136 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



gravel upon which a scrubby thicket of deciduous trees and shrubs 

 seems strugghng to establish itself; said ridges are in some places 

 quarter to half a mile in width intervening between the water's edge 

 and the true lake shore, on which a mixed growth of conifers and of 

 hardwood forest still exists. But as we leisurely passed along seated 

 in the carryall no striking botanical or orinthological novelties were 

 observed. Doubtless, so late in September (17th), a majority of the 

 feathered songsters had migrated southward, but the goldfinch or 

 Canadian yellow-bird was still abundantly in evidence, also the bril- 

 liant tinted bluejay and two or three of the commoner species of 

 woodpecker. 



As to shrubby vegetation, the stag horn sumach (Rhus, typhina) 

 was very widely diffused among the willow scrubs also the Labrador 

 tea (Ledum latifolium) and two species of Potentilla, to wit., P. 

 Norvegica and P. fruticosum, were seen in a number cf spots on 

 swampy margins, also the tall Jerusalem artichoke was occasionally 

 seen still sporting its flowers (but may have escaped from cultivation). 



The pest of Canada thistles, from some unexplained cause, 

 seemed much less troublesome, either in cultivated grounds or on 

 the margin of the highways, than is the case in Brant or Oxford 

 counties. 



Farm crops in the Collingwood region were at least two weeks 

 later in ripening, but yielded an abundant harvest in 1895. ^^ 

 the time of our visit, a number of fields of oats and peas were 

 uncut and generally presented a luxuriant appearance. And the 

 winter wheat crop, which had been already threshed, was commonly 

 spoken of as an exceptionally heavy yield. Fruit returns were also 

 quite favorably reported of, and apple and plum orchards were said 

 to have been prosperous, at any rate within a few miles of the modi- 

 fying influence on temperature of the waters of Lake Huron and 

 Simcoe. 



Yet, one troublesome weed that was complained of as causing 

 loss and trouble to the oat and barley cultivators was seemingly 

 Amaranthus hybridus. The September asters were in flower in . 

 profusion about the bog margins, but neither they or the Solidagos 

 or yet the sedges presented any marked differences to a casual 

 observer, to the species of the same genera that are so common in 

 south-western Ontario. 



