462 Reviews and Notices of BooTcs. 



saw in the surrounding forest the red pine Finns rubra, the 

 white spruce Abies alba, and the cedar, Thuya occidentalis ; 

 this situation is the farthest north in which these trees had been 

 seen. He remarked that the white pine, Pinus strobus, was scat- 

 tered over a vast extent of country, but not equally so, having seen 

 some on the banks of Lake Mistassin as far north as forty leagues 

 from Lake St. John ; it is however very common two degrees south 

 of that. The Larix Americana, or American larch, generally 

 called tamarack in Canada, abounds in the environs of the lake ; 

 the hemlock spruce Abies Canadensis, which thrives on the 

 shores of Hudson's Bay, is also abundant. 



Our indefatigable voyager then ascended the Mistassin, some- 

 times called Riviere des Sables, which falls into lake St. John, 

 and which, with the exception of a few short portages, is naviga- 

 ble for canoes a distance of 120 miles. It was then, and still is 

 the route followed by the Mistassin Indians, who dwell near the 

 great Lake Mistassin, and who come to trade at Pointe Bleue, 

 the most northern post in the Canadian territory. Having jour- 

 neyed for 120 miles up the river he came to the foot of a water- 

 fall. High banks of rock contract the width of the stream, which 

 is precipitated from an elevation of eighty feet over ledges of 

 stone resembling huge steps. Here the intrepid botanist stop- 

 ped to scramble over the drenched rocks in quest of new specimens 

 pausing now and then to admire the grandeur of the scene. 



Continuing his route over the mountains intervening between 

 Canada and the Hudson's Bay Territory, and from whose sum- 

 mit he had a view of the immense valley lying beyond, he reach- 

 ed Lake Mistassin on the 4th September, having halted a few mo- 

 ments to herborize on the shores of the Lac des Cygnes, one of 

 the many lakes which, with numerous streams, water this region. 

 Mr. Brunet, from whose pamphlet, we scarcely need observe, the 

 information contained in this notice is gleaned, gives some in- 

 teresting details and traditions connected with the great Lake 

 Mistassin, but into these we have neither time nor space to enter. 

 The northernmost point reached by Michaux was one which 

 our author indicates as being on Rupert River, at a short distance 

 from Hudson's Bay ; the Indian guides, dreading the approach of 

 winter, would proceed no farther. He however had an opportun- 

 ity of determining the exact latitude at which the trees of the 

 north cease to grow, and of recording his observations on the to- 

 pography of the country. It was while exploring in the neigh- 

 borhood of Lake Mistassin that he found the pretty species of prim- 



