154 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



difference between the black and brown varieties ; in 

 fact the gradations of colour from black to brown are so 

 many, and so commonly met with, that it is clear they 

 are simply variations of the same species. I learn, also, 

 that some naturalists are inclined to think that the 

 polar bear is merely a variety of the brown bear. I 

 remember thinking, more than once, when observing the 

 two species in America, that there is no great difference 

 between the two, except in colour and habit. 



The river, like most others passed over, has high 

 banks, and the adjacent country is covered with forests. 

 Pine or spruce trees often overhung the banks, or grew 

 in the crevices of the rocks, many of them nodding to 

 their fall into the water beneath, and the precipitous 

 banks were often covered with the graceful festoons of 

 some trailing plant which quite hid the rocks. I do not 

 know if ivy is found in this country, but I cannot find 

 any reference to it in any of my note-books, nor do I 

 remember to have ever seen it growing wild in any part 

 of America. The creepers on this, and other rivers of the 

 North- West, though occupying similar sites to those that 

 would be covered with ivy in England, are certainly not 

 related to that plant, and, beautiful as they are, are not 

 so picturesque. Indeed, is there anything in the wide 

 world of a like nature to be compared to the gallant 

 British oak, or the creeping, ruin-hallowing ivy ? 



There is a singular absence of wild flowers in these 

 northern woods. In that respect they are much behind 

 English woods and coppices. What few flowers there 

 are are small and inconspicuous — mere weeds in fact. 

 None of them seem to have struck me as being worth 

 notice, yet I am much given to minute observation, and, 

 writing from memory, I do not remember anything more 

 striking than our forget-me-not. There is a small blue 

 flower, something like the forget-me-not, and a variety of 

 the same of a white colour, but it is very local. There 

 is also a pretty little red flower, and also violets and 



