FLORA OF RAINY RIVER 
61 
tended not only through, the timbered belt but also into the 
cleared land lying back of this and not more than three hundred 
feet from the river. 
The wooded bank slopes rather abruptly to the river and the 
clearing lies on higher, rather level ground. 
The river itself is a part of the Hudson Bay drainage system, 
the divide between the Mississippi river and the Bay being situ- 
ated a short distance southwest of this place. The ‘‘Old Dock” 
was built for a river boat plying on the Minnesota side of the 
river. Before the coming of the railroad nearly all of the traffic 
down the river was by boat ; freight, including grain, was trans- 
ported by this means, and in this fact lies the explanation of 
the exceedingly frequent appearance of tame clover and grasses 
near the landing. 
The river flows in a rocky channel, and many boulders and 
rocks line the shores ; there is a short strip of sandy beach, but 
partly because of nearness to the falls, the current of the river 
is rapid and there is very little characteristic strand vegetation, 
the only exceptions occurring in a covelike inlet east of the dock 
where the water is more sluggish. Here were found Carex and 
Juncus. 
Geologically, the region lies within the boundaries of Lake 
Agassiz which disappeared rather abruptly more than seven 
thousand years ago, leaving the fleld open to plant immigration 
from the south. The icy barrier which extended along the east- 
ern shores of Lake Tecamamisuan or Rainy Lake as it is now 
called, precluded a similar immigration from the east; hence 
the marked similarity of the flora of this region to that of south- 
ern Minnesota on the one hand, and the evident unlikeness to 
that of the northeastern part of the state on the other. 
For the same reason the flora of the Lake of the Woods bears 
close relation to that of the Minnesota Yalley and the Rainy 
river region.^ The soil is extremely fertile, consisting of a sub- 
soil of modified drift overlaid with a rich humus. Maples, box- 
elders, cedar, spruces, white birch and willows are the prevail- 
ing trees. The two latter are especially characteristic of regions 
that have been swept by fire. 
The forest growth of this region differs markedly from that 
of the Rainy Lake region, a mile east. In the latter district, 
^MacMillan, Conway. Observations on Distribution of Plants along the 
Shores of Lake of the Woods. Minn. Bot. Studies. Bull. 9, p. 954. Also 
Metaspermae of the Minnesota Valley, 826 p., 1892. Geological and Natural 
History Survey of Minn. Reports of Survey. Botanical Series 1. 
