THE RESTIGOUCHE — WITH NOTES ON ITS FLORA. 25 



trunks often rising to the height of seventy or eighty 

 feet and clothed with Old Man's Beard ( Usnea barbata), 

 are a conspicuous object along the banks. No tamaracks 

 were seen on the banks of the Upper Restigouche and but 

 few farther down. Of deciduous trees, the balsam poplar 

 {Populus balsamifera) is the most abundant on the low 

 grounds, and is found everywhere along the river. 

 Elms, black, white and yellow birches, the white 

 and black ash, maple, especially the red maple {Acer 

 rubrum), with alders. Willows and sumachs are quite 

 common. 



The second day's run brought us to the mouth of the 

 Gounamitz (Little Forks) about fifteen miles below the 

 mouth of the Waagan. This is the first large tributary 

 of the Restigouche and flows in from the north. The 

 scenery about the mouth is very wild and picturesque, 

 the cliffs rising from the river to the height of over one 

 hundred feet. At the base of these cliffs we found 

 growing that delicate and beautiful fern the Cliff Brake 

 {Pellcea gracilis), and the Asplenium viride, lichens and 

 mosses in the greatest variety and abundance, giving 

 promise of rare and perhaps new species had we taken 

 the opportunity to collect them. Patches of dandelion 

 and ox-eye daisy and the song of a robin remind us we 

 are not beyond the pale of civilization. Here we find a 

 violet ( Viola primulwfolia), rare in this province. A mile 

 below the forks of the Gounamitz is Boston Brook, 

 evidently a favored camping ground. Here we found 

 growing in considerable abundance a vetch with yellow 

 flowers {Laihyrus pratensis), the onl}' place on the river 

 where we noticed it. Below Boston Brook the country 

 changes to a marked extent from a hilly to a level country, 

 but only for a mile or two, — a good site for a frontier 

 settlement. A short distance further down, just below 



