24 FOREST COMMISSIONER S REPORT. 



tains in the region, were covered with a mixed growth of ever- 

 greens and hard wood, while the higher and steeper parts are 

 black with their cloak of spruce. In the tramp on the moun- 

 tain an aneroid barometer was carried, as indeed all through, 

 the summer's travel. From notes taken with this on what 

 was seen during the day, the passage from predominant hard 

 wood to predominant spruce may be set at somewhere about 

 1,000 feet above the river, while the limit of merchantable tim- 

 ber could hardly have been less than 1,000 feet higher. Along 

 from 1,600 to 1,700 at any rate, or nearly 3,000 feet above 

 the sea, the spruce was large, of long body and good quality. 

 Along at that height, trees from twenty to twenty-seven 

 inches in diameter at breast high were not infrequent, while 

 a fair kind of half acre run out tells much about the size and 

 development of the trees, and the relation of different species 

 in the stand. The hard wood at this height, it is particularly 

 worthy of note, is mainly white birth. The relation of this 

 species to spruce in its distribution is a very interesting topic 

 of study, and other reference to it is made in this report. 

 Cut over This first day's tramp of the season was ended 



land. Ij-^ g^ noteworthy and somewhat prophetic way by a 



violent shower which lasted for an hour, and drenched with 

 great impartiality everything out of doors. The blueness of 

 the weather perhaps had more or less to do with the idea 

 gained of those portions of the ground traversed which had been 

 cut over. The lower slopes of the mountain had, as already 

 stated, been cut through for spruce. The work appeared to 

 have been done very cleanly, while wind following had 

 knocked down most of the remaining trees on large areas and 

 left the land in no shape to yield more spruce for a century 

 to cmne. 



Note— Cubic foot in tliis report means exactly tliat in standard measure, llial is, 

 a cube 12 inches on a side or its equivalent in whatever shape. Cubic contents of 

 a tree means the contents of its -vvliole trunk from the ground to the tip, but not 

 the branches. Unless otherwise stated, it includes bark. 



Diameter of a tree means in tiiis work diameter breast high, or about 4j feet 

 from the ground. That is tlie stsndard of comparison used in the investigations 

 of the United States Forestry Division. It will also be found, I think, for practical 

 purposes a much more satisfactory measure than stump diameter wliich is now 

 more frequently employed. 



