TORREYA 



\ol. 37 July-August, 1937 No. 4 



Botanizing in the Shickshock Mountains of 

 Gaspe, Quebec 



Raymond H. Torrhy 



Those who know of the studies of the flora of the Gaspe 

 Peninsula of eastern Quebec by Professor M. L. Fernald, Cura- 

 tor of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University, during the 

 past thirty years, do not need to be told of its remarkable and 

 significant character. Its species have been Hsted and their sig- 

 nificance as survivals of a pre-glacial flora noted in Professor 

 Fernald's memoir, "Persistence of Plants in Unglaciated Areas, 

 of Boreal America," published by the Gray Herbarium, in 1925, 

 an essential guide to botanists in the region. Inspired by Pro- 

 fessor Fernald's work, many professional and amateur botanists 

 have visited Gasp', and found it extremely interesting. Some of 

 them go in every summer to Mount Albert and Table Top, 

 higher summits of the Shickshock Mountains, in the interior of 

 the peninsula. It is a rugged region, rising to 4,450 feet, with much 

 of it above 2,500 feet, bare of timber, and with scores of snow 

 and ice fields, persisting through the summer, which are sur- 

 vivals of local glaciers which were active not many thousands of 

 years ago. 



Three members of the Torrey Botanical Club, Mr. James 

 Murphy, Mr. Louis W. Anderson, and the writer, entered the 

 higher eastern Shickschocks region, in July, 1936, and found the 

 flora novel and interesting and the scenery impressive. There 

 are two ways to enter the region of Mount Albert and Table 

 Top. One is to motor to St. Anne des Monts, on the south shore 

 of the St. Lawrence estuary, about 800 miles from New York 

 City, and hire boats to make the trip up the Riviere de St. Anne, 

 33 miles, to the Forks, a base camp site for climbs of Albert, 

 to the west and Table Top to the east. The other way is to drive 

 through Maine and New Brunswick to the head of the Bay of 



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