Vegetation of Northern Cape Breton. 343 



frequent white spruces, scarcely any of the balsams being more 

 than ten inches in diameter. Paper birch is rarely present in the 

 younger growth, but is represented abundantly by scattered older 

 specimens ranging up to a foot and a half in diameter, while the 

 ground beneath is strewn with the remains of fallen trees. Large 

 red maples are frequent and one large hemlock with a healed 

 fire scar was noted, obviously a relict of the former forest. 



The ultimate association-type of the burn succession is a 

 forest of the regional climax type, provided edaphic conditions 



Figure 38.— View along coast north of Neil's Harbor: barrens and 

 second growth forest, mostly white spruce; aspect largely the result of 

 repeated burning. Photograph by Dr. L. H. Harvey. 



are favorable to its development. Indeed, very often the beech 

 and others of the climax trees beside those already mentioned 

 may appear early in the series, arising either from coppice 

 sprouts or from seed. It seems hardly necessary to describe the 

 changes in the undergrowth which accompany the development of 

 the forest. 



Humus destroyed. — There are extensive tracts of land along 

 the eastern coast of northern Cape Breton, particularly between 

 North Bay, Ingonish and Aspy Bay (Fig. 38), which it is pre- 

 sumed were formerly covered, very largely at any rate, with 

 deciduous forests, but which have suffered so severely from 

 fires that at one time or another not only the greater part of the 



