204 The Ottawa Naturalist. [February 



where conditions prevail which afford an excellent opportunity for 

 members of the Botanical Branch of the Club to study not onlv 

 pine-life, but also the growth of trees generally. There are pop- 

 lars, birches, maple and pine trees, growing together in a young 

 forest which began to sprout after the fire of 1870 which cleared 

 the whole region for miles, and laid bare, owing to erosion of the 

 underlying clay deposits, several thousand acres of land on which 

 not a blade of grass could be seen. The following notes on the 

 forest, which can be seen there at the present time, are herewith 

 given. 



" After the big bush-fire of 1870, which swept over a large 

 portion of the Ottawa valley and laid waste large areas of good 

 and bad timber lands, there followed the consequent erosion and 

 denudation of the country. The timber-laden district of Ironsides, 

 between Ottawa and Old Chelsea, had been totally destroyed by 

 fire, leaving on the ground nothing but the bare burnt clay, to- 

 gether with a few large trunks of the gigantic pines of this neigh- 

 bourhood, which attested to the great destroyer of plant-life and 

 the once thriving forest. Lumber camps had come and gone. 

 Man had cut the best for himself, leaving only the smaller scrub 

 behind, and a few others spared by the axeman. 



"Presently, not even the trunks of the trees were seen 

 standing or fallen, throughout the burnt areas, for the erosive 

 agencies soon began their powerful operations, whilst vegetation, 

 which usually acts as a deterrent to the progress of waters from 

 rain in reaching the nearest streams, was no longer there. 



"Rain having acted upon the unctuous clay deposits, the 

 fine materials of which it is composed were soon carried down to 

 the lower levels in the nearest brooks, and a clean, bluish-gray 

 clay surface, well-washed and presenting a destitute and barren 

 piece of country followed. 



"Not a blade of grass could be seen for miles. This state 

 of affairs continued for a couple of years, during which the waters 

 of the district carved out the strata, and carried off much of the 

 soil and clay of the disrict. Deep valleys were excavated, trunks 

 of trees, and other remains of vegetation, etc., were carried away 

 and buried in the sediments of this period down the Gatineau or 

 Ottawa. 



" Nature is always busy, and as soon as there came a 

 slight lull in the process of denudation, she sent forth her redeem- 

 ing forces and employed them in restoring, reconstructing and 

 maintainmg the equilibrium by sowing seeds of various grasses, 

 shrubs, trees and other kinds of plants from this well-known 



