202 



that the vegetation would change considerably in its charac- 

 ter, after passing the Height of Land. This surmise I found 

 to be correct, as may be seen from the habitats affixed to the 

 specimens from the Rocky Mountains. About 15 or 20 

 miles above the commencement of the Portage, we left the 

 main branch of Red-Deer River, and followed a lesser 

 stream that here joins it, winding along its banks, and not 

 unfrequently scrambling in the bed of it, until we reached a 

 small lake where it takes its source, and the Height of Land. 

 The lake is not more than 200 yards in length, and is called 

 the Committee's Punch Bowl. Out of its other extremity 

 flows one of the tributary streams of the Columbia. On 

 reaching the middle, I took a hearty draught, pleasing 

 myself with the thought that some of the water I had tasted 

 might have flowed either to the Frozen or Pacific Oceans. 



I observed little change in the vegetation until within ten 

 or a dozen miles of this lake : the trees were gradually di- 

 minishing in size, and, on the sides of the high ground, 

 reduced to mere bushes, principally JHiite Spruce and 

 Balsam Poplar. I may enumerate a few of the plants, as far 

 as I am able to do so from recollection. A Saxifraga 

 like S. trijida, but with the foliage simple ; another resembling 

 multijida, the leaves much divided, with creeping shoots. S. 

 leucanthemifolia ? entirely viviparous ; another species with 

 nearly round foliage, and also viviparous ; another plant be- 

 longing to this order, with oblongo-ovate leaves, approaching 

 in habit S. umhrosa, but having the leaves distichous, and 

 white underneath ; a small plant, growing in spongy places, 

 like an Hippuris, about two inches high ; a diminutive creep- 

 ing plant, exactly similar to AnagalUs tenella, of which I 

 preserved no specimens ; a low procumbent shrub, with cor- 

 date foliage, and bearing very fine flavoured red berries ; a 

 hexandrous plant, probably a Fritillaria, only the stem and 

 seed-vessels remaining, of which seeds were brought home, 

 but I am ignorant whether they have vegetated, &c. The 

 following mosses also occurred : Dicranum Starkii, Trichos- 

 tamtwi patens, T. sudeticum, T. aciculare, and T. lanuginosum ; 

 Hypnum molle, H. stramhieum, Bryum Zierii, and a species 



