166 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



(Bosa caroliniana), very common but very lovely, petals which 

 might stand sample as " rose colour," shining leaves and 

 glandular calices. So I wandered along, now keeping the road, 

 now starting into the wood, and again going down to the shore, 

 and admiring the half-seen view with rolling fog banks, and so 

 on to Point Pleasant, where the road turns back to Halifax 

 through an upper level. Going into the woods, I marked off a 

 bright green snake, too lovely for me to hunt, and so putting 

 thoughts of museum out of mind, I let him alone. He was 

 very small, and green as a leek. Next I saw a toad, and these 

 are at present my experiences of North American reptiles. 

 No troublesome insects nor flies. A few butterflies about, also 

 loud-screaming grasshoppers, and here and there a chirp of a 

 bird. Saw birds called robins, the size and look of thrushes, 

 with black heads, and (I am told) red breasts : did not see the 

 breasts, the wood being dark. The wood carpeted with soft 

 moss, and several pretty Alpine plants, among which Linnsea 

 Borealis (Linnseus's plant) was very conspicuous a few weeks 

 ago, but is now nearly out of flower. I mean to enclose 

 seeds of a little beauty, Houstonia repens if I remember 

 rightly, which will delight E. F. ; twin flowers having but 

 one cup, at the end of trailing stems, the flowers succeeded by 

 red berries. The woods themselves like an uncared-for planta- 

 tion — trees of all ages, but none large ; several kinds of pines, 

 spruces, P. Canadensis, larch, and farther from shore than the 

 others, Weymouth pines, handsome when young, but, as with 

 us, soon getting scraggy — a wilderness of them very picturesque. 

 The look-out from Point Pleasant really beautiful. A long 

 arm of the sea stretches inward, at intervals cottages scattered 

 through the woods on cleared spots, a church here and there, a 

 little pier with a small vessel, loading boats, &c. Pine-clad 



hills beyond. In the evening E and I walked out in the 



opposite direction to see Bedford Basin, another noble land- 

 locked harbour, large enough for a whole navy, and lying in a 

 state of nature. Saw a wigwam in the distance — three huts, like 

 those of gipsies. 



31st. Out all yesterday in a boat and caught very little. 

 A poor variety of sea-plants here. Actually I snapped at a 

 piece of common dillish, which came up in the dredge, with the 

 furore of a starving Connaught man, because its red colour was 



