CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 59 



A good deal has been said about forest fires caused by human agency. I am of 

 the opinion that probably the greater number of those occurring in the northern 

 forests are caused by lightning. Before the advent of the woodman the fires were due 

 to lightning. There are some Indian traditions that they have occasionally been 

 caused by meteorites. It seems plausible that a red-hot meteorite falling in the 

 forest in the dry season might set fire to the moss, and spread like a fire caused by 

 lightning. 



The Banksian pine, I think, proves that forest fires have been going on from time 

 immemorial. This tree has the strange habit that the cones must be scorched, before 

 the seed will escape. I have seen large trees covered with the cones of many different 

 j ears, and of all these not a single one had opened, but the moment they were scorch- 

 ed, they would open widely and allow the seeds to go. Some of them might have 

 lain for a hundred years until this fire reached them, and then the seeds would come 

 out just as fresh as last year's. It is difficult to explain the exact method, but it 

 seems to me to have been a long process of evolution, and this peculiar habit proves, 

 I think, that forest fires have always been occurring in past ages. 



It is quite reasonable to suppose that those fires originated from lightning, and 

 other natural causes. As a matter of fact even now, in the summer time we read of 

 houses, churches and barns being set on fire by lightning. Professor Brock's paper 

 stated that the writer had seen four cases of fires started by lightning in one day. I 

 also have seen a couple of cases myself. I would think it very strange if it were other- 

 wise. The same ground that would be struck by lightning when inhabited, would be 

 struck in the same way if it were in a state of nature, and the lightning would have 

 the same effect. I have often seen forest fires burning during the summer, and no 

 white man or Indian had passed that way who could possibly have startled them. 

 That being the case, what could have caused them but some natural phenomenon ? 

 I have studied the matter of the forest areas that have been burned over in the 

 Dominion of Canada, with considerable care. These fires have been very destructive, 

 and the whole country is looking for a means of preventing or overcoming them. 



In regard to the length of life of our conifers I may say that I regard the white 

 spruce as having a growing life of from one hundred to one hundred and forty years, 

 whereas black spruce has a growth of one hundred and fifty or one hundred and 

 seventy-five years; tamarack, of one hundred and seventy-five or two hundred years. 



Speaking of tamarack, I am reminded of the effects of insects in our forests. 

 About 1893 or '94, the imported saw-fly came up from the direction of New York and 

 got into the forests north of the Ottawa river. In a year or two it reached James bay, 

 and killed the tamarack throughout that district, which was only able to live three or 

 four years after it was first attacked by the larvse. The young leaves were all eaten. 

 The same thing was repeated the spring after, and the one after that again. The 

 fourth year, very few trees showed any green at all, and the fifth year they were all 

 dead. This destruction continued to spread to the centre of Labrador, and now it 

 has gone pretty well all over the great peninsula, which is larger than all the coun- 

 tries of Europe, perhaps excepting Russia. Well, nearly every tamarack tree has 

 been killed in that vast region, representing a loss of incalculable millions of dollars, 

 wiped out in ten years by one species of insect. This will give, you some idea of the 

 effect that insects have upon' forest growth. 



