m the bay the level rises slowly to an average of about 1500
ft., but seldom reaches 2000 ft. except at a few points near Lake
Superior and on the eastern coast of Labrador. In most parts the
Laurentian hills are bare _roches moutonnees_ scoured by the glaciers of
the Ice Age, but a broad band of clay land extends across northern
Quebec and Ontario just north of the divide. The edges of the protaxis
are in general its highest parts, and the rivers flowing outwards often
have a descent of several hundred feet in a few miles towards the Great
Lakes, the St Lawrence or the Atlantic, and in some cases they have cut
back deep gorges or canyons into the tableland. The waterfalls are
utilized at a few points to work up into wood pulp the forests of spruce
which cover much of Labrador, Quebec and Ontario. Most of the pine that
formerly grew on the Archean at the northern fringe of the settlements
has been cut, but the lumberman is still advancing northwards and
approaching the northern limit of the famous Canadian white pine
forests, beyond which spruces, tamarack (larch) and poplar are the
prevalent trees. As one advances northward the timber grows smaller and
includes fewer species of trees, and finally the timber line is reached,
near Churchill on the west coast of Hudson Bay and somewhat farther
south on the Labrador side. Beyond this to the north are the "barren
grounds" on which herds of caribou (reindeer) and musk ox pasture,
migrating from north to south according to the season. There are no
permanent ice sheets known on the mainland of north-eastern Canada, but
some of the larger islands to the north of Hudson Bay and Straits are
partially covered with glaciers on their higher points. Unless by its
mineral resources, of which scarcely anything is known, the barren
grounds can never support a white population and have little to tempt
even the Indian or Eskimo, who visit it occasionally in summer to hunt
the deer in their migrations.

_The Acadian Region._--The "maritime provinces" of eastern Canada,
including Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, may be
considered together; and to these provinces as politically bounded may
be added, from a physical point of view, the analogous south-eastern
part of Quebec--the entire area being designated the Acadian region.
Taken as a whole, this eastern part of Canada, with a very irregular and
extended coast-line on the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Atlantic, may be
rega