72 BOTANICAL SURVEY OF THE CCEUK 1)'ALENE MOUNTAINS. 



foot of lumber, board measure, put to proper uses iu this region 100 

 cubic feet of timber have been destroyed by the fiery element or need- 

 lessly wasted in the tree. The burns of largest extent have been in the 

 Yellow Pine districts. It would be a difficult matter to find a body of 

 500 acres in the whole of this zone which has not been visited by fire 

 within the past thirty-five years. If the damage done here was as great 

 and complete as elsewhere, there would now be nothing left of this but 

 charred logs. Luckily, however, this, the most accessible portion, suf- 

 fers the least. It is in the White Pine belt that we find the destruc- 

 tion in its widest sweep, I would here call attention to the map 

 accompanying this report. I have endeavored to mark on it all the 

 large areas where more than 50 per cent of the growing timber is 

 destroyed by fire. Commencing in the southern part with the St. 

 Mary basin, we find in the upper portion of its valley an area, approxi- 

 mately 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) north and south and 35 kilometers (22 

 miles) east and west, upon which the destruction of the old growth has 

 been from 70 per cent to total. The bulk of this was burned about six- 

 teen or seventeen years ago. A young growth has covered the oldest 

 burns, and this has in turn been destroyed over about one-fourth of the 

 area. 



Coming down the valley, we find minor burns everywhere. They 

 range in size from an acre or two to tracts of 300 or 400 acres. An 

 exception to this is a large tract of mostly Old Growth, situated between 

 the Santianue and a line drawn east and west through a point about 4 

 kilometers (2.5 miles) south from Emerald Creek from the west divide 

 to the St. Mary. Burned spots occur over this area also, but they are 

 not large in the aggregate. When the canyon portion of the St. Mary 

 is reached, most of the burns are on the west bank in the Yellow Pine 

 belt. They are, as before, of varying size, dotting the country here and 

 there and separated from each other by bands of living forest. On the 

 east bank the open Yellow Pine belt, which follows the immediate 

 vicinity of the stream, soon gives way to a section of the White Pine 

 Zone, remarkable for its excellent state of preservation. This tract 

 occupies the triangular space which is inclosed between the St. Joseph 

 and the St. Mary on the east and west, the point of junction of these 

 two rivers on the north, and the Elk range for the base in the south. 

 The best and most valuable timber, as well as the easiest of access of 

 all in the St. Mary basin, is situated here and on the previously men- 

 tioned area north from the Santiaime. 



Coining to the St. Joseph basins, we find that the burns are of the 

 scattered kind. Small tracts, from a few acres to 3 or 4 square miles, 

 separated by larger areas of green timber, are found throughout. On 

 the whole, the St. Joseph region has suffered very much less than any 

 other portion of the Co?ur d'Aleues. This is entirely due to its general 

 inaccessibility and remoteness from the highways of travel and centers 

 of population. In the low country around Lake Cteur d'Alene and its 



