360 DEMAND FOR LUMBER. 
centre for a lumber trade, which, in the bulk of its material, and, 
consequently, in the tonnage required for its transportation, 
rivalled the commerce of the greatest European cities. Immense 
rafts were collected at Quebec from the great Lakes, from the 
Ottawa, and from all the other tributaries which unite to swell 
the current of the St. Lawrence and help it to struggle against 
its mighty tides.* Ships, of burden formerly undreamed of, 
have been built to convey the timber to the markets of Europe, 
and during the summer months the St. Lawrence is almost as 
crowded with shipping as the Thames.t 
*The tide rises at Quebec to the height of twenty-five feet, and when it is 
aided by a north-east wind, it flows with almost irresistible violence. Rafts 
containing several hundred thousand cubic feet of timber are often caught by 
the fiood-tide, torn to pieces, and dispersed for miles along the shores. 
+ One of these, the Baron of Renfrew—so named from one of the titles of 
the kings of England—built forty or fifty years ago, measured 5,000 tons. 
They were little else than rafts, being almost solid masses of timber designed 
to be taken to pieces and sold as lumber on arriving at their port of desti- 
nation. 
The lumber trade at Quebec is still very large. According to an article in 
the Revue des Deux Mondes, that city exported, in 1860, 80,000,000 cubic feet 
of squared timber, and 400,000,000 square feet of ‘‘ planches.” The thickness 
of the boards is not stated, but I believe they are generally cut an inch and a 
quarter thick for the Quebec trade, and as they shrink somewhat in drying, 
we may estimate ten square for one cubic foot of boards. This gives a total of 
70,000,000 cubic feet. The specifie gravity of white pine is .554, and the 
weight of this quantity of lumber, very little of which is thoroughly seasoned, 
would exceed a million of tons, even supposing it to consist wholly of wood as 
light as pine. 
The London Times of Oct. 10, 1871, states the exportation of lumber from 
Canada to Europe, in 1870, at 200,000,000 cubic feet, and adds that more than 
three times that quantity was sent from the same province to the United 
States. A very large proportion of this latter quantity goes to Burlington, 
Vermont, whence it is distributed to other parts of the Union. 
There must, I think, be some error or exaggeration in these figures. Perhaps 
instead of cubic feet we should read square feet. Two hundred millions of 
cubic feet of timber would require more than half the entire tonnage of Eng- 
land for its transportation. 
I suppose the quantities in the following estimates, from a carefully prepared 
article in the St. Louis Republican, must be understood as meaning square or 
superficial feet, board measure, allowing a thickness of one inch : 
‘‘'The lumber trade of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, for the year 
