lf;64.] FOllESTRY IN EUllOFE AND AMERICA. 93 



problem involved. The timljer, therefore, lies beyond the possibility 

 of its present inhabitants to deal with. 



Such was the general condition of the Canadian forests at the 

 date of the last otiicial inquiries some ten years since. Careful 

 oftieial investigation is now in progress, under the direction of the 

 Viceroy, at the instance of Dr. Lyons, M.P., througli the kindne.ss of 

 the Earl of Derby. Very serious statements are in circulation on 

 the authority of such able statisticians as Mr. William Little, and 

 others of siniilar position in Canada. It is of the last importance 

 tliat these inquiries should be tliorough and exhaustive. The 

 important legislative steps taken by tlie Canadian Parliament in the 

 April of tliis current year show that body is now thoroughly alive 

 to the question. Large powers have been given for the purpose of 

 extensive forest parks on the slopes of the Eocky Mountains, with a 

 view both to timber suppjly and the not less important subject of 

 proper water supply, and the regulation of rivulets, streams, and 

 rivers. 



The mother country cannot Ijut regard with especial interest the 

 determination of the question of the Canadian timber supply, on 

 which she is now so largely dependent herself. For ourselves, we 

 are well satisfied that the time has fully come when the Briti.sh 

 Islands can no longer be wholly dependent on external sources of 

 timlier supply, and that she will in tlie future have to draw largely 

 on her own soil for timber to supply her teeming industries, or retire 

 from the position she has hitherto held in the world in regard to all 

 licr industries, wliich in one way or another are so largely dependent 

 on timber and other forest products. 



The total con.sumption of important timber and other forest 

 products in Great Britain has reached annually the extraordinary 

 amount of i'20,000,000. They stand, indeed, about fifth in the 

 order of the imports of these countries. The main sources on 

 which the empire has hitherto depended for supply, Sweden and 

 Canada, are no longer permanently to be relied on. In the present 

 day, with regard to home supplies, they found that, instead of 

 advancing, the wooded condition of Ireland was actually retro- 

 grading. The Irish woods were 45,000 acres less than they were 

 in 184:1, just at the commencement of the great famine. Within the 

 last two or three years, since he had begun that agitation, a slight 

 Viut sensible increase of about 1000 acres hail taken place in the 

 jilanting of forests in Ireland. In England they were all proud of 

 tlie English oak. Within the last 30 or 40 years a vast amount of 

 timber had disappeared in this country. With over 32,000,000 

 acre.s, England pos.sessed something considerably less than 2,000,000 

 acres of wood. Much of that was wooded land of an ornamental 



