266 Mr J. W. Dawson on the Destruction and 



the country. Among the most common plants which over- 

 spread the burned ground in this manner, are the raspberry, 

 which, in good soils, is one of the first to make its appear- 

 ance ; two species of vaccinium, called in Nova Scotia, blue- 

 berries ; the tea-berry or wintergreen (Gaultheria procum- 

 bens) ; the pigeon-berry {Cornus canadensis) ; and the wild 

 strawberry. It is not denied that some plants may be found 

 in recently burned districts, whose presence may not be ex- 

 plicable in the above modes ; but no person acquainted with 

 the facts, can deny that all the plants which appear, in any 

 considerable quantity, within a few years after the occurrence 

 of a fire, may readily be included in the groups which have 

 been mentioned. By the simple means which have been de- 

 scribed, a clothing of vegetation is speedily furnished to the 

 burned district ; the unsightliness of its appearance is thus 

 removed, abundant supplies of food are furnished to a great 

 variety of animals, and the fertility of the soil is preserved, 

 until a new forest has time to overspread it. 



With the smaller plants which first cover a burned district, 

 great numbers of seedling trees spring up, and these, though 

 for a few years not very conspicuous, eventually overtop, and, 

 if numerous, suffocate the humbler vegetation. Many of these 

 young trees are of the species which composed the original 

 wood, but the majority are usually different from the fomer 

 occupants of the soil. The original forest may have consisted 

 of white or red pine ; black, white, or hemlock spruce ; 

 maple, beech, black or yellow birch, or of other trees of large 

 dimensions, and capable of attaining to a great age. The 

 " second growth" which succeeds these, usually consists of 

 poplar, white or poplar birch, wild cherry, balsam fir, scrub 

 pine, alder, and other trees of small stature, and usually of 

 rapid growth, which, in good soils, prepare the way for the 

 larger forest trees, and occupy permanently, only the less 

 fertile soils. A few examples will shew the contrast which 

 thus appears between the primeval forest and that which suc- 

 ceeds it after a fire. Near the town of Pictou, woods chiefly 

 consisting of beech, maple and hemlock, have been succeeded 

 by white birch and firs. A small clearing in woods of maple 

 and beech in New Annan, which, thirty years ago, was under 



