THE WESTERN MOUNTAINS 107 



forest reserves have been created with a view not only 

 to protecting the mountains themselves and the adjacent 

 lowlands, but to preventing the further extension of 

 reckless and harmful lumbering. 



Intermont Plateaus of the Pacific. Between the 

 Pacific coast-systems of mountains and the Rocky Chain 

 there stretches a succession of broad plateaus of varying 

 height and character. All of these, screened from the 

 Pacific winds by the mountain barriers, are naturally 

 drier than the adjacent slopes. North of the Columbia 

 River they bear a park-like aspect, south of it they are 

 treeless and arid. The Yukon plateau, the northern- 

 most, has that scattered tree-growth which is character- 

 istic of the northern belt of the Canadian forest. The 

 meagre grass-land, varied by meadows and swamps, is 

 studded, over large areas, with isolated spruce trees. 

 Connected and denser forests cover only the margins of 

 the Yukon and its main tributaries and their alluvial 

 flats. With the aspen or cottonwood, the spruce pene- 

 trates into the valleys of the mountain-chains on both 

 sides of the plain. Lying at a greater elevation and 

 fissured by deep valleys, the Columbian plateau presents 

 flat grassy tops of a sub-alpine type, dotted, like the 

 Rocky margin, with small Murray pines. The deep 

 canons alone are well wooded, and enable the coast-forest 

 to penetrate far inland. 



The Frazer-Columbia district has been already men- 

 tioned as being happily situated for favouring the inroads 

 of the western vegetation. On the south it is bordered 

 by a hilly belt of broad-leaf, winter-bare woodland, 

 consisting mostly of aspen, and dying out towards the 

 Columbia River. The Columbia plateau affords good 

 grazing-grounds, while the forests of its valleys are well 

 stocked with timber : game and fish are plentiful, and the 



