With the Forest Engineers* 



{Contnhuted by the Canadian Society of Forest Engineers.) 



Mr. E.G. McDougall (Toronto,'ll) has been 

 engaged in reconnaissance work for the 

 British Columbia Government along the 

 Cariboo Road and the 52nd parallel. The 

 eountr>- here is a plain or plateau, flanked 

 by ranges of hills adjacent to the Fraser 

 and Clearwater Valleys. The plain is 

 semi-arid, with many alkali lakes in the 

 southern part, except for some small patches 

 of prairie, and some rocky barrens in the 

 higher ranges; the country is all wooded, 

 but contains little saw-timber of present 

 commercial value, apart from local uses. 

 Yellow pine finds its limit just north of the 

 Bonaparte River; north of that point the 

 forest gro\\-th consists of fir and lodgepole 

 pine on the plain and spruce and balsam 

 at higher elevations with aspen very abun- 

 dant on the bums. Much valuable timer has 

 been destroyed by fire, while on the othei hand 

 the lodgepole pine appears to have en- 

 croached considerably on land that was 

 formerly prairie. 



As the country is largely covered by sur- 

 veys, the plane table is not used, and as a 

 map holder it is replaced by a common 

 checker-board. A vest pocket premo is the 

 camera used, but on many occasions a pan- 

 cram Kodak would have paid for its trans- 

 port. Mr. McDougall has one assistant as 

 cook and packer, and four horses. 



Subsequently to \\Titing the aove, Mr. Mc- 

 Dougall writes: Since writing you last, I 

 haven't seen much new country, and most of 

 the side incidents have been distressing rath- 

 er than amusing in character. Pack rats 

 and field mice have levied toll on our pro- 

 visions. Can anj' of your correspondents 

 describe a mouse-proof cache that can be 

 quickly constructed for use in a temporary 

 camp? Has anybody tried the experiment 

 of packing a cat or a ferret? A settler here 

 says he had luck with a tame weasel, but 

 such an asset is not available to us campers. 



In The St. Maurice Basin. 



Mr. Ellwood Wilson writes of the work of 

 the Laurentidc Company as follows: 'During 

 August and September the Forestry Depart- 

 ment of the Laurentide Company nave 

 pushed nearly to completion a close exam- 

 matiion of 370 square miles of timber limits. 

 These maps have been made in great detail, 

 showing the boundaries of all bums, muskegs, 

 and standing timber. In the stands of timber 

 strips have been mn, covering 3 to 6 per cent, 

 of the total stand, calipering trees and mak- 

 ing close estimations. 



'In addition to this, somewhat over two 

 acres of jack pine, with an average diameter 

 of about 3!/^in., have been laid out in an 

 experimental plot. A fire-line has been cut 

 around it; one half has been left in its present 

 cond'tion as a control; the other half has been 

 thinned, basing the thinnings on the size of 

 the crowns, so fhat the trees would have 

 sufficient light, but the stand would not be 

 opened too much. It is desired to see what 

 effect these thinnings will have on the timber. 

 Each tree has been calipered and listed 

 and it is proposed to repeat the calipering 

 each year and keep careful records of growth. 

 This work will be extended to other areas dur- 

 ing the coming year and various methods of 

 thinning will be tried. 



'Over a portion of their limits, toplopping 

 will again be tried by the Company. Careful 

 cost records will be kept and the effect on 

 reproduction and rapidity of decay on the 

 brush will be watched. 



'This Department has just brought to com- 

 pletion the first accurate and detailed map 

 of the valley of the St. Maurice River covering 

 some seven million acres. Of this nearly two 

 million acres have been surveyed by this 

 Department; the balance has been compiled 

 from work of the St. Maurice Industrial 

 Company, under Mr. de Carteret, and the 

 rest from Government surveys. 



'This Company now has a nursery, covering 

 over half an acre, with 40,000 seedlings ready 

 for planting next spring. These comprise 

 Norway and white spruce, red, white and 

 jack pine, with a few Colorado blue spruce. 

 Experiments are being carried out with dif- 

 ferent species of trees. The Laurentide 

 Company has planted this year about thirty 

 acres, bringing its total plantations now to 

 8om(; fifty acres. 



'In September Messrs. Small and Wilson of 

 this (company made a trip to the site of the 

 prop<)S(id dam, which the Quebec Govern- 

 ment intends to build on the upper St. 

 Maurice River. This will form a lake some- 

 wh(;re in the neighborhood of 303 square 

 miles, will control the flow of this important 

 river, making it uniform at all times of the 

 year, and will do much to increase the pros- 

 perity of the region. 



'The country on the head-waters of the 

 St. Maurice River is very flat, and mostly 

 muHk<*g, and the timber begins to be of the 

 sub-arctic type. White pine, cedar and 

 whiU; spmce are absent, the timber consist- 

 ing almost entirely of small black spmce and 

 jack pine, with some balsam fir. Black 



173 



