GLIMPSES OF NEWFOUNDLAND 411 



cussed and frequently marketed chrome- and Grand ponds, which culminate in the 



iron of Bluff Head (Port-au-Port) is asso- granitic areas near the Topsails, is irregular 



ciated with it. Rock deformation, second- and traversed by ridges and depressions, 



ary pebble, limestone and ledges (tenta- Here" Kittys Brook, a vehement and rock- 



tively mined) of red roofing slate furnished strewn stream (Figs. 13 and 14) is bridged 



some subjects for geological speculation at by the railroad which subsequently winds 



Bay of Islands. As a collecting ground for through a morainal district heavily and 



insects Bay of Islands was a disappoint- tumultuously encumbered with boulders 



ment, though it rewarded Mr. De Jonge (Fig. 15), whose savage dreariness has been 



with a catch of cichrus. further deepened by the removal through 



The next stage northward carried us fires of the slight apparel of vegetation 

 over a ten hours' run to Norte Dame which once hid their severity and hopeless 

 Junction, connecting with a short line with sterility. An occasional camp (Fig. 16) 

 Lewisport on Notre Dame Bay. This sec- offers a momentary relief to the sombre 

 tion of our journey was intensely inter- aspects of this almost tenantless wilderness, 

 esting. We then crossed the "barrens," It seems evident that the whole region 

 the high dividing naked ridge or crown of has undergone extreme degradation, that 

 the island marked by extraordinary des- an immense amount of material, derived 

 olation in parts, to be again relieved by from former considerable elevations, has 

 tundra of moss, with a lake country made been distributed by the agencies of ice 

 up of shallow scooped-out saucers, forming over the lower levels, and has choked up 

 eyelets of water with long connecting necks and barricaded intervening valleys; that 

 of shining streams. Some features of this there may have been several or many cen- 

 region were astounding in their hopeless tres or foci of glacial radiation in this north- 

 expression of stony infertility and havoc; central part of Newfoundland and that the 

 as if from a pitiless sky an avalanche of movement of the ice has been radial to- 

 rocks had overwhelmed the disheartened ward all the shores. 



earth. Then the road passed out to the We looked in vain, over these higher 



highest section, one vast, unbroken rolling levels, for the occasional groups of caribou 



plain of rock, covered with moss, low that sometimes are seen moving south from 



herbs, prostrate plants and sentinelled by the Cap-de-Nord, on their leisurely return 



three high knobs, Gaff-topsail, Mizzen and from their summer haunts, but we were 



Mainsail, themselves splintered and de- disappointed. Newfoundland is v watching 



graded into suggestions only of some pre- her hunting interests quite closely, and the 



vious strength and prominence. This ex- former ambushes of sportsmen along the 



panse, disappearing along the closing railroad tracks have been, we believe, dis- 



horizon into vague, darkening patches of qualified by law. The caribou head with 



stunted wood, formed a weird and strange- thirty or more points is zealously desired, 



ly appealing picture in the wizard lights and authorities vary in their predictions 



of the closing day. as to its ultimate extinction. The caribou 



After leaving Riverhead, on the Humber (Rangifer terra-novae) is the significant and 

 arm of the Bay of Islands, the train ascends conspicuous example in Newfoundland of 

 the beautiful canyonlike chasm of the the influence of isolation. The reindeer 

 Humber River itself, and the scenery at- which, in its numerous varieties of the wood- 

 tains a remarkable exaltation and beauty, land and barren country of North America, 

 The stream, tinted an amber brown with shows such racial plasticity, evinces even 

 humus, runs swiftly through a primeval in the narrower range of Newfoundland 

 zone, with steep pinnacles towering up- tendencies to variation. The southern and 

 ward behind a bewildered forest, searching south central herds appear to be made up- 

 every avenue of approach to the bared of smaller individuals than the northern 

 summits (Fig. 12) that reveal, upon favor- groups. Throughout the island the wild 

 able exposures, the definite outlines of animals (bear, foxes, beaver, otter, hare) 

 synclinal and anticlinal folds. display varietal characters, we believe, while 

 The broad waste regions beyond Deer in a primitive manner the insularity of the 



