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44 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



Acadie is so fomous. Many of the rivers, coursing 

 smoothly througli long tracts oi the country, are broadly 

 margined by level meadows with rich soils, productive 

 of excellent pasture. The banks are adorned with orange 

 lilies ; and the meadows, which extend between the 

 water and the uj)lands, shaded by clumps of elm (Ulmus 

 americana). 



Almost the whole charm of these intervales (in an 

 artistic point of view) is due to the groups of this 

 graceful tree, by which they are adorned. Its stem, 

 soon forking and diverfjino: like that of the Enfjlish horn- 

 beam, nevertheless carries the main bulk of the foliage 

 to a good elevation, the ends of the middle and lower 

 branches bending gracefully downwards. The latter often 

 hang for several yards, quite perpendicularly, with most 

 delicate hair-like branchlets and small leaves. We have 

 but one elm in this part of America ; yet no one at first 

 sight would ever connect the tall trunk and twisted top 

 branches of the forest-growing tree with the elegant 

 form of the dweller in the pasture lands. 



Whether from appreciation of its beauty, or in view of 

 the shade afforded their cattle, which always congregate 

 in warm weather under its pendulous branches, the 

 settlers agree in sparing the elm growing in such situa- 

 tions. 



These long fertile valleys are further adorned by 

 copses of alders, dogwood, and willows — favourite haunts 

 of the American woodcock, which here alone finds 

 subsistence, the earth-worm being never met with in the 

 forest. 



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