258 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Sept. 



up to anchorage in this harbour; and it being high tide, we, 

 happily, passed over some shoals, where, in our ignorance of 

 the channel, we might otherwise have stranded. On the south 

 side of the harbour, a long stretcli of the bank appeared, 

 quite black, which I afterwards found to be a section of one of 

 the peat bogs, so numerous in the island, cut away by the action 

 of the water. 



In the evening I landed on the sandy point on which Flat Bay 

 village is situated, and, wandering along the shore, collected the 

 Sea-side Crowfoot (^Ranunculus Ct/mhalaria), Moehringia lateri- 

 flora^ and the delicate Primtda Mistassinica, growing a little 

 above the waves that rolled in cpantities of Eel grass ( Valisneria 

 spiralis), Laminaria, and Fucus vesiculosns, in tangled masses on 

 the beach. Among the stunted spruces {Abies nigra) and 

 Balsams (Abies balsarnea), in the middle of the point, the 

 Star-flower (Trientalis Americana), Strawberry, a species 

 of Gentian, and the shrubby stems of the Cowberry (Vac- 

 cinium Vitis-Idoi), found a grateful shelter, — the common blue 

 and sweet white Violets ( Viola cucullata et hlanda) flourishing 

 in the more moist and shaded places ; while the Shepherd's-purse 

 (i'.ipselki bursa-pastoris), Sorrel (Rumex acetosella), Groose-grass 

 (Polygonum aviculare), and h-Amh' s-Qaarters -(Chenopodium 

 album,) found themselves more at home in the gardens and 

 around the houses of the village. 



Flat Bay extends in a south-westerly direction, and at its head 

 receives the waters of a brook of the same name, which runs in a 

 N.W. course through the mountains that lie along the south side 

 of St. George's Bay. About ten miles up this brook. Cairn 

 Mountain rises in a cone somewhat higher than its fellows, and is 

 surmounted by a large pile of lichen-covered stones, which were 

 no doubt placed there by Captain Cook as a point from which to 

 take observations during his survey of the neighbouring coasts, 

 and from which the mountain takes its name. 



On stepping ashore on the south side of the harbour I observed 

 the Silver-Weed {Potentilla aiiserina), with its bright yellow 

 flower trailing over the gravelly ridge that separated the harbour 

 from a marshy depression inside, in which the Marsh-Marigold 

 (Caltha palustris) grew in luxuriant bunches. Here, too, the 

 stately Cinnamon Fern (Osmunda cinnamomea) shot its light- 

 brown fertile fronds up through the centre of elegant green vases, 

 and the less ostentatious Aspleuiwm thelypteroides spread its 



