410 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec, 



red pine ; black, white, or hemlock spruce ; maple, beech, black 

 or yellow birch, or of other trees of large dimensions, and capable 

 of attaining to a great age. The 'second growth' which suc- 

 ceeds these usually consists of poplar, white or poplar birch, wild 

 cherry, balsam fir, scrub pine, alder, and other trees of small 

 stature, and usually of rapid growth, which, in good soils, prepare 

 the way for the larger forest trees, and occupy permanently only 

 the less fertile soils. A few examples will show the contrast 

 which thus appears between the primeval forest and that which 

 succeeds it after a fire. Near the town of Pictou, woods chiefly 

 consisting of beech, maple, and hemlock, have been succeeded by 

 white birch and firs. A clearing in woods of maple and beech in 

 New Annan, at one time under cultivation, was, after thirty 

 years, observed to be thickly covered with poplars thirty feet in 

 height, presenting a striking contrast to the surrounding woods. 

 In Prince Edward Island, fine hardwood forests have been succeed- 

 ed by fir and spruce. The pine woods of Miramichi, destroyed 

 by the great fire above referred to, have been followed by a second 

 growth, principally composed of white birch, larch, poplar, and 

 wild cherry. When I visited this place, twenty years after the 

 great fire, the second growth had attained to nearly half the 

 height of the dead trunks of the ancient pines, which were still 

 standing in great numbers; and in 1866 I found that the burnt 

 woods were replaced by a dense and luxuriant forest principally of 

 white birch and hackmatack, and I was informed that some of 

 these trees were already sufficiently large to be used in ship- 

 building. This is an instructive illustration of the fact, that 

 after a great forest fire an extensive region may in less than half 

 a century be re-clothed with different species from those by which 

 it was originally covered. 



As already stated, the second growth almost always includes 

 many trees similar to those which preceded it, and when the 

 smaller trees have attained their full height, these, and other 

 trees capable of attaining a great magnitude, overtop them, and 

 finally cause their death. The forest has then attained its last 

 stage, that of perfect renovation. The cause of the last part of 

 the process evidently is, that in an old forest, trees of the largest 

 size and longest life have a tendency to prevail, to the exclusion 

 of others. For reasons which will be aftenvards stated, this last 

 stage is rarely attained by the burned forests in countries begin- 

 ning to be occupied by civilized man, and it is evident that many 



