestone, in some parts 

 meriting the appellation of a calcareous sandstone, 

 and, for the most part, having a yellowish-grey 

 colour. On the portage, and on the neighbouring 



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