126 PROGRESS OF VEGETATION. 



Labrador, or the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay, 

 become white at the approach of winter and are 

 invested with softer and thicker fur. 



It is highly interesting to trace the progress of 

 vegetation on those mountain -ranges, which exhibit 

 its advances from the regions of perpetual snow, 

 through crustaceous lichens, and green mosses, 

 dwarf pines and firs, brambles and willows, with 

 underwood and flowering shrubs, to those belts of 

 verdure which extend into the valleys. But from 

 the country of Hudson's Bay to Canada, it is exhibited 

 on a grand and majestic scale. He who departs 

 from Labrador, leaves behind sterile rocks, -and a 

 country covered with huge stones. By degrees, he 

 sees before him extensive plains, bright with 

 yellow furze, and mountains whose sides are varied 

 with the purple blossoms of the heath. Then 

 stunted pines and beech-trees grow low upon the 

 ground, and then a solitary tree rises in the dis- 

 tance far above them, heralding the approach to 

 woods, which are faintly seen against the hori- 

 zon. By degrees, the pine and fir assume a 

 bolder character, and as he advances further, he 

 finds himself beneath the shade of lofty pines and 

 giant firs, whose firm branches have withstood the 

 storms of ages. Then comes the light and graceful 

 larch, trembling in every passing breeze, and then 

 the majestic cedar, till at length he sees around him 

 all the grandeur and luxuriance of vegetation in 

 those noble forests which overshadow the unculti- 

 vated parts of Canada. These forests, in common 

 with those of the United States, produce the 

 magnificent and stately Pinus Canadensis, inclu- 



