30 Canadian Forestry Journal. 



portages never exceed two or three miles. The lakes vary in size 

 from small ponds to great sheets of water hundreds of square 

 miles in extent, the twelve largest being Mistassinni, Michikamau, 

 Kaniapiskau, Minto, Clearwater, Attikonak, Apiskigamish, Ash- 

 uanipi, Mistassinis, Nichikun, Manuan and Pletipe. 



The large lakes and most of the rivers of the interior contain 

 an almost inexhaustible supply of food fishes of large size and 

 superior quality. White fish averaging four pounds and running 

 as high as fourteen pounds, are abundant; lake trout averaging 

 eight pounds and up to forty pounds are plentiful; brook trout 

 from one to seven pounds occur in many of the rivers ; pike from 

 two to fifteen pounds abound in the quiet flowing streams of the 

 southern, eastern and western watersheds; pickerel and chub oc- 

 cur in many of the smaller streams; ling from two to fourteen 

 pounds are common in all the deep lakes of the interior, and are 

 an important source of food for the Indians ; suckers are the prin- 

 cipal food of the Indians of many parts of the interior ; a species 

 of sturgeon is taken in great quantities half way down the Rupert 

 River; and Atlantic salmon ascend many of the rivers in great 

 numbers. When access is had to them by rail, these fisheries will 

 become immensely valuable. 



Most of the soil being derived from the underlying Archaean 

 rocks is a mixture of sand, clay and boulders of various sizes. 

 Along the river valleys it has been greatly improved by the re- 

 arrangement of the till and an admixture of sediments. In the 

 vicinity of Cambrian limestones and shales, it is of a heavier 

 nature and better suited for the growth of timber. With the ex- 

 ception of the higher hills and ridges, the forest is continuous over 

 the southern part of the peninsula, as far north as the fiftj^-fourth 

 parallel. About latitude fifty-five only half the country is tim- 

 bered. As we go north the trees become smaller, and about lati- 

 tude fifty-eight they disappear altogether. 



The forest is almost entirely coniferous, and is of the regular 

 northern type, consisting principally of spruce, larch, balsam 

 fir, scrub pine, poplar, and birch. The latitude, height above 

 sea-level, distance from sea-coast, topography of the district and 

 character of the soil, all play an important part in the distribution 

 of each species. 



The black spruce {Pice a nigra, Link) forms about ninety per 

 cent of the forest, and grows freely, either in cold sphagnum 

 swamps or on high hills covered with sand or heavy glacial drift. 

 As a rule it occurs in dense thickets, with long naked stems, and 

 on the southern watershed these thickets are so dense that the 

 trees seldom reach a large size. Northward the stands are not 

 so dense, and the stout trunks are often clothed to the ground 

 with branches. In all cases the branches have a characteristic 

 droop which enables one to recognize the tree almost as far as he 



