NORTHERN FOREST PRODUCTS. 139 



zone. Why it is perhaps beyond our province to 

 enquire here ; but it must be manifest that the generally 

 vastly more rapid habit of growth of tropical trees, 

 the absence of the prolonged winter's rest, and the 

 consequently larger amount of moisture contained in 

 them, is sufficient to account for a great deal of this 

 unfortunate peculiarity. Consequently the split, in drying. 



Then as regards the commercial value of forest 

 products, it is hardly necessary to add that the trade 

 done in pine and other northern timber trees is out 

 of all proportion greater than that done in tropical 

 woods. In the building trade for example, the timber 

 used may be said to be almost exclusively the product 

 of coniferous trees the use of tropical woods being 

 nearly altogether confined to articles of furniture. 



Now, if we wish to see the pine forest in its grandest 

 aspect, we shall, as we have said, find it in all its 

 magnificence upon the Pacific slopes of North America. 

 In the tropical forest the mind is confused and 

 overwhelmed by the vast number and variety of the 

 surrounding forms, but it is rare there to see whole 

 districts of country covered with a single variety of 

 tree, such as predominates in many parts of the 

 northern forests. There are however of course some 

 exceptions- to this rule, as for instance the evergreen 

 Sal forests (Shorea Robusta) of Central India. 



In the great forests of North Western America, for 

 instance, considerable areas may be found where there 

 is very little mixture in the species of trees, and where 

 every tree is for the most part faultless in its symmetry, 

 with hardly k small specimen to be seen amongst them, 

 each of their trunks rising like an immense natural 

 column for nearly a hundred feet without a branch ; and 



