IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



There was still plenty to see at Natashquan, 

 however, and I took a long walk, chiefly in 

 stunted spruces and in the bog — the barrens 

 or tundras of Labrador — which occupies so 

 much of the country in the sub- Arctic and Arc- 

 tic zones. Audubon says in his Journal: "To 

 tread over the spongy moss of Labrador is a 

 task beyond conception until tried; at every 

 step the foot sinks in a deep, soft cushion which 

 closes over it, and it requires a good deal of 

 exertion to pull it up again. Where this moss 

 happens to be over a marsh, then you sink 

 a couple of feet deep every step you take; to 

 reach bare rock is delightful, and quite a re- 

 lief." In another place he says: "We crossed a 

 savannah of many miles in extent; in many 

 places the soil seemed to wave under us, and 

 we expected at each step to go through the 

 superficial moss carpet up to our middles in 

 the mire; so wet and so spongy was it that 

 I think I never labored so hard in a walk of 

 the same extent." These descriptions are very 

 accurate. L should compare the labor to that 

 of walking in deep wet snow. I took the tem- 

 perature in the shade of an island of scrubby 

 spruce in one of these extensive tundras, and 

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