6 JOHJSr MACOUN ON 



species are : — Phms Banksiana, Lam., Pi.cea «ièrt, Link., Picea nigra. Link., Larix Americava, 

 Michx., Papains treintdoides, Michx., Populus balsattiifera, Linn., Betula papyiifera, Michx., 

 and in less abundance and of more circumscribed range Abies balsamea, Marsh. On the 

 southeastern margin Thuya occidentalism Linn., and Betula lutea, Mx., are occasionally met 

 with but may be excluded when speaking generally. Willows of many species are found 

 throughout the whole region but seldom become trees. 



Although the above trees occupy the area under discussion it must not be understood 

 that they grow indiscriminately over the whole surface. 



The tamarack or larch, as with us in the east, is still inclined to occupy the wet ground 

 around muskegs, but as it nears its northern limit it leaves their vicinity and grows wliere 

 the soil is drier and more heated in summer. The black spruce in the east prefers the Ijoggy 

 ground, but as it approaches its northern limit it too seems to enjoy the drier ground and 

 vies with the white spruce in occupying the last oases before the forest ceases altogether and 

 the continuous barren grounds commence. Wherever the ground is sandy or rocky, or both, 

 the Banksian pine flourishes, and as it passes from east to west it loses its low and scrubby 

 character as is the case along the St. Lawrence and Lake Superior, though it is a much iiner 

 tree in the latter district, and becomes a handsome tree west of Lake Winnipeg. On the 

 Beaver, the English, the Athabasca and the Clearwater rivers, between lat. 53° and 58°, it 

 attains its greatest dimensions, and is there a stately tree over 100 feet high and having a 

 diameter from 12 to 20 inches. 



The four trees mentioned above are the conifers of the northern forest and may he 

 classed as forming the sub-arctic forest proper. They keep their tree form to their utmost 

 limit, not dwindling to mere shrubs as they do on mountain summits but forming outliers, 

 in the barren grounds, of fairly developed trees even at their extreme limit. This being the 

 case some other cause than the absence of heat must be given to account for this. From the 

 statements of Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, who traversed the barren grounds last season, I am led to 

 believe that the true reason for this barrenness is too much humidity in the air, and conse- 

 quently a wet cold soil that scarcely rises a few degrees above freezing under the very best 

 conditions, and in which trees could not exist, much less grow. 



The poplars and birch grow under altogether different conditions from the conifers. 

 The aspen in the east seems to be a poor sickly tree, very seldom having a thrifty look and 

 preferring gravelly hillsides and borders of swamps. Its habit and appearance change 

 wonderfully as we come upon it on the Canadian Pacific railway after Classing out of the 

 spruce and tamarack before reaching the prairie on our way to Winnipeg. Lying between 

 the tamarack and spruce, and the prairie is the belt of aspen which is only a few miles wide 

 along the railway but which extends from the international boundary in lat. 49° all around 

 the prairie regions, and may be said to constitute nearly the whole forest growth of the 

 prairies outside of the river valleys. North of the prairie it penetrates the coniferous forest 

 wherever there is good dry soil, and is the bulk of the forest in the Peace River country and 

 on the plains lying along the Liard and the Mackenzie. It may be said with truth that 

 aspen forest means agricultural land wherever found, and as it is in southern Manitoba so is it 

 on the Peace River plains and farther north. In the Riding and Porcupine Mountains and 

 westward through the forests to Prince Albert and Edmonton, a distance of 800 miles, this 

 species is found to be a fine tall tree. In many cases the bark is quite white and the round 

 smooth trunk, rising from fifty to one hundred feet, with a diameter ranging from six to 



