Excursions in and about Newfoundland: During the Years 1839 and 1840, Том 2John Murray, 1842 |
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abundant anchored angle Aquafort Avalon banks barrens Bay of Exploits beach beds Bell Isle boat Bonavista Bay boulders brook Butterpots called Chapel Arm character cleavage cliffs coal formation coast colour composed Conception Bay conglomerate Cove dark distance east feet flat Fogo forming frequently George's Bay gneiss Grand Pond granite grey gritstone Harbour Grace head height Holyrood igneous rocks inlet Island John's Lake land limestone lower slate formation marl marshes Mary's Bay mass Merasheen mica slate moss mouth nearly neighbourhood Newfoundland north-east pebbles Peyton Placentia Bay porphyry probably quartz rapids Red Indian ridge River Exploits road rocky round running sailed sand sandstone seen shale shoal shore shot sienite slate rock south side south-west stone strike thick thin three miles Tickle Harbour tion Toulinguet traversed trees Trinity Bay twenty valley variegated slate veins walking westerly wind woods yards
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Страница 219 - Bare patches of gravel and boulders, and crumbling fragments of rock, are frequently met with upon the " barrens," which generally are altogether destitute of vegetable soil. These different tracts are none of them of any great extent; woods, marshes, and barrens frequently alternating with each other in the course of a day's journey. In describing the general features of the country one of the most remarkable must not be omitted, namely, the immense abundance of lakes of all sizes, which are indiscriminately...
Страница 221 - Great periodical floods, which would sweep out and deepen the river channels, are almost impossible ; while the rivers have not power at any time to breach the barriers between them, and unite their waters. In dry weather, when from evaporation and drainage the ponds begin to shrink, they are supplied by the slow and gradual drainage of the marshes, where the water has been kept as in a reservoir, to be given off when required. The quantity of ground covered by fresh water in Newfoundland...
Страница 218 - barrens " of Newfoundland are those districts which occupy the summits of the hills and ridges, and other' elevated and exposed tracts. They are covered with a thin and scrubby vegetation, consisting of berry-bearing plants and dwarf bushes of various...
Страница 216 - This moss is green, soft, and spongy ; it is bound together by straggling grass, and various marsh plants. The surface is very uneven, abounding in little hillocks and holes, the tops of the hillocks having often dry, crisp moss upon them. A boulder or small crag of rock occasionally protrudes, covered with red or white lichens, and here and there is a bank, on which the moss has become dry and yellow. The contrast of these colors with the dark velvety green of the wet moss, often gives a peculiarly...
Страница 217 - The contrast of these colors with the dark velvety green of the wet moss, often gives a peculiarly rich appearance to the marshes. This thick coating of moss is precisely like a great sponge spread over the country. At the melting of the snow in the spring it becomes thoroughly saturated with water, which it long retains, and which every shower of rain continually renews. Numerous small holes and pools of water, and in the lower parts, small sluggish brooks or gulleys, are met with in these tracts...
Страница 217 - At the melting of the snow in the spring it becomes thoroughly saturated with water, which it long retains, and which every shower of rain continually renews. Numerous small holes and pools of water, and in the lower parts, small sluggish brooks or gulleys, are met with in these tracts ; but the extreme wetness of the marshes is due almost entirely to the spongy nature of the moss...
Страница 213 - Newfoundland has a wild and sterile appearance, which is anything but inviting. Its general character is that of a rugged, and, for the most part, a barren country. Hills and valleys continually succeed each other, the former never rising into mountains, and the latter rarely expanding into plains. The hills are of various characters, forming sometimes long, flat-topped ridges, and being occasionally round and isolated, with sharp peaks and craggy precipices. The valleys also vary from gently sloping...
Страница 220 - Each pond, or small set of ponds, communicates with a valley of its own, down which it sends an insignificant brook, that pursues the nearest course to the sea. The chief cause, however, both of the vast abundance of ponds and the general scantiness of the brooks, and smallness of the extent of each system of drainage, is to be found in the great coating of moss that is spread over the country. On any great accession of moisture, either from rain or melted snow, the chief portion is absorbed by this...
Страница 214 - ... or occur only in small groups. Most of the wood is of small and stunted growth, consisting chiefly of fir-trees about twenty or thirty feet high, and not more than three or four inches in diameter. These commonly grow so close together, that their twigs and branches interlace from top to bottom, and lying indiscriminately...
Страница 219 - These are found everywhere, over the whole face of the country, not only in the valleys but on the higher lands, and even in the hollows of the summits of the ridges, and the very tops of the hills. wards of thirty miles long, and four or five miles across. The number of those which exceed two miles in extent must, on the whole, amount to several hundreds, while those of smaller size are absolutely countless. Taken in...