THE SAIMA SEE. 27 
foundations of the rocky barriers on either side, and where 
the freezing of water percolating into crevices of the rocks 
loosens and separates large blocks from the continuous 
bed or strata, the precipitation of these into the bed of 
the torrent—the accumulation of all these rocks must tend 
to produce such a torrent as the one we here see. 
On my return from Kuopia, as on the occasion of my 
return journey from Imatra twelve years before, I passed 
through Willmanstrand. On returning from'Kuopia I made 
my way through woodlands to the railway station of Simola, 
some twenty versts, or fourteen miles distant. In the 
course of this little journey { saw abundance of mosses 
and lichens, like to those of which I have spoken, as seen 
by me at the Falls of Imatra. 
The trees I have seen in Finland are not destitute of 
lichens, but trees covered with them are comparatively 
rare, while on the rocks they abound. Large boulders, 
boulders the size of a cottage, may be seen marled or 
variagated by a covering of lichens, which, like the lakes 
and islands, may to be reckoned by thousands. I have 
seen on rocks unbroken patches of moss twelve square feet 
in extent. I have seen patches of what seemed an hundred 
square inches in extent, rising in the centre three or 
four inches high. And again and again I have seen 
stones which might be presented in a class room as 
specimens of the alleged succession of natural crops on 
bare rock—lichens, mosses, and ferns, growing there 
simultaneously. In one case, and, according to my 
impression in’ many more, I saw lichens, mosses, ferns, 
and plants of Gnaphalium, and of the cranberry and of the 
whortleberry ; and on many I have seen the roots of trees 
which had been burned in a forest fire. Much of the soil 
may have been blown thither, and rested in hollows, or 
have found a resting place in cracks and rents; but the 
appearances presented were not the less interesting. I 
examined a few; in most of these the extremities of the 
roots of the flowering plants terminated in decayed or 
decaying patch of moss. 
