IN AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



must refer to strand wheat and the northern 

 white birch. Strand wheat occurs on both sides 

 of the Atlantic; on the American side it ex- 

 tends south to the Maine coast and the Isles 

 of Shoals, and it has recently been found on 

 the tip of Cape Cod. It is used in Iceland to- 

 day for making flour for bread and was a famil- 

 iar plant to the Norsemen. The white birch of 

 northern Europe and Labrador are believed by 

 some to be the same species. On the eastern 

 Labrador coast this tree is much stunted and 

 distorted by the severity of the climate, the 

 violence of the gales, and the weight of the 

 winters' snows. The grain of the wood is in 

 consequence often curiously twisted. Hard 

 knobs, induced perhaps by partial breaks, are 

 common, and from these much-prized drink- 

 ing-vessels were made by the ancient Vikings. 

 The wild grape does not appear even at a 

 distance from the coast north of the St. John 

 Valley in New Brunswick, and is found on the 

 coast only as far north as the mouth of the 

 Kennebec, but is common to the south of Cape 

 Ann. On Cape Cod the Icirge fox grape, the 

 ancestor of the well-known Concord grape, is 

 particularly abundant, 



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