188 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1771. purpose, it will be necessary to go back to the place where 

 ■'^ ^' I first came to the river, which was about forty miles from its 

 mouth. 



Beside the stunted pines already mentioned, there are some 

 tufts of dwarf willows ; plenty of Wishacumpuckey,^ (as the 

 English call it, and which they use as tea) ; some [165] jack- 

 asheypuck, which the natives use as tobacco ; and a few cran- 

 berry and heathberry bushes ; but not the least appearance of 

 any fruit. 



The woods grow gradually thinner and smaller as you 

 approach the sea ; and the last little tuft of pines that I saw 

 is about thirty miles from the mouth of the river, so that we 

 meet with nothing between that spot and the sea-side but 

 barren hills and marshes. 



The general course of the river is about North by East ; 

 but in some places it is very crooked, and its breadth varies 

 from twenty yards to four or five hundred. The banks are 

 in general a solid rock, both sides of which correspond so 

 exactly with each other, as to leave no doubt that the channel 

 of the river has been caused by some terrible convulsion of 

 nature ; and the stream is supplied by a variety of little 

 rivulets, that rush down the sides of the hills, occasioned 

 chiefly by the melting of the snow. Some of the Indians say, 

 that this river takes its rise from the North West side of 

 Large White Stone Lake, which is at the distance of near 

 three hundred miles on a straight line ; but I can scarcely 

 think that is the case, unless there be many intervening lakes, 

 which are supplied by the vast quantity of water that is 

 collected in so great an extent of hilly and mountainous 

 country : for were it otherwise, I should imagine that the 

 multitude of small rivers, which must empty themselves into 

 the main stream in the course of so [166] great a distance, 



[^ Wishacumpuckey is one of the species of Ledum; jackasheypuck = 

 Arctostaphylos uvaursi Spreng. ; zx2si}o&xxy=Vaccinium vitisidaa Linn.; 

 heathberry ^rdbsihly = Empetruin nigrum Linn. — E. A. P.] 



