380 



Canadian Forestry Journal, February;, ipi6. 



face in the whole District, is cover- 

 ed everywhere, except on some of 

 the more prominent parts of the old 

 gravel beaches, by a layer of bog 

 mosses from two to five feet deep, 

 and is thus one continuous swamp, 

 broken only by the narrow channels 

 of the streams which flow across it. 

 In no case was any such great 

 depth of moss discovered as is found 

 in many of the rock basins in the 

 forest country farther south. 



This great swamp covering the 

 Littoral plain has an area of 60,000 

 square miles within the District of 

 Patricia, and if the adjoining areas 

 to the west, in Manitoba, and to the 

 southeast, in Ontario and Quebec, 

 are taken into consideration, it has 

 a total area of about 120,000 square 

 miles. This is undoubtedly the 

 largest continuous swamp in Ameri- 

 ca, and it is possibly the largest in 

 any country in the world. In order 

 to designate it with greater accuracy 

 I would propose that it be known as 

 Archndsonian Szcaiiip, signifying that 

 it was within the confines of the 

 older and larger representative of 

 Hudson Bay. 



Small Pine and Spruce. 



The gravel beach which extends 

 along the shore in front of it, within 

 the limits of the district of Patricia, 

 is devoid of trees, while behind the 

 beach there is usually a wet marshy 

 belt, or perhaps a series of long 

 shallow ponds. Farther back is an- 

 other older beach, and on the second 

 or third of these beaches the coni- 

 ferous forest begins as a belt of 

 white and black spruce of medium 

 size. Behind this narrow coastal belt 

 of timber the mossy plain begins 

 and extends inland to the rougher 

 upland country. Lakes are almost 

 entirely absent, and the few that are 

 said to exist are probably shallow 

 ponds dammed up behind the old 

 abandoned sea beaches. The ab- 

 sence of lakes, and the consequent 

 scarcity of fish, makes it difficult for 

 Indians to live in this swamp, so 

 that the native population of Patri- 

 cia is confined almost entirely to the 



Interior Upland Country. The low- 

 er layers of moss, and doubtless also 

 the underlying ground, are frozen 

 throughout the year, while the upper 

 layers are in summer completely 

 soaked with water, so that travel 

 over it at that season of the year is 

 practically impossible. From the 

 surface of this soaking bed of moss 

 small isolated black spruce and tam- 

 arack stick up like big bristles, while 

 here and there, on small areas that 

 for some reason or other are drier 

 than those adjoining similar trees 

 are collected together in small 

 groves. 



Absence of Real Timber. 



On the banks of the streams 

 which flow through or across this 

 swamp the land is better drained 

 than elsewhere, and here are usually 

 narrow belts of tall straight timber, 

 some of which may be 16 or 18 in- 

 ches in diameter. There are other 

 trees, such as the aspen and balsam 

 poplar, on the river banks within 

 this swamp, but nevertheless the 

 only tree of any importance as tim- 

 ber is the white spruce. Although 

 this Littoral belt, to which we have 

 applied the name Archudsonian 

 Swamp, must be classed as a forest 

 countr}', the total quantity of valu- 

 able timber in it is small, and the av- 

 erage of the whole country would 

 probably not exceed one or two 

 cords to the acre. 



The friends of Mr. J. Douglas 

 Moir of Wm. Whitmer & Sons, Inc., 

 will be glad to hear that he passed 

 the crisis in a very accute attack of 

 pneumonia on Monday, January 

 24th, at St. Luke's Hospital, Otta- 

 wa, Ont. Mr. Moir left New York 

 on the sleeper on Sunday, January 

 16th to attend' the 8th Annual Meet- 

 ing of the Canadian Lumbermen's 

 Association and was taken ill sud- 

 denly on the way up. He was con- 

 veyed from the Chateau Laurier to 

 the hospital by ambulance shortly 

 after his arrival. It will be the mid- 

 dle of February before Mr. Moir 

 will be able to return to New York. 



