146 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



lichens growing on the stems of the hard-wood trees, 

 which they had taken a passing mouthful. Who but an 

 Indian could have detected such minute evidences of their 

 actions ? There was no doubt but that they were making 

 for the barrens, or they would have stopped at these 

 tempting morsels longer, and here and there perhaps 

 deviated from the line of march. Probably they knew 

 of companions, and were going to a rendezvous, or 

 preferred the reindeer moss amongst the rocks on the 

 barren. 



The tall forest of maples and birches was presently 

 succeeded by a dense growth of evergreens, which be- 

 came more and more stunted as we approached the 

 barren, and here and there opened out into moist swampy 

 bogs, into which we sank ankle-deep at every step : 

 finally, we brushed through the thick shrubbery, drenched 

 with the snow dislodged plentifully over us en passant, 

 and stood on the edge of a most extensive barren. 



Such a scene of desolation is seldom witnessed, except 

 in these great burnt and denuded wastes of the North 

 American forest. As far as the eye could reach was a 

 wild undulating wilderness of rocks and stumps ; a deep 

 indigo-coloured hill showed the limits of the barren, and 

 where the heavy fir forest again resumed its sway. It 

 appeared to be some ten miles or so in length, and to 

 slope from us in a gentle declivity towards the west- 

 ward. The average breadth might be four or five miles. 

 Little thickets and groves of wood dotted it in all direc- 

 tions ; sometimes a clump of spruce, against which the 

 white stem of the birch stood out in bold relief ; or, at 

 others, a patch of ghost-like rampikes ; whilst the brooks 

 in the valleys were marked by fringing thickets of alder. 



