A LABRADOR SPRING 



rapid railroad migration to the north. I 

 breathed a sigh of relief at the result of this 

 hasty survey of the situation, for I had arrived in 

 time, and in the next four weeks I was to be 

 present at the rapid change from winter to 

 summer, at the miracle of the Labrador 

 spring. 



Although there were no fresh green leaves 

 to be seen, there was no absence of this colour 

 in vegetation, and it was not limited to the 

 cone-bearing trees to which the name evergreen 

 is usually limited. These latter are quickly enu- 

 merated, namely the black, white and a few red 

 spruces, the balsam fir and two kinds of ground 

 juniper, for there were no pines in this region, 

 and spruce and fir were by far the prevailing 

 trees. On the ground of the bogs or barrens, 

 which extend their vegetation into the spruce 

 forests, the universal sphagnum moss as well 

 as many other mosses were evergreen. As 

 the various lichens which abound in Labrador 

 assume every colour of the rainbow, some of 

 these also were green. Clumps of pitcher-plant 

 leaves were everywhere in the bogs, looking 

 often as fresh and intact as if they had been pre- 

 served in a green-house, instead of lying buried 



15 



