18800IATIOJ9 



while ago, and to which Mr. Dennis allude^ in his paper, there are 2,350,000 acres, 

 making a total in tti. \..rth-\vost Territories of 5,612,800 acres. 



Then. \\v take the Railway Belt of British Columbia, owned and controlled, as I 

 -aid this morning, \>\ the Dominion ( iovrniment, a tract 40 miles in width, running 

 along the Canadian Pacific Railway from Alberta to the Pacific Coast. We have the 

 Yoho Park, with 530,340 acres; Mountain Park Reserve, near Glacier, with 18,720 

 acres; Long Lake Timber Reserve, south-west of Kainloops, T.Vn-'o acres. This last- 

 named reserve is in the semi-arid district known as the dry belt. The land is good, 

 but requires irrigation, and this reserve, the Long Lake Reserve, is at the head waters 

 of several streams that will be required for irrigation in that part of British Columbia. 

 So we have a total in British Columbia of 624,480 acres, and the total area of the 

 timber reserve* in the Dominion approximates 9,686,480 acres. 



Xw. we are attempting not only to guard this timber on these reserv.-s. 

 from fire, but, as far as we can, the other timber on Dominion lands' out- 

 side of these reserves, which I need not say is of vastly greater extent than 

 that on the reserves. Now Mr. White very truly said, with reference to Ontario, 

 that it was not necessary and also impossible to send rangers all through the 

 timber in the northern country. It is not necessary, because people do not 

 usually travel except on certain routes, and if we keep the notices up there, and 

 perhaps guard as well as we can along those routes, that is all we can hope to do. 

 X.w, what is true with reference to Ontario is much more so with reference to an 

 immense district of the Dominion stretching right across the continent, because this 

 is largely a timbered territory. Except a small proportion of the country, it i? more 

 or less a wooded country. Now, Mr. Macoun has very kindly alluded to 'the notices 

 which he saw in going through the Athabaska and Peace river country, and I want 

 to tell you how we got those notices posted up throughout that vast extent of country. 

 I took advantage of every means available for the purpose. In the first place, through 

 the plains region, the two railway companies, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the 

 Canadian Northern, were kind enough to say that they would post up notices all along 

 the railway lines, if we would furnish them. So I had them sent up to Winnipeg, 

 and they were distributed to probably every section foreman all through the country 

 along the railway lines; in the case of the Canadian Pacific Railway right through 

 to the coast and to the extreme limits of the railway territory, and similarly with the 

 Canadian Northern. Then, the North-west Mounted Police also did their part, but 

 those that Mr. Macoun refers to more particularly were posted through the kindness 

 of the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company. Mr. Chapman, the Commissioner, 

 whom I met at Winnipeg and laid the case before him, said they would be very glad 

 to have their servants throughout the whole north country post them up, if we would 

 furnish them the notices at a certain time, and we did, and I have been informed 

 that as far up as the Arctic Circle you will find those notices. That is how these 

 notices, warning the public against the careless use of fire in the far north have bct-n 

 posted up. I travelled last season all along Lake Winnipeg and up along the mouth 

 of the Saskatchewan river, west of Grand Rapids, and I found those notices wherever 

 1 went, and I also had an opportunity of observing how the instructions contained 

 in them were carried out. I had half-breeds for three or four days, when travelling 



