The Nepigon and Saguenay. 131 



igneous cliffs of trap rock tower in stern 

 grandeur over the river-that-is-like-snow. 

 The dark forest growth of fir and tama- 

 rack, toned by poplar, birch, and round- 

 wood, becomes thinned and sparse on the 

 mountains, just as though the Oreads had 

 planned their forest before violent up- 

 heavals of the earth made ten humpy miles 

 out of one smooth mile, and thereby upset 

 their calculations. On the Saguenay the 

 corrupted name for the Shagahneu-hi, or 

 ice-hole river, so named because the seals 

 used to keep many air-holes open in the 

 ice of the estuary Laurentian rocks in 

 sombre piles lift up their covering of 

 coniferous and deciduous trees, which are 

 much like those of the Nepigon, but here 

 and there a fine yellow pine holds mo- 

 narchial possession of a jagged island, and 

 the trunks of the northern white birch 

 light up the forest aisles. An area of fos- 

 siliferous limestone on Lake St. John has 

 come to the surface, bearing evidence of 

 the abundance of life in Silurian days. A 

 devout clergyman remarked that these 

 fossils were never alive, but were placed 



