THE LABRADOR FLORA. 65 



directions, by sea and land ; the geology and the flora 

 and fauna were explored with zeal, and resulted in the 

 discovery of many new forms and the detection of 

 Alpine and arctic European species before unknown to 

 this continent. We investigated the Quaternary for- 

 mation, ice marks, drift and fossil shells ; procured 

 fossils of the Cambrian red sandstone beds, chiefly 

 a sponge (a new species of Archceocyathus), which 

 were scattered along the shore, probably deriv^ed from 

 the red sandstone strata so well developed at Bradore, 

 also visited by some of our party. The results were 

 perhaps of some importance to science, but the lessons 

 in natural science we learned were of far greater moment 

 to ourselves. 



The coast of Labrador is fringed with islands, large 

 and small, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Hud- 

 son's Strait. A sailboat can go with safety from one 

 point to the other, and only occasionally will be exposed 

 to the ocean swell. These islands are the exact counter- 

 part of each other, differing mainly only in size and 

 altitude. Caribou Island was two or three miles in 

 length, formed of Laurentian gneiss, which had been 

 worn and molded by glaciers. Its scenic features re- 

 called those of the more rugged portions of the coast of 

 Maine, particularly in Penobscot Bay and Mt. Desert. 

 The higher portion of the island is of bare rounded 

 rock, with deep valleys or fissures down which run little 

 rills ; these valleys are dense with ferns, shelter many 

 insects, and where they widen out into the lower land 

 support a growth of dwarf spruce, hackmatack and wil- 

 low. In the more protected parts a few poplars and 

 mountain-ash rise to a height of froin ten to fifteen feet. 



