VALLEY OF DOG RIVER. 



49 



ranges of hills, which did not seem anywhere to exceed 

 200—280 feet in altitude. 



Some of the hills consisted of bare rock, others were 

 covered with a young forest growth, which appeared to 

 consist chiefly of Banksian pine and aspen. In the 

 distance the tops of a few hills showed clumps of red pine 

 standing erect and tall above the surrounding forest. 

 They may be the remnants of an ancient growth which 

 probably once covered a large portion of this region, 

 having been destroyed by fire at different epochs ; wide 

 areas were still strewed with the blackened trunks of trees, 

 and in the young forest, which seems fresh and green at a 

 distance, the ground was found to sustain the charred 

 remains of what had once been a far more vigorous 

 vegetation. 



The low ranges of hills bear a great outward resem- 

 blance to those which surround Dog Lake. No preci- 

 pitous escarpments are visible, but most of them have 

 a rounded dome-like aspect, and close inspection of 

 some of them gave indications of the abrading action of 

 ice. Large quantities of Labrador tea (Ledum palustre), 

 were seen wherever we landed. The flow of the river 

 for a distance of twenty-five miles from Dog Lake, varies 

 from half a mile to one mile an hour. 



The general character of this valley is very uniform, 

 and the idea presented to the mind, in endeavouring to 

 picture its aspect when covered with water in the spring, 

 was that a general rise of 20 or 25 feet would give it an 

 appearance very similar to Great Dog Lake, with an- 

 alogous deep bays formed by the valleys of its tribu- 

 taries, and having on its shores hills of the same altitude 

 and similar formation as are found bordering the lake 

 below ; in fact, a high (25 feet) dam, as has already 

 been hinted, at the source of Little Dog Eiver, might 



VOL. I. E 



