﻿J36 FOREST SCENERY. Jdlt, 



bed of the river ; and the ground was estimated 

 to rise behind Gros Cap, by a gradual ascent, until 

 it attains the general level." {Lefroy^ 1. c.) The 

 elevation above the sea, that this intelligent officer 

 assigns to the country about Dunvegan is sixteen 

 hundred feet, and the region in which the sources 

 of the river occur is probably four times as high. 



The oaks, the elms, the ashes, the Weymouth 

 pine, and pitch pine, which reach the Saskat- 

 chewan basin, are wanting here, and the balsam- 

 fir is rare ; but as these trees form no prominent 

 feature of the landscape in the former quarter, no 

 marked change in the woodland scenery takes place 

 in any part of the Mackenzie River district until 

 we approach the shores of the Arctic Sea. The 

 white spruce continues to be the predominating 

 tree in dry soils whether rich or poor ; the Bank- 

 sian pine occupies a few sandy spots ; the black 

 spruce skirts the marshes ; and the balsam-poplar 

 and aspen fringe the streams ; the latter also springs 

 up in places where the white spruce has been de- 

 stroyed by fire. The canoe-birch becomes less 

 abundant, is found chiefly in rocky districts, and is 

 very scarce north of the arctic circle. It still, 

 however, attains a good size in the sheltered valleys 

 of the Rocky Mountains, up to the 65th parallel. 

 AVillows, dwarf birches, alders, roses, brambles, 

 gooseberries, white cornel, and mooseberry, form 



