24 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



The oak, beech, and maple groves of the Canadas are 

 equally characteristic of the forest scenery of these 

 regions, with the white pine or the hemlock spruce. 



On approaching the Atlantic seaboard, the forest is 

 again somewhat impoverished by the absence of those 

 forms which seem to require an inland climate. In the 

 forests of Acadie many Canadian trees found farther 

 westward in the same latitude are wanting, or of so rare 

 occurrence as to exercise no influence on the general 

 features of the country, such as the hickory and the 

 butternut. " In Nova Scotia," says Professor Lawson, 

 " the preponderance of northern species is much greater 

 than in corresponding latitudes in Canada, and many of 

 our common plants are in Western Canada either entirely 

 northern, or strictly confined to the great swamps, whose 

 cool waters and dense shade form a shelter for northern 

 species." 



Though certain soils and physical conformations of the 

 country occasionally favour exclusive growths of either, 

 the woods of the Lower Provinces display a pleasing 

 mixture of what are locally termed hard and soft wood 

 trees — in other words, of deciduous and evergreen vege- 

 tation. Broken only by clearings and settlements in the 

 lines of alluvial valleys, roads, or important fishing or 

 mining stations, the forest still obtains over large sections 

 of the country, notwithstanding continued and often 

 wanton mutilation by the axe, and the immense area 

 annually devastated by fire. The fierce energy of 

 American vegetation, if allowed, quickly fills up gaps, 

 and the burnt, blackened waste is soon re-clothed with 

 the verdure of dense copses of birch and aspen. 



The true character of the American forest is not to 



