NATURAL AREAS AND REGIONS 



289 



In the southern portion of Ontario, 

 exclusive of the Niagara peninsula, 

 the pure hardwood forest probably 

 occupied about one quarter of the origi- 

 nal forested area. A pine forest, con- 

 sisting of white pine (Pinus strobus) 

 and red pine (Pinus resinosa), mostly 

 the former, was the most widely dis- 

 tributed type. It occupied two situa- 

 tions: one, the extensive outcrops of 

 sandy soils deposited in glacial lakes 

 that at one time or other occupied much 

 of the region, and the other, the granitic 

 ridges of thin soil. This pine forest 

 originally occupied about 60% of the 

 area and it has now been largely replaced 

 by the poplar-birch associations follow- 

 ing forest fires. It is probable that 

 on not more than one-fifth of the area 

 thus occupied is the pine reproducing 

 itself in potentially commercial quanti- 

 ties, so that it will be a very long time 

 before the pine forest will be re-estab- 

 lished. The Eastern Forest Reserve 

 represents to perfection the conditions 

 on the repeatedly burned areas of this 

 type. 



The remaining 15% of the original 

 forested area of southern Ontario, as 

 defined above, was represented by 

 various mixed hardwood coniferous 

 associations, of which there were at 

 least four well marked kinds. One was 

 due to the increasing occurrence of 

 hemlock, and the other to the intrusion 

 of white pine in the hardwood stands. 

 The former was particularly noticeable 

 in the Georgian Bay district and the 

 latter is still noticeable in the present 

 northern and western distributional 

 areas of white pine. In the northern 

 portion of the area designated as south- 

 ern Ontario there was some admixture 

 of balsam fir and spruce (P. canadensis 

 and P. mariana) among the hardwoods, 

 but probably never as extensive as the 

 hemlock and pine mixtures. The fourth 

 mixed association is the ordinary black 

 ash-white cedar-balsam fir swamp. 



The three types described above, 

 namely, the pure hardwood, the pine, 

 and the mixed forest can all be found in 

 Algonquin Park, where the mixed type 



occupies about 55% of the area; the 

 hardwood forest, in which yellow birch 

 is dominant and of fine quality and the 

 sugar maple subordinate and of poor 

 quality, 20%; the poplar-birch associa- 

 tion, representing the old pineries, 2Q%. 

 Beautiful illustrations of pure hardwood 

 stands and mixed stands in practically 

 virgin condition are to be found within 

 easy reach of Headquarters (Algonquin 

 Park Station) on the Canadian National 

 Railway. The railway from Parry 

 Sound to Ottawa cuts through the 

 southwestern portion of the Park and 

 the railway (also Canadian National) 

 from North Bay to Ottawa traverses 

 the northern and eastern portions. 

 The former passes through the less 

 undisturbed forests of the Park, while 

 the latter route displays more of the 

 present condition of the old pineries. 

 Forest conditions essentially as de- 

 scribed above are to be found extending 

 westward along Lake Huron to the 

 Sault in a strip about 50 mi. back from 

 the shore. They appear again west of 

 Lake Superior in a strip of about the 

 same distance north of the international 

 boundary line. 



6. Animals (J . R. ZX). The larger 

 animals of the southern faunal region 

 as described above have long been 

 exterminated and there remain only the 

 smaller forms such as muskrat (Ondatra 

 z. zibethica), woodchuck (Marmota mo- 

 nax rufescens], raccoon (Procyon I. 

 lotor), skunk (Mephitis mephitis group), 

 mink (Mustela vison group), weasel 

 (Mustela n. noveboracensis), red squirrel 

 (Sciurus hudsonicus group), gray squir- 

 rel (Sciurus carolinensis group) and 

 chipmunk (Tamias striatus group). As 

 Fleming 2 has pointed out the cottontail 

 rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus mearnsii) 

 was probably not indigenous to Ontario, 

 but since its appearance here more than 

 fifty years ago, has spread over the whole 

 southwestern peninsula of the province. 

 The European hare (Lepus europaeus) 

 introduced in 1912 3 has also become 



2 Ottawa Naturalist, vol. XXII, pp. 158-159, 1908. 

 8 Canadian Field-Naturalist, vol. XXXVI, pp. 

 142-143, 1922. 



