326 REVIEWS — GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OP CANADA. 



The general aspect of the Avestern end of Lake Nipissing is bleak and desolate 

 in the extreme. In many parts the coast is entirely bare and barren, and in no 

 instance does the soil afford a better quality of forest timber than a scanty growth 

 of red pine. Vast marshes, overgrown with tall reeds or wild rice, stretch far into 

 the interior, beyond the bays or along the mouths of the tributaries, affording shel- 

 ter to incredible numbers of wild fowl. Were drainage practicable, these marshes 

 may become available as grass land, but being scarcely at any part above the level 

 of the lake, they are riot readily susceptible of artificial improvement. 



While the coast presents this wild and desolate appearance, there are 

 many spots not very remote from it where the character of the country is much 

 less forbidding. On the banks of several of the tributaries of this ead, all of which 

 are small however, and only accessible to canoes for a short distance, there are 

 good flats of land, in somes cases yielding hard-wood mixed with large-sized white 

 pine ; and spots repeatedly occur between the rocky ridges which might be ren- 

 dered available for the purposes of cultivation. About two miles and a half up a 

 stream which falls in on the south side, near the entrance to the great west bay, 

 the flats extend over a considerable area, and many very large trees of white pine 

 were observed on them, together with maple, elm and birch. Red pine abounds 

 wherever there is soil enough to support a growth at all ; and in many parts, espe- 

 cially in the vicinity of the large western bays, it is of good size, straight, and 

 apparently sound. 



Like the cuast of the main land, the islands for the most part, are rocky, 

 barren and worthless; but this is not without exceptions. As an example, I ob- 

 served on this occasion, on a second visit to L-on Island, that a large proportion of 

 it, especially towards the southern end, has an excellent soil, yielding a stout growth 

 of maple, basswood, elm and birch, and provided the surface be not too stony, 

 there can be no doubt it is capable of being converted into good farm land. The 

 superior quality of the soil of this island is doubtless due to the calcareous nature 

 of the rock beneath, and this good soil, together with the specular iron ore and its 

 associated fluor-spar, as well as the sandstone and limestone mentioned in last 

 year's Report, seem to indicate the position as one worthy of attention when set- 

 tlement shall at some future time reach the shores of the lake. 



Among the various wild animals which inhabit the country surrounding the 

 lake, I more especially remarked the presence of n-umerous bears and deer. Rein- 

 deer were by no means imeommon, while wild fowl of many descriptions flock in 

 myriads, at certain seasons, to the marshes. The fish of the lake are also very 

 abundant, of unusually large size and excellent quality : the varieties consisting of 

 white fish, maskinonge, pike, bass, pickerel and sturgeon . 



As observed in my report of last year, the Indians of Lake Nipissing derive a 

 very considerable profit from the sale of cranberries, which grow in vast quantities 

 on the numerous marshes ; but as it is probable that not one-tenth part of the 

 whole area where the fruit abounds is ever visited by the few scattered families 

 inhabiting the country, it appears to me that the produce might be turned to much 

 greater account, and become a tolerably good source of reconapense to a settlement. 

 I was informed by an Indian that he and his family, which consisted of his wife 

 and two small children, could easily gather from four to five barrels of cranberries 

 in a day, for which they were paid, on delivery at Shi-bah-ah-nah-niug, at the rate 



