AMERICAN HARBOR, OR NATASHQUAN 



dark spruces and firs and terminated by a 

 horizon of fog. To the north were bogs, rocky 

 hummocks, small lakes and pools and patches 

 of stunted forest, relieved here and there by 

 ridges covered with white reindeer moss. Be- 

 yond lay the long low range of mountains 

 which stretches all along the coast, the ancient 

 Laurentian Mountains, the true "Everlasting 

 Hills." The roar of the falls borne to my ears 

 with varying intensity by the blasts of wind, 

 the complaining notes of great black-backed 

 gulls soaring overhead, served but to intensify 

 the wildness of the scene. At my feet the red 

 granitic rock was almost concealed by lichens, 

 black, white, green, yellow, and gray, that are 

 slowly disintegrating the hard surface and ren- 

 dering it fit for more highly organized plant- 

 life that is to follow. Around me were tufts of 

 cotton-grass, mats of curlew-berry, mountain 

 cranberry, low spreading pale laurel, firs, 

 spruces, birches, and larches, all prostrate. 

 Where the trees had tried to rise a few inches, 

 they were blasted by the storms and their 

 twisted and distorted branches stood naked to 

 the air. 



To the south, smiling in the sunlight, lay 

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