Vegetation of Northern Cape Breton. 



323 



especially northward. In the vicinity of Cape North and in 

 other very exposed situations the mountain sides in some places 

 are devoid of forest from sea level to a height of fully a thousand 

 feet. Without doubt many of these areas were formerly wooded 

 and their barren aspect has been induced primarily through the 

 action of fire or human activity; but the continuance of this 

 condition is attributable very largely to the retarding effect on 

 succession of exposure to strong winds, frequently laden with 



Figure 25. — Detail view of vegetation on exposed headland shown in 

 Fig. 24 ; see text. Photograph by Dr. L. H. Harvey. 



salt spray. Wherever, on headlands of the sort pictured, there 

 is a depression which affords shelter, scrubby forests are 

 encountered, while scattered trees are commonly present in the 

 barren area itself. These latter, as well as many of the trees 

 which fringe the lower margin of the forest farther up the slope, 

 are usually unsymmetrical in shape and dwarfed in size. Fre- 

 quently the living part of the crown is wholly on the landward 

 side of the tree. 



In some cases the predominant type of vegetation on these 

 headlands is grass : species such as Danthonia spicata, Festuca 

 rubra, and Deschampsia flexuosa. But more often (Fig. 25) 



