THE GREAT CANADIAN FOREST 83 



dotted with innumerable lakes of all sizes, is often 

 largely marshy, and as a rule the ground is poor and cold. 

 Moors, swamps, and meadows are freely mixed with 

 the forests. If heath and heather are unknown, a large 

 number of plants allied to our whortleberries, cranberries, 

 crowberries, and bearberries, and of the same vegetative 

 type, replace them. The sweet gale or bog-myrtle, the 

 aromatic winter-green and the huckleberry also occur. 



The Canadian forest spans the whole continent from 

 the Pacific to the Atlantic, and is largely composed of 

 conifers. The balsam fir, the white, black, and red 

 spruces, the tamarack, and several species of pines 

 are the most widespread. Leafy trees are dispersed 

 among them, and in many instances form independent 

 groups. Balsam poplar, aspen, paper-birch, &c., in the 

 extreme north-west, constitute stunted, young-looking 

 woods almost up to the tree-line. The scattered type 

 of north Canadian forest extends over the central plateau 

 of Alaska, between the branches of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and almost reaches the Bering Sea. Here again the 

 dense spruce forest is found only on the large alluvial 

 k fiats ' along the Yukon and its main tributaries. 



It is difficult to over-estimate the importance of this 

 northern advance-guard of the tree vegetation. It pro- 

 vides a supply of timber which, if carefully treated, may 

 last indefinitely, as it is always renewing itself. It is 

 also teeming with animal life. The agricultural possi- 

 bilities of the region are certainly limited, but for 

 pastoral industries of a northern type it is scarcely 

 touched at present: timber and game are the only 

 products which have been extensively worked so far. 

 Life has hitherto been, as in the tundra, mostly nomadic 

 and primitive, and fur-hunters, trappers, and lumbermen 

 have constituted the majority of the population. 



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