356 Canada. 



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

 for the most part with birch and aspen intermixed. 

 This open spruce forest 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 north- 

 ern species. In the interior northern prairie belt groves 

 of aspen, dense and well developed, skirt the water 

 courses and form an important wood supply. 



If much of the forest area in the settled provinces is 

 burnt over and damaged by forest fire, much more 

 extensive destruction is wrought in this northern 

 forest by fires sweeping annually over millions of acres 

 unchecked, many of them started by lightning. 



Among the large notable forest fires the great 

 Miramichi fire in New Brunswick in 1825 destroyed 

 more than 6,000 square miles in a few hours. In 1880 

 the loss by forest fires in the Ottawa valley alone was 

 still estimated at $5,000,000 annually. 



The forests of British Columbia partake of the 

 character of the Pacific forest of the United States, 

 the Coast Range with conifers of magnificent develop- 

 ment, Douglas Fir, Giant Arbor vitae. Hemlock, Bull 

 Pine and a few others, the Rocky Mountain range also 

 of coniferous growth, but of inferior character, large 

 areas being covered with Alpine Fir (Abies lasiocarpa) 

 and Lodgepole Pine, important as soilcover and for 

 local use in the mining districts, but lacking in com- 

 mercial value. 



The river systems of Eastern Canada, with the 

 mighty St. Lawrence permitting sea-going vessels to 

 come up to Montreal, have been most potent factors 



I 



