50 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IO7 



As a result of exploration in the peninsula, A. P. Low (1896, p. 31L) 

 says: 



The forest is continuous over the southern part of the peninsula to between 

 latitudes 52° and 54°, the only exceptions being the summits of rocky hills and 

 the outer islands of the Atlantic coast. To the northward of latitude 53°, the 

 higher hills are treeless, woods being only found about the margins of small 

 lakes and in the valleys of the rivers. Trees also decrease in size until, on the 

 southern shores of Ungava Bay, they disappear altogether. 



Packard (1891, pp. 118, 125, 140) reports of the shores of Anse-au- 

 Loup in the Strait of Belle Isle that they seemed to be "well wooded." 

 Again : 



The lumber for these shanties [in Pitt's Arm of Temple Bay] had evidently, 

 by the piles of sawdust near by, been sawn upon the spot and taken from the 

 Labradorian forest of firs near at hand, which measured twelve inches through 

 at the butt, and were about twenty feet high. 



At the head of a bay near Cape St. Michaels was "quite a forest of 

 spruce." From W. A. Stearns (1884, pp. 98, 117) I quote the 

 following : 



From the entrance of the bay [of Bonne Esperance] then, as I have said, we 

 caught a view of the Indian mishwaps [dwellings], backed by the verdure of 

 slopes, hills, ravines, ridges, and the various contour of a most uneven back- 

 ground in the profile of the evergreen spruce tops, — which low shrub is every- 

 where abundant outside as is the large tree inland. . . . Those who can obtain 

 wood near by without the necessity of going into the interior up the river, and 

 rafting it down, as many of them do, content themselves with a smaller article, 

 and continue to make clearings in the low spruce and fir about their own place. 

 The majority of this wood varies from four to six and even seven inches in 

 diameter, while the trees are rarely over fifteen feet in height. 



Greenland visitors to this coast were not likely to be too demanding 

 as to the size of trees or extent of forest in a country better blessed 

 then their own. 



The Flat Island Book in its narrative of Leif 's voyage adds to the 

 description of Markland that "there were broad stretches of white 

 sand where they went." Unless this is reminiscent of the Wonder- 

 strands, we may find it in the sandy shores reported around Sandwich 

 Bay, but I incline to the former view. 



An island off the coast of Markland was given the name of Bear 

 Island from the circumstance of their having killed a bear upon it, 

 and this is therefore Bear Island No. 2. Those who think that Karl- 

 sefni passed through the Strait of Belle Isle identify this either with 

 the northern peninsula of Newfoundland or with Belle Isle itself, and 

 Dieserud holds the latter view although he carries the explorers south 



