564 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



WESTERN DIVISION. 



MONTANA. 



The forests of Montaua are confined to the high mountain ranges which occupy the western part of the territory 

 They are dense and important upon the slopes of the Coeur d'Alene and other high ranges. Farther east, along the 

 eastern slopes of the Eocky mountains and their outlying eastern ranges, the Big Belt, the Little Belt, the Crazy, 

 the Snow, and the Bear mountains, and the ranges south of the Yellowstone river, the Yellowstone, Shoshonee, 

 and Big Horn mountains, the forests are more open, stunted, and generally confined to the highest slopes, the 

 borders of streams, or the sides of caiions. A narrow fringe of cottonwood, green ash, and willow lines the bottoms 

 of the Missouri, Yellowstone, Tongue, Eosebud, Milk, and of the other large streams of the territory; aud a few 

 stunted pines aud cedars are scattered along the river blufis and the highest ridges of the Powder Eiver, the Wolf, 

 aud other ranges in the southeastern part of the territory. The remainder of the territory, the eastern, northern, 

 and southern portions, are destitute of timber. 



The heavy forests of northwestern Montana, largely composed of red fir, yellow pine, and tamarack, and 

 containing great bodies of white pine (Pinus monticola) and considerable valuable spruce {Picea Engelmanni aud 

 P. alha) constitute, with those covering the adjacent mountains of Idaho, one of the most important bodies of timber 

 in the United States. East and west of this forest a treeless country, adapted to grazing and agriculture, and 

 destined to support a large population which must obtain its building material aud railroad supplies from it, extends 

 over thousands of square miles. The development, too, of the important mining interests of southern Montana 

 and Idaho is dependent upon these forests, their only valuable source of timber and fuel supply. These forests 

 guard the headwaters of two of the great rivers of the continent, and in regulating their flow make possible 

 through irrigation the devotion to profitable agriculture of a vast territory now an almost arid waste. The forests, 

 largely composed of the lodge-pole pine {Pinus Murrayana), which cover the outlj'ing eastern ranges of the Eocky 

 mountains at an elevation of from 5,000 to 10,000 feet above the ocean level with a dense growth of slender trees 

 or on poor soil and in exposed situations with an open, scattered forest, are, as sources of lumber supply, of 

 comparatively little value. These forests, however, contain valuable supplies of fuel aud abundant material for 

 railway ties. They guard, too, the flow of numberless small streams, and their importance in this connection should 

 not be overlooked. 



The most important forests, commercially, of the territorj' are found along the valley of Clarke's Fork of the 

 Columbia river, between the Horse Plains and the Idaho line; here the westhrn white pine reaches its greatest 

 development, becoming an imjwrtant part of the forest growth. The valleys of the Saiut Eegis de Borgia and 

 Missoula rivers contain great, bodies of valuable fir and pine, which spread also in great luxuriance over the 

 mountains east and south of Flathead lake. 



Fires destroy every year large areas of the forest covering the mountains of the western division. The long, 

 dry summers and tbe character of the forest, composed as it is almost entirely of coniferous resinous trees, fiivor 

 the spread of forest fires. They increase rapidly in number with the increase of population, and threaten the entire 

 extermination of the forests of the whole interior Pacific region. During the census year 88,020 acres of forest 

 were reported destroyed by fire, with a loss of $1,128,000. These fires, few in number, were traced for the most 

 part 10 careless hunters, prospectors, and smokers. 



Little lumber is manufactured in the territory. Eed fir and spruce are sawed at Missoula and in the 

 neighborhood of nearly all the mining centers in the western jiart of the territory. The i^roduct of the Montana 

 mills is entirely used to supply the'local demand. 



The following report upon the forests of the northern Eocky Mountain region was prepared by Mr. Sereno 

 Watson, of Cambridge, a special agent of the Census Office, in the division of Forestry: 



"The territory whose forest resources I attempted under your instructions to examine includes an area of 

 about 150,000 square miles, extending from the one hundred and thirteenth meridian to the summit of the Cascade 

 mountains aud irom the parallel oC 44^ to the British boundary; or, according to political divisions, the western 

 fifth of Montana, the northern two-fifths of Idaho, the eastern three-fifths of AVashington territory, and the 

 northeastern portion (or neJhly one-half) of Oregon. It comprises a central treeless plateau of some 30,000 square 

 miles in extent, the great 'plain of the Columbia', surrounded by more or less extensively timbered mountain 

 systems. This tract is bounded on the east by the broad mountain range which separates Montana from Idaho, on 



