268 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS. 



the Rocky Mountains good crops of wheat are raised with 

 facility at Alexandria, on Frazer's River, in lat. 52° 30' 

 north, long. 122° 40' west, and 300 or 400 feet above the 

 sea ; also at Fort George, on the same river, more than a 

 degree further north, and 100 feet higher. 



At Fort James, on the borders of Stuart's Lake, in lat. 

 54|° north, in a mountainous region near the source of 

 Frazer's River, wheat continues to grow, but often suffers 

 from the summer frosts. In these quarters the grain 

 comes to maturity in about four months. In the colony 

 of Red River its growth is luxuriant, though the upper 

 part of that country, which touches the 49th parallel of 

 latitude, is elevated about 1,000 feet above the sea. Period- 

 ical ravages of grasshoppers, however, frequently destroy 

 the hopes of the husbandman. 



At Fort Francis, situated on the banks of Rainy River in 

 lat. 48° 36' north, long. 93° 28^' west, wheat is generally 

 sown about the 1st of May, and is reaped in the latter 

 end of August, after an interval of about 120 clays. In 

 1847 multitudes of caterpillars spread like locusts over the 

 neighbourhood. They travelled in a straight line, crawl- 

 ing over houses, across rivers, and into large fires kindled 

 to arrest them. Throughout the whole length of Rainy 

 River, on the Lake of the Woods, and on the River 

 Winipeg, they stripped the leaves from the trees, and ate 

 up the herbage. They destroyed the folle avoine on Rainy 

 Lake, but left untouched some wheat that was just coming 

 into ear. This was the first time that Fort Francis had 

 experienced such a visitation. When we passed that way 

 in 1848, the still leafless trees were covered with the 

 coccoons of last year, in each of which there remained the 

 hairy skin of a caterpillar. 



On the island of Sitka, lying in 57° — 58' north latitudes, 

 though the forest, nourished by a comparatively high mean 



