436 



DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY BORDERING 



gravel, loam, and boulders, the soil is better, producing sugar-tree, black oak, and 

 white pine. The swamps produce tamerack or cedar. 



These mountain ranges of drift maintain their elevation quite to the extremity 

 of the point or promontory opposite Oak Island, where their slopes are so abrupt 

 that the distant observer mistakes them for a trap range. But on examination, 

 the red sand-rock is seen peeping out from the bases along the coast, and occa- 

 sionally for a few miles up the channels of the water-courses. Above, there is 

 nothing but masses of red clay and drift ; the clay occupying the valleys and lower 

 portions to a height of three hundred feet. These formations will be discussed in 

 another place. 



On the dry jDortions of the red clay, which is here, as usual, on Lake Superior, 

 but little rolling, we find the aspen, birch, and white pine. On the sandy, huckle- 

 berry lands, where the pine is of moderate thickness, large districts have been over- 

 run with fire, leaving a vast forest of blackened trunks, producing upon the mind 

 a vivid impression of solitude and desolation. 



Of course, such a soil is of no value to agriculture. The most favourable portions 

 for tillage are on the waters of the Cranberry and Iron Rivers, after leaving the 

 Lake a few miles. It is a universal rule, that the immediate coast of the Lake, 

 and, in general, the deep gulfs through which some of the rivers and streams flow, 

 produce a tangled forest of cedar, spruce, balsam, and birch, much more forbidding 

 than it is a few miles back from the Lake. The moist atmosphere next the water, 

 and the increased circulation and force of the winds, together constitute a local 

 climate, which is favourable to those hardy evergreens, and to the birch. It may 

 be said that between the summits of the mountain ranges and the level of the 

 Lake, there are three climates, indicated by the changes in the growing timber. 

 Where the soil is good, the highest portions produce sugar maple, black oak, and 

 white pine. Towards the base of the most elevated ridges, hemlock begins to 

 flourish, which graduates into cedar, balsam, and spruce, on the swampy portions 

 adjacent. On the red clay plains, corresponding in level with the swampy portions, 

 as I remarked in the description of the Bad River country, spruce, dwarf pines, 

 balsam, aspen, and birch, spring up very thick, the result of a peculiar and tole- 

 rably good soil. This thick wood, extending over a large tract nearly on a level, 

 serves to check the winds, and protect both animals and the soil, in some measure, 

 from the severity of winter. But I do not instance this peculiarity as a climatic 

 result. It belongs rather to the soil, and the physical characteristics of the flat 

 clay region. The differences, that appear to me owing to different conditions of 

 heat, moisture, and circulation of air, are characterized — 1st, by the predomi- 

 nance of sugar-maple ; 2d, by the predominance of hemlock ; 3d, by the fringe of 

 compact forest bordering the water, composed of white cedar, spruce, balsam, and 

 birch. The birch may be seen at all elevations, and in the valleys of the richer 

 uplands there are occasional instances of thrifty white elms. 



The drift-hills* that divide the waters that flow into Chegwomigon Bay and 

 the Mashkeg Fork from the waters of Iron or Penokie River, are in general barren 

 and unfit for cultivation. 



1 Fur details of heights, see profiles and suctions. 



