334 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Oct. 



Of tMs region, between Swan Lake and Lake Mistassini^ 

 Micliaux remarks in his journal, tliat it evidently occupies the 

 height of land, since the waters of the latter lake fall northward 

 into Hudson's Bay, while those of Swan Lake through the 

 river Mistassini reach Lake St. John and the St. Lawrence. We- 

 cannot give a better notion of the climate and vegetation of this- 

 elevated and semi-arctic region, than by the following extracts- 

 from the manuscript journal of Michaux : 



" August 30th. ^\e have passed through three lakes, which lie 

 among low hills, and are connected by short streams. The whole 

 of this region is cut up into mountains and hills ; the low places 

 between which are filled with water, forming innumerable lakes^ 

 which for the most part have no names among the Indians who* 

 hunt in this country. Wide intervals are often covered with 

 S2:)liagniim, in which the traveller sinks to his knees, and which 

 even in the dry weather is always saturated with water. In the 

 course of the day we have made three portages, and have travelled 

 three or four leagues only, on account of the difficulty of crossing 

 these marshes. 



" These marshes abound in Kalmia glauca, Andromed<j, poly- 

 folia^ Sarracenia j^ufj^urea , and Vaccinium Oxycoccus. In the 

 drier parts are Andromeda calyculata, Ledum palustre, Kalr)iia 

 a7igusti/oUa, Epigcea repens, and Pinus rubra. Abies balsamifera 

 may be said to cease at Swan Lake : I saw only three specimens, 

 of it to day in the form of little shrubs. All the plants here seem> 

 like decrepid pigmies on account of the sterility and the severity 

 of the cold. 



" August 31st. We paddled for an hour ; and then came to a 

 portage . The cold was excessive, the sky cloudy for the last two 

 days, and the rain like melted snow. When we stopped for 

 breakfast, the cold took away our appetites, and the Indians, who 

 were drenched with water, trembled with cold. 



" September 1st. The rain prevented our travelling, and one of 

 our Indians was sick. In the afternoon the weather was clearer, 

 and we went on notwithstanding the rain. All night we had rain 

 with thunder and lightning. We made six leagues, passing 

 through a lake and along streams scarcely wider than a canoe, 



" September 2nd. Sunday. The weather was very thick in the 

 morning, and a half-melted snow fell; the cold beciime less severe, 

 but we had a portage of three quarters of a league across a marsh. 

 Despite showers of hail, which lasted all day, we kept on, for the 



