Forest Conditions. 417 



wick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland forest, the 

 pine in the first two provinces having practically 

 been cut out. Extensive, almost pure Balsam Fir 

 forest, fit for pulp wood, still covers the plateau of 

 Cape Breton, while Prince Edward Island is to the 

 extent of 60 per cent, cleared for agricultural use. 



Much of this Eastern forest area is not only culled 

 of its best timber, but burnt over, and thereby deterio- 

 rated in its composition, the inferior Balsam Fir ap- 

 pearing in largest number in the reproduction. 



North of the Height of Land, in Ungava and west- 

 ward, spruce continues to timber line, but, outside of 

 narrow belts following the river valleys, only in open 

 stand, branchy, and stunted, hardly fit even for pulp, 

 for the most part with birch and aspen intermixed. 

 This open spruce forest, interspersed among muskegs 

 continues more or less to the northern tundra and 

 across the continent to within a few miles of the 

 mouth of the Mackenzie River and the Arctic Ocean, 

 the White Spruce being the most northern species. 

 In the interior, northern prairie belt, groves of aspen, 

 dense and well developed, skirt the water courses and 

 form an important wood supply. 



The forests of British Columbia partake of the 

 character of the Pacific forest of the United States, 

 the Coast Range along the coast for about 200 miles 

 being stocked with conifers of magnificent develop- 

 ment, Douglas Fir, Giant Arborvitse, Hemlock, Bull 

 Pine and a few others, the Rocky Mountain range 

 also of coniferous growth, pine and larch, but of in- 

 ferior character, large areas being covered with 

 Alpine Fir {Abies lasiocarpa) and Lodgepole Pine, 



