460 THE BIRDS OF MANITOBA THOMPSON. 



gradually upward from the plain around it, above which it is elevated, at its highest 

 points, about 500 feet. It appears to be the culmiLation westward of the hilly drift 

 region previously described, and forms a prominent object when viewed across the 

 eastern prairie, from the contrasting somber tint of the foliage of its woods. From 

 the west it can be seen from a distance of 45 miles, and when thus viewed has really 

 much the general outline of a turtle shell. It is bisected by the forty-ninth parallel. 



According to Mr. Tyrrell's map, the altitudes of the large lakes, etc., 

 to the west have hitherto been given fully 60 feet too low ; as, how- 

 ever, I am without corrected figures for other points whose altitudes are 

 given, I have elected to let older computations stand, and they may be 

 taken as relatively correct. 



" The sandhills,''^ so often referred to, are certain low sand dunes that 

 cover a considerable extent of count ry in the vicinity of Carberry. 

 They are in most cases low undulations rather than hills, are sparsely 

 covered with grass and dotted over with beautiiul clumps of trees, 

 while the hollows and flats are diversified with lakelets that swarm with 

 waterfowl and lower forms of life. The general appearance of the sand- 

 hills country is quite park-like, and notwithstanding its unattractive 

 name this region as a whole is the most pleasing to the eye and fullerof 

 interest and varied pleasure for the naturalist than any other that I 

 have seen in Manitoba. "T7<e Big Plain''' is an unusually level prairie 

 extending from Carberry northward about 30 miles. 



" The White Horse Plains'''' form a similar region between Shoal Lake 

 and the Assiniboiue. 



" The Souris Plains " include the southwestern corner of Manitoba that 

 is drained by the Souris River. This is a remarkably level region, en- 

 tirely cleared of trees excepting in the river gorges, and diversified by 

 numerous marshes and alkaline flats. 



'■'■Bluff'''' is, ill Manitoban parlance, the name applied to any isolated 

 grove of trees on the prairie. The term is never used here, as in the 

 Western States, to mean an abrupt bank or escarpment. 



Distribution of forest and prairie. — All that portion of Manitoba that 

 lies to the eastward of the lowest prairie steppe, as above defined, is a 

 rocky Laurentian region full of rivers and lakes of fresh water, and 

 thickly wooded, being within the limits of the great coniferous forest. 

 A wide strip of the flat country lying to the westward of Lake Winni- 

 peg, likewise the elevat d plateaus of Eiding, Duck, and Porcupine 

 Mountains, are also to be classed as parts of the northern forest. There 

 is good reason for believing that at one time, not very remote, the rest 

 of Manitoba was covered with a forest of aspens or poplars {Populus 

 tremuliodes), slightly varied by oak (Quercus macrocarpa), spruce {Abies 

 alba et nigra), birch {Betula papyracea), etc., which has been removed by 

 fire, so that trees are now found growing only in such jilaces as are pro- 

 tected from the fires by streams, lakes, marshes, or sandy tracts where 

 so little grass grows that the fire can not travel ; consequently, notwith- 

 standing the prevalent idea of Manitoba as a purely prairie region, there 

 is more or less timber in nearly all parts of the country as indicated on 



