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NOTES ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BLUE 

 MOUNTAIN, CO. OF LEEDS, ON TARIO 



By Rev. C. J. Young, Lansdowne, Onl. 

 (Read February 2^th, i8g2.) 



Travellers by the Grand Trunk Railway from Montreal t^ Toronto 

 have possibly noticed the rocky and broken nature of the country they 

 pass through between Brockville and Kingston. This is especially the 

 case in the townships of Escott and Lansdowne and in these townships 

 it is that the subject of the present paper " The Blue Mountain " is 

 situated. The rocky tract referred to is most pronounced in the vicinity 

 of Charleston Lake ; it extends thence in a south-westerly direction, 

 and continuing along the River St. Lawrence, helps to form the inimit- 

 able scenery of the Thousand Islands. In past years this country was 

 densely timbered with pine and other forest trees, and until the lumber- 

 man's axe made its onslaught on these, was, we are told, a veritable 

 wilderness, through which the bear, the wolf and the deer roamed at 

 will. To-day the greater part of the large timber is cut away, and in 

 the more level places the land is cleared and cultivated, yielding some 

 of the finest crops in this part of Ontario. In other parts, where the 

 rocky nature of the soil forbids cultivation, a second growth has sprung 

 up, consisting of pine, hemlock, birch, oak and poplar. Here and 

 there patches of the old woodland remain, where the maple, the elm, 

 the beech, and an occasional oak and hickory flourish in all their pristine 

 vigour. But the pine are mostly gone. Besides the curiously shaped con- 

 ical hill known as the Blue Mountain some six miles north of the Rail- 

 way and which according to the Government Survey rises to a height of 

 360 feet above Charleston Lake, there are several other rocky eminences 

 to the South, towards the river St. Lawrence, reaching an altitude of 

 from two to three hundred feet. The whole of this country is to-day 

 curiously diversified with woods, rocks, swamps and in places excellent 

 farms. But it is the rocky tract known as the Blue Mountain that I am 

 going to speak of Almost every one now is familiar with the"Thousand 

 Isles ;" the portion that remains a wilderness extends for about ten 

 miles on the easterly side of Charleston Lake, and varies from three to 

 four miles in width. To lovers of nature it is a most interesting tract 

 of country. W^^ifCtb^^e limits there is no cultivation. The larger 



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