NATURAL AREAS AND REGIONS 



113 



a general covering of snow keeps the 

 frost from penetrating deep. The first 

 frosts are rather early in places as 

 early as mid-August and spring is 

 often tardy, particularly when the ice- 

 floes and ice-bergs have accumulated 

 unduly off the coast. July in New- 

 foundland is like May in New York. 



The north, east, and south coasts are 

 chilly and damp and foggy, because of 

 the meeting of the cold Greenland- 

 Labrador current with the warm air 

 and water of the Gulf stream. There 

 where the warm, moisture-laden air 

 off the Gulf stream encounters the 

 chill air off the cold waters of the Green- 

 land current, with its fleets of floes and 

 bergs, the vapor is condensed into 

 clouds and fogs and mists that charac- 

 terize the region. The interior and the 

 west coast, however, have a pleasant, 

 relatively mild and equable climate, 

 generally clear and invigorating. 



BIOTA 



Plant life 



The vegetation of the island varies 

 with the topography of the soil, and the 

 drainage. The greater part of the 

 island has been heavily forested, the 

 dominant type of forest being coni- 

 ferous, with interspersed areas of decid- 

 uous woods but great tracts have 

 been destroyed by fire. 



The white pine, once abundant over 

 the island, has been almost all cut, 

 surviving only in isolated groves where 

 it has been intentionally preserved, or 

 in small tracts remote or difficult of 

 access. The most abundant coniferous 

 tree is black spruce, though the balsam 

 fir or spruce is also common; the tama- 

 rack is abundant in the bog or tundra; 

 and white spruce and cedar (low-growing 

 juniper) are widely distributed. Arbor- 

 vitae, rather common in New Brunswick 

 and Nova Scotia, is absent. 



Scattered about among the coniferous 

 woods are large tracts of rather pure 

 growths of deciduous trees, balsam, 

 poplar, aspen, white and red maple, 

 birch, elm, mountain ash, alder and a 



few others. In places, particularly on 

 the burned tracts, these are also scat- 

 tered promiscuously among the new 

 stands of coniferous trees. 



As a rule the forests are found in belts 

 from two to 10 mi. wide along the 

 streams and about the shores of the 

 lakes. The most extensive areas of 

 timber left standing are in the basins 

 of the Exploits, Gander, and Humber 

 Rivers. It is estimated that the acreage 

 of marketable timber left standing in 

 Newfoundland is 6,500,000, of which no 

 small portion is well established second 

 growth on cut-over or fire-swept areas. 



The forests rarely extend above the 

 1000 ft. elevation and generally cease 

 considerably lower. The crests and the 

 rolling tops of the hills are bare of trees, 

 in many places quite destitute of vegeta- 

 tion the so-called barrens; in others, 

 where the soil and moisture are more 

 favorable the barrens are covered with 

 scrub willow, alder, and birch and low 

 evergreens. Thus from east to west, 

 Newfoundland is a succession of parallel 

 barren ridges, and forested valleys. 



On the plateaus and in the valleys 

 where the drainage is incomplete, lie 

 extensive bogs; some of them are for- 

 ested with black spruce, tamarack, 

 willow, and alder as dominant trees, 

 and Labrador tea, dwarf birch, an- 

 dromeda, kalmia and other low shrubs 

 forming a rather dense undergrowth on 

 the wet floor of sphagnum, sedge, and 

 cotton grass; others are shrubby; but 

 many of them are open, grassy, and 

 sedgy moors, with a wealth of flowering 

 plants and ferns. 



The vascular plants of Newfoundland 

 are many and varied, comprising over 

 1000 species, some of general distribu- 

 tion, others confined to certain limited 

 types of soil, or physiographic divisions. 

 Berry-bearing plants Rubus, V actinium 

 Empetrum, and Viburnum are numer- 

 ous. Flowering plants, both shrubs, 

 and herbs, and ferns grow in profusion, 

 except in the driest, windswept portions 

 of the barrens. Grasses, sedges and 

 mosses carpet the wet open places. 

 Reindeer moss (Cladonia) clothes the 



