CHAPTER X. 



THE FOBESTS OF CANADA. 



BRITISH North America contains probably the largest 

 and the most valuable forests in the world. Notwith- 

 standing the enormous quantity of timber that is exported 

 yearly and manufactured at home, notwithstanding the 

 millions of trees annually used for fuel, and the yet 

 greater numbers that are each year wantonly wasted and 

 destroyed, the forests still seem to be perfectly inex- 

 haustible. From the head of the Ottawa westward, the 

 traveller can go for days, for weeks, or even for months, 

 through the virgin forest. Each year, however, the 

 lumberer has to push a little farther back. The value 

 of the lumber annually exported is about $30,000,000. 

 In preparing this for market thousands of men and 

 horses are employed, at wages running from $10 per 

 month per man, up to $30 for skilled hands, and $20 or 

 $30 for a pair of horses, with food in all cases both for 

 man and horse. 



One has to push very far back indeed into the woods to 

 get beyond the traces of the lumbermen. Like the other 

 tree-chopping animal of the country, the beaver, he leaves 

 his mark wherever he goes. He requires no railways nor 

 turnpike roads. Wherever in the forest there is a stream 

 with water in it enough to float a stick of timber, there 

 will his tracks be found. He makes his home in the 



