36 



are larger, and gradually becoming smaller in 

 the higher situations. The surface of the coun- 

 try, though by no means so level as it appears 

 from the mountains, is formed of single hills, 

 prominences, or swelling knolls, which have the 

 appearance of having been caused by the agita- 

 tion of water. Many of the cavities between 

 these knolls are dry, others are in the state of 

 ponds, but an infinite number contain morasses, 

 which must originally have been ponds, supplied 

 by springs which still flow at their bottoms, and 

 filled, in the course of ages, with a succession of 

 shellfish and the decay of vegetables ; so that at 

 present they are covered with timber, and have 

 been so within the memory of man. An old 

 man, upwards of sixty, informed us, that all the 

 difference he could remark between these mo- 

 rasses now and what they were fifty years ago, 

 was, that then they were generally covered with 

 firs, and now with beach. This was verified by 

 the branches and logs of fir which we found in 

 digging ; many pieces of which had been cut by 

 beavers, the former inhabitants of these places- 

 when in the state of ponds. Scarcely a fir is 

 now to be found in the country. 



On digging into these morasses you generally 

 have to remove from one to two feet of peat or 



