Numerous lakes in this section are of several different types.
One of two acres or so, is situated in a 10 acre meadow of aie
and this growth extends to the boggy shores. Yellow pond der e
leaves erect and six inches or so above the water, encircle the
lake Here were two horned grebes and a female lesser scaup duck
with 12 large young. Another lake of five acres, approximately,
in the conifer forest, is similar but lacks the broad encirclement
of sedge meadow. On this were a brood of six baldpate and two
female buffle head. Spud Lake, 30 acres or more, has all but a
small portion of the surface covered with yellow pond Lily. *cOge
loon was the only water bird observed there. Another lake half a
mile or more in length has an open flat of dwarf birch and willows
on one side, and some sedge marsh on the other

Francois Lake Region

Francois Lake is 65 miles long; the portion of the adjoin-
ing region examined was that adjacent to and west of Francois Lake
settlement, situated on the north side of the lake about midway and
approximately 12 miles south of Burns Lake. The land on the north
side is rolling with some areas of grassland, a few muskegs in which
tall Labrador tea is dominant, numerous small lakes, and a forest
cover predominantly aspen The sections of coniferous forest are
mainly lodgepole pine and Engelmann spruce. A relatively light pre-
cipitation is indicated by the slight amount of undergrowth, mainly
rose, birch-leaf, spirea, soopolallie, forbs and grasses. Through
these dry uplands is evidence in the form of dry creeks, now holding
water only in spring, and partly eroded grasslands that a more
favourable primitive environment has not been maintained. Possibly
the reported local extermination of beaver was a factor in the
present deterioration. A much more luxuriant vegetation consisting
mainly of cow parsnip and of such shrubs as raspberry, black twin-
berry, black currant Ribes Hudsonianum, and swamp gooseberry, pre-
vails along the thick willow bottoms and near the margins of sloughs.

From the settlement a road follows the lake to its western end
and then turns southeast to Ootsa Lake (Fig. 24). Black cottonwood
and aspen is the chief tree growth along the shore that is notable
otherwise for its many beaches of fine Shingle. Snodgrass Creek,
that drains several small lakes, reaches the lake across a narrow,
boulder beach about three miles west of the settlement. A few miles
farther west is a picturesque escarpment, its steeply sloping base
grown up with shrubbery and small aspens (Fig. 25).

Slopes above the south shore of the lake are dark with conifers.
It should be observed that an aspen association on Slopes with a

—- 50 —