REMARKS UPON THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 583 



progress of the flames continues sometimes until hundreds of square 

 acres are devastated. 



When the fire has run through a forest, if it is a hard-wood growth, 

 there are often some trees that escape its ravages ; but the paper birch 

 very rarely survives a forest fire. Persons, travelling through our primi- 

 tive forests, frequently set the bark of the birch on fire to see it burn ; 

 and fire from these is communicated to other trees, and large areas of 

 forest are consumed. When the woods consist of dark growth or con- 

 iferous trees, the fire not only kills the trees, which are left to furnish 

 fuel for a second conflagration, but it is also communicated to the ground, 

 and a large part of the vegetable substance of the soil is consumed. The 

 trees fall with the first wind, and the fire of another year leaves not a 

 trace of vegetable matter on or in the soil. Mote mountain is a notable 

 instance of this, for here, over large areas, there is not a vestige of any 

 thing vegetable. 



It would be interesting to trace the way in which the restoration of 

 our forests is effected, but we can only indicate some of the methods. 

 In our northern forests, if only those trees are removed that are useful 

 for lumber, and the land is not burned, the same description of wood is 

 immediately reproduced. In most of our primitive forests there are 

 very many young trees, from mere saplings to those almost ready for 

 the axe of the lumberman. These now having the sunlight, with those 

 produced from seed, soon take the place of those removed. In the 

 southern part of the state the stumps of the deciduous trees produce 

 shoots, and soon, over the whole area where the trees have been re- 

 moved, there is a vigorous growth from this source alone. In the 

 northern part of the state this mode of reproduction is exceedingly 

 rare. In most cases, if the entire growth, including the underbrush, 

 is removed, a different growth from that which occupied the soil will 

 succeed; along the northern boundary we have an illustration of this. 

 Where the trees are burned, and only a part of the vegetable substance 

 of the soil is consumed, the first year there is a luxurious growth of 

 herbs. The Epilobium, known as the fire-weed, will probably be the 

 first to take possession of the soil ; and we shall be likely see species of 

 the Trillium, the tubers of which, deep in the soil, have escaped the 

 fire. The bunch-berry, Comas Canadensis, and wintergreen, GaultJieria 



