302 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Aug. 



No clay or gravel was seen after passing the mouth of Cold- 

 water River, forty miles from the Gulf, and 320 feet above it. The 

 soil, where trees grew, was always shallow as far as observed ; and 

 although a very luxuriant vegetation existed in secluded valleys, 

 yet it appeared to depend upon the presence of labradorite-rock or 

 a very coarse gneissoid rock, in which flesh-colored feldspar was 

 the prevailing ingredient. 



Observers in other parts of the Labrador Peninsula have re- 

 corded the vast profusion in which erratics are distributed over its 

 suiface. There is one observer, however, well known in another 

 branch of science, who has left a most interesting record of his 

 journey in the Mistassinni country, between the St. Lawrence at 

 the mouth of the Saguenay, and Rupert's River, in Hudson's Bay. 

 Andre Michaux, the distinguished botanist, traversed the country 

 between the St. Lawrence and Hudson's Bay in 1792. He passed 

 through Lake Mistassinni ; and in his manuscript notes, which 

 were first printed in 1861, for private circulation, at Quebec, a 

 brief description of the journey is given. ".The whole Mistassinni 

 country," says Michaux, " is cut up by thousands of lakes, and 

 covered with enormous rocks, piled one on the top of the other, 

 which are often carpeted with large lichens of a black color, and 

 which increase the sombre aspect of these desert and almost unin- 

 habitable regions. It is in the spaces between the rocks that one 

 finds a few pines (^Pinus rapestris)^ which attain an altitude of 

 three feet; and even at this small height showed signs of 

 decay." 



The remarkable absence of erratics in the Moisie, until an alti- 

 tude of about 1000 feet above the sea is attained, may be ex- 

 plained by the supposition that they may have been carried away 

 by icebergs and coast-ice during a period of submergence, to the 

 extent of about 1000 feet. I am not aware that any traces of 

 marine shells or marine drift have been recognized, north of the 

 Labrador Peninsula, at a greater elevation than 1000 or 1100 

 feet. In the valley of the St. Lawrence, marine drift has not been 

 observed higher than 600 feet above the sea. Glacial stride were 

 seen on the " gneiss-terraces " at the "Level Portage," 700 to 

 1000 feet above the sea. The sloping sides of these terraces are 

 polished and furrowed by glacial action. Grooves half an inch 

 deep, and an inch or more broad, go down slope and over level 

 continuously. It is on the edge of the highest terrace here that 

 the first large boulders were observed. 



