1895.] Geography and Travels. 145 
As we penetrated into the interior of the country and neared the 
source of the river, the physical aspect was entirely changed, owing 
to the absence of forests and the less variety and abundance of moss. 
The boulders increased in numbers, and were covered with lichens of 
various kinds. After we had made the first fifty miles we saw no evi- 
dences of animal life whatever. The river terminated in a chain of 
- small lakes. On either bank we found vegetation, principally willows, 
all bent down stream, and the bark scarred and scratched, indicating 
that the water in the spring of the year had risen to a height of eigh- 
teen or twenty feet. At the lower portion of the river we found pecu- 
liar semicircles of boulders, ranging in size from the dimensions of a 
hen’s-egg to two and three feet in diameter. We learned that this 
fantastic arrangement of the boulders was due to the peculiar action of 
the ice during the spring, the boulders being transported by the ice 
and dropped in this position by eddies. At first we thought that these 
peculiar circles of stones might have been arranged by the early in- 
habitants of Labrador. 
When we returned to camp we found that Mr. Bucknell’s condition 
had not improvod, though he and Mr. Coates had managed to make a 
very creditable collection of birds and plants. After a day’s excursion 
on the south fork of the White Bear River we returned to Separation 
Point. I sent Mr. Bucknell over to Cartwright, the most southern 
and eastern Hudson Bay trading-post on the Labrador shore, and, with 
Mr. Perkins and Mr. Coates, continued the exploration of the Eagle 
and Paradise Rivers. We found the Eagle River much deeper, 
narrower and more rapid than the White Bear, and only about half as 
long. The Paradise River was very broad in comparison with the 
other two, as it flows through a more level section of the country. 
Here we found an abundance of plants which did not grow in the 
more mountainous districts, and we came across a number of large 
lakes, upon which were a great many species of water-birds not before ` 
seen on the trip. We ascended this river only about forty miles. 
Lining the banks of the river were dense growths of willows; but 
these did not show in any way the effects of high water. We found 
seals all along the river as fur as we went, and procured about twenty 
skins, principally of the Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), though we also 
captured specimens of the Phoca fotida, Phoca hispida, Phoca græn- 
andica and Cistophora eristata. 
. This river, like the Paradise and Eagle, abounded with trout and 
salmon, which afforded us rare sport and kept our table well 
supplied. 
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