Editoi'ial Notes. 819 



Sao-uenay rivers, with their wonderful network of tributary streams, is 

 rajjidly disappearing beneath the ruthless axe of the kimberman. All 

 the more accessible parts on these great forest outlets are already 

 cleared of pine timber, and the lumbermen are now round the eastern 

 end of Lake Nipissing, and away much farther north on the shores of 

 the Montreal river. In the province of Quebec they have nearly reached 

 the head waters of the Ottawa and the other rivers flowing towards 

 the St. Lawrence, and are now working three hundred miles nortli of 

 the City of Ottawa, on the shores of Lake Temiscamingue and the 

 Keepawa river. The St. Maurice region is almost stripped of its finest 

 pine. In the Saguenay region there is still a considerable amount of 

 spruce, but it is completely gutted of pine. All the pine easily acces- 

 sible from Lake St. John is cleared out. That huge tract of forest 

 between the Ottawa and the St. Maurice, which once seemed endless 

 and inexhaustible, has been pierced through and through, and is fast 

 disappearing beneath the destroying axe. 



The idea that the lumbermen " can still go north," when the present 

 supply is exhausted, is a fallacious one. The lumberman is now 

 plying his axe within a short distance of the head waters of the rivers 

 flowing southwards, and as soon as he passes the heights which divide 

 the watershed of the St. Lawrence from that of Hudson's Bay, the 

 streams, without which the timber cannot be brought to market, all run 

 north towards Hudson's Bay. There is undoubtedly some good timber 

 iu that region, hut it may be considered out of reach for the present, 

 as it is utterly impracticable under existing circumstances to bring it 

 to market so as to realize a profit. In a comparatively short time the 

 Canadian forests have been completely overrun and the finest pine picked 

 out, seriously impoverishing them for generations to come. Although 

 spruce and second-rate pine are still plentiful, and much in excess of any 

 probable local wants, really fine pine fit for exportation is getting very 

 scarce and inaccessible, and fears are entertained of a sudden and con- 

 siderable falling off. 



As far back as the year I09G the attention of the French Governors' 

 of Canada was called to the wasteful destruction of the forests. How- 

 ever no check was put upon it then, and little has been done since. 

 The result is painfully apparent, especially in the province of Quebec. 

 A stranger may travel for miles in some parts of the province without 

 meeting with a tree worth notice, and might easily fancy himself in one 

 of the most tree-denuded countries of Europe. 



Mr. Joly's report then enters fully into the subject of renovating the 

 primeval forests, quoting examples of what has been done in European 

 countries, and making many valuable suggestions upon the selection 

 and planting of trees, from which we give some extracts on another 

 page. If the Government of the Dominion carry out with energy and 



