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THE DOUGLAS FIR, Spruce, or Oregon Pine (Pseudotsuga Douglassi) is the 

 most important timber tree of British Columbia, and the only one of 

 which the wood has as yet become an article of export on a large scale. It 

 reaches a height of from 200 to 300 feet, forming prodigious and dark 

 forests, and frequently exceeds 8 feet in diameter. Its wood is yellow or 

 reddish, coarse-grained, heavy and strong and is unsurpassed for strength, 

 length and straightnees for spars and masts. The best grown trees are 

 those near the coast 



HEMLOCK (Tsuga Canadcnsis) is a tree of majestic growth, and its 

 appearance when young is quite different from that of an old tree, as it 

 possesses a feathery lightness, graceful, and bending to the slightest 

 breeze; but when old it becomes sturdy, with rough bark and deeply 

 furrowed, is full of gnarled and broken limbs, the top generally blighted 

 and dead, and the foliage deprived, to a great extent, of the pensile grace 

 which gives the charm to its youthful growth. Its wood is light coloured, 

 coarse and crooked grained, and very liable to splinter. It is largely 

 sawn into boards of an inferior quality, but well adapted for mining 

 purposes, wharves, flooring of barns and other purposes in farm buildings. 

 It gives a tight hold to nails, and as inch boards is in common, use for tho 

 first covering of frame houses. It is said that iron, when driven into it, 

 will not corrode, either in or out of water. Split laths are also largely 

 manufactured from this wood. The bark is largely used for tanning 

 purposes, and for making an extract for tanning, the manufacture of 

 which is quite an industry in the Province of Quebec. The Western 

 Hemlock (Tsuga Afertenstana), abundant on the Pacific Coast, reaches a 

 height of 200 feet, and yields a good wood, not yet, however, much used. 



WHITE SPRUCE (Picea Alba), a small tree of from thirty to forty feet in 

 height, with a trunk from eighteen inches to two feet in diameter. Its 

 wood is of an inferior quality, light coloured, and used more for masts of 

 boats and small spars than for any other purpose. Black Spruce (Picea 

 Nigra) is abundant ; it attains a height of from ninety to one hundred 

 feet, with a trunk two to three feet in diameter. Its bark when young is 

 brownish, and always covered with small scales. Its wood is light 

 coloured or reddish, light, elastic, strong, and is largely sawn into boards 

 and square timber. The spruce timber of the eastern markets is derived 

 from this tree, known as spruce deals or battens, which contribute a 

 valuable export. The tree furnishes excellent yards and topmasts for 

 ships. Engelmanns, or the Western Black Spruce ( T. Engelmanni) of the 

 Pacific 'Coast, closely resembles the former, and affords excellent and 

 durable wood. The trees run up tall, straight, and attain a groat height. 

 Menzies, or White Spruce of the Pacific (P. Sitchensis), is very similar, 

 and attains a great size. Its wood is light coloured, straight grained and 

 valuable, and quite equal, if not surpassing, that of the Black Spruce of 

 the east 



THE LARCH or TAMARAC (Larix Americana), the only deciduous tree of 

 the pine family, shedding its leaves in October and resuming them again 

 in May, is a magnificent tree, with a straight, slender trunk eighty feet 



