Note 63 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 2)

The places and the soil where it grows best, are not always alike, however it generally succeeds in such ground where its roots have sufficient moisture. It seems to prefer swamps, marshes, and other wet places to all others, and there it grows pretty tall. Stony hills, and places where a number of stones ly together, covered with several kinds of mosses63, seemed to be the next in order where it grows. When, the sea shores were hilly, and covered with mossy stones, the Thuya seldom failed to grow on them. It is likewise seen now and then on the hills near rivers, and other high grounds, which are covered with a dust like earth or mould; but it is to be observed that such places commonly carry a sourish water with them, or receive moisture from the upper countries. I have however seen it growing in some pretty dry places; but there it never comes to any considerable size. It is pretty frequent in the clefts of mountains, but cannot grow to any remarkable height or thickness. The tallest trees, I have found in the woods in Canada, were about thirty or thirty-six feet high. A tree of exactly ten inches diameter had ninety-two rings round the stem64; another of one foot and two inches in diameter had one hundred and forty-two rings65.