Natural History of Nova Scotia. 645 



old [ ? forest, is *] generally in direct proportion to the bar- 

 renness of the subsoil. Its utility is obvious, as it produces 

 [? thickets of] timber, which grows to a size fit for many useful 

 purposes upon the barren whinstone plains, where the [? sur- 

 face is] covered by from 1 ft. to 2 ft. of broken stone [? and 

 upon] hills of granite which have not 4 in. of [ ? an}' sort of] 

 soil. It also increases the earthy portion of the [ ? turf, ? soil] 

 by slowly decomposing the surface of the subjacent rock. I 

 have seen a growth of tall black spruce, about two hundred 

 years old, upon a piece of ground composed of broken whin- 

 stone, and rounded pebbles and gravel, mixed with so very 

 small a proportion of earth, that it must, in a dry season, have 

 been impossible for any tree to have lived upon it had it been 

 deprived of its covering of turf, which was about 15 in. thick; 

 yet, by the means of this layer, it was enabled to produce 

 useful timber, some of which was 18 in. in diameter. 



This turf appears to the eye to contain considerable pro- 

 portions of decayed wood, little changed from the state to 

 which it was reduced by the .Fungi, and of the epidermis of 

 trees and shrubs, and the cones of spruce very little altered. 

 At the bottom, a very shallow layer, generally mixed with 

 charcoal, approaches to the state of mould. In this bottom 

 layer the seeds of the raspberry [jRubus idae\is L. is wild in 

 North America; and several other species are too] are to be 

 found in abundance, with [ ? some f ] of those of the wild 

 cherry, red-berried elder [>Sambucus pubens Mr.], [ ? and 

 other] shrubs that usually spring up after a fire. The [ ? seeds 

 of] the pigeon berry, and several other plants, may [?be 

 found] occasionally in every part of the turf in [ ? a dormant] 

 state. 



Woods of the fir kind are much exposed [ ? to fire]. In 

 a dry season, the moss which covers the surface will burn like 

 tow, and soon communicates the fire to dry branches that 

 produce [ ? a sufficient] flame to reach the green leaves above 

 them, [ ? that acts] especially upon the spruce [^bies sp.] 

 and balsam [(^bies balsamifera Mr.), ? which are] more 

 inflammable in a green state than [ ? when dry]. As they 

 contain a considerable quantity of [? resinous] juices, and 

 extinguish coals when thrown [ ? upon] them, it is probable 

 that the property they [ ? possess], of producing an extraor- 

 dinary quantity of [ ? flame, is] connected with the unusual 

 proportion of [ ? resinous] fluids which they evolve during 



[* The terminal part of this line, and of the next seven lines, in the copy 

 from which this is printed, is torn off.] 



[f The terminal part of this line, and of 23 of 25 lines sequent to this, 

 in tlie copy from which this is printed, is torn off.] 



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