/ 



90 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



' crop out ' or successively appear as we advance towards the north over a 

 wide extent of country. 



" But in dwelling on the resemblances between the plants of high latitudes 

 and those of high mountains, we must not lose sight of their not less con- 

 stant differences. In the northern regions in general, we find the number 

 of species comparatively small. Thus in the region through which we 

 have passed, and which has already a northern character, we find vegetation 

 characterized by great vigor ; the whole country covered with trees and 

 shrubs, and lichens and mosses in great profusion, but the species few, and 

 the proportion of handsome flowering shrubs small. In the Alps, on the 

 other hand, vegetation is characterized by great beauty and variety, and the 

 number of brilliantly flowering plants, of Gentianaceae, Primulaceae and 

 Composit£e, is very great. The plants, however, are dwarfish, and vege- 

 tation comparatively scanty ; the lichens and mosses much less abundant. 

 There is, then, not an identity, but an analogy only, and an imperfect though 

 very interesting one, between Alpine and Arctic vegetation." 



July 26^^. — We pursued our way this morning under the shadow 

 of magnificent walls of basaltic rock, with Pie Island rising in the 

 distance outside of us like a Gibraltar. We reached the Location 

 early in the forenoon, and were most kindly received by Mr. Robin- 

 son, the agent of the Montreal Mining Co., who have begun opera- 

 tions here. 



A liigh rocky promontory, running S.W., (parallel to Thunder 

 Cape and the other high ridges hereabouts,) is here cut across by a 

 sort of fault or interval, leaving a strip of land rising gently from 

 the lake on either side, to a ridge in the middle, backed on the 

 north-east by cliffs seven hundred feet in height. The slope from 

 the little curved beach where we landed was shaded by scattered 

 trees left from the forest. Under these the workmen were busy 

 in putting up cabins for a number of miners who had just come 

 up with Mr. Robinson, and who, for the present, were living in 

 tents on the beach. Back of these, was a row of cabins, and the 

 little one-story house of the agent. Mr. R. showed us a large num- 

 ber of minerals collected hereabouts, and kindly offered us whatever 

 of them we chose to take. Among them were very brilliant speci- 

 mens of calc-spar associated with cobalt, manganese, and blue and 

 green sulphurets of copper. 



