13° The Ohio Naturalist [Vol. VII, No. 7, 



pink of a granitic mass. Near the track one may see a precip- 

 itous cliff, bold, rough, scarred and menacing, or some rounded 

 and smooth knob with the steep sides bared of vegetaiton by 

 forest fires. Great beds of stratified gravel and sand are exposed 

 by railroad cuts and by the action of the streams. At several 

 places a very tough, light blue, laminated clay was seen. In 

 some cases streams flowed over this clay; in other cases it was in 

 banks above the stream bed. This clay is very resistant to the 

 action of water and is extremely slippery where water is floAving 

 over it. Where broken down in large masses by stream under- 

 mining and subsequently subjected to erosion at varying angles 

 from time to time, the exposed laminations often form beautiful 

 patterns. 



The railroad after a short distance north of the Soo to a 

 point north of Heyden is in the drainage area of the Root River, 

 a tributary of the St. Marys River below the Soo. Before 

 reaching Searchmont, 30 miles north of the Soo, the road crosses 

 tributaries of the Goulais River, and from here to its northern 

 terminus it is in Lake Superior di"ainage. 



The vegetation which clothes these granite masses is "hard- 

 wood brush." The view from the railroad of the Goulais valley, 

 bounded by its great vari-green mountains is most beautiful. 

 On a following page are lists of the arboreal species and of the 

 plants which I collected. 



The short summer of this region results in a condensation of 

 seasonal range of the species of any group which depend on 

 abundant light and heat for their activity. For example, on 

 July 3(3th, I saw Iris, a "spring flower," and Solidago, an 

 "autumn flower," in bloom literallv side bv side. Of dragon- 

 flies I took Chromagrion conditum and Aeshna Z. (see list of 

 dragonflies following) about the same lake on the same day. On 

 that day at latitude 42 degrees north in Indiana Chromagrion 

 had probablv entirely disappeared for the season and Aeshna if 

 it had yet appeared at all, would certainly be found in very lim- 

 ited numbers. This condensation is greatly to the advantage 

 of the collector, at least in certain groups. Possibly for a short 

 trip no better season than the first half of August could be chosen 

 for collecting in this region. About the first of August the black 

 flies have nearly disappeared, and I was l)ut little bothered by 

 these pests or by mosquitoes or sand flies. It is probable I 

 failed to get certain Cordulines and Gomphines which may be on. 

 the wing in this region earlier in the season, but on the whole I 

 believe I took a fair representation of the species. At my home 

 at Bluffton, Indiana, no two weeks of the season (April 1st tO' 

 Nov. 21st) could be selected which would yield so nearly all the 

 species of that locality. 



