DEMAND FOE LUMBEE. 349 



for many years has received vast quantities of lumber from her 

 American possessions. 



Tlie unparalleled facilities for internal navigation, afforded by 

 the numerous rivers of the present and former British colonial 

 possessions in Korth America, have proved very fatal to the for- 

 ests of that continent. Quebec became many years ago a centre 

 for a lumber trade, which, in the bulk of its material, and conse- 

 quently, 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 aU the other tributaries which unite to swell the cur- 

 rent 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.f 



* The tide rises at Quebec to the height of twenty-five feet, and when it is 

 aided by a northeast wind, it flows with almost irresistible violence. Rafts 

 containing several hundred thousand cubic feet of timber are often caught by 

 the flood-tide, torn to pieces, and dispersed for miles along the shores. 



f 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, 30,000,000 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 specific 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 Turtles of October 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. Per- 

 haps instead of cubic feet we should read square feet. Two hundred millions 



