8 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and Lis family. Unfoitunately, the evil does not stop here ; for 

 the fire once lighted gets at once entirely beyond his control, and 

 it burns on until stopped by a river, a sheet of water, an area 

 already burnt, or some other obstacle to its progress. Railway 

 lines, again, have led to damage on an enormous scale. To 

 facilitate their construction through the dense primaeval forests, 

 uncontrolled burning has been freely resorted to ; and during the 

 hot and dry season of the year sparks from engines annually 

 continue the work of destruction ; so that when travelling by rail 

 through long stretches of country which it may take hours to 

 traverse, one sees nothing, as far as the eye can reach, but the 

 bare, blackened stems of pine and other trees, under which a 

 second growth, usually of inferior species, is struggling up. 



If Canada is to secure provision even for her own future wants, 

 she must look to her resources before it is too late to do so. She 

 should at least establish extensive reserves, and effectually protect 

 them against fire The present area of reserved forest is insuf- 

 ficient, and the measures taken to preserve it from burning are 

 wholly inadequate. To the traveller across the continent by the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway, the thought naturally occurs as to what 

 effect the wholesale destiuction of forests formerly covering the 

 catchment basins of the great lakes may have on their water-levels. 

 This is an important consideration, in view of the great inland 

 water-way which they form. 



In the United States the area reserved and effectually protected 

 formed recently but a very small fraction of that needed for the 

 permanent supply of the existing population. The States appear 

 in the returns as exporters to us, but they take from Canada 

 something like twice the amount of their shipments to this 

 country ; and there is no doubt that before the lapse of many 

 years they will require and take all that Canada will then be able 

 to spare. Whenever this situation ai-ises, we shall have to look 

 elsewhere for the £6,000,000 worth of timber that now comes 

 to us across the Atlantic, or to go without it ; and this fact alone 

 is sufficient to warrant the opinion that a rise in the price of 

 imported timber is to be confidently anticipated, and to give 

 ground for urging the desirability of planting up a substantial 

 portion of our own waste land with as little delay as possible. 



At the close of these remarks Colonel Bailey exhibited his 

 lantern slides. 



