FORESTS OF THE YUKON TERRITORY. 



By J. Keele, Geological Survey, 

 Ottawa. 



'T^HE following note refers to that portion of the. Yukon Ter- 

 ■^ ritory, situated between the Pelly River on the south, and 

 northward to the McQuestion River. 



The forests of this district consist of only about eleven species 

 which attain the dimensions of trees. These are the white spruce 

 (Picea alba), the black spruce (Picea nigra), the balsam fir 

 (Abies subalplna), the balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), 

 the aspen {Populus treniuloides) , the black pine (Piniis murray- 

 ana), three species of birch and some species of willow. The 

 varying conditions under which these trees grow greatly affect 

 their size and distribution. 



The white spruce is the most widely distributed and the 

 most useful tree in the Yukon Territory. It makes a fair quality 

 of lumber, which is used for various purposes by miners and pros- 

 pectors. Huge quantities of white spruce are made into cord- 

 wood and piled at intervals on the banks of navigable rivers as 

 fuel for steamboats. Thousands of cords in sixteen-foot lengths 

 are floated down the Yukon, Stewart and Klondike rivers every 

 avitumn to Dawson to be used as firewood. The white spruce is 

 seen at its best on the islands and alluvial flats of the main rivers, 

 where they form fine groves of merchantable timber, easy of ac- 

 cess to the lumberman. The size of its general growth on 

 these flats is from eight to twenty-four inches, and individuals 

 frequently attain a size of thirty inches in diameter at the butt, 

 and logs sixty feet long, with a diameter of one foot at the smaller 

 end, can be obtained. Up the slopes of the valleys, the white 

 spruce, under favourable conditions, will continue to be a very 

 fine forest tree. These conditions are, a sufficient depth of finely- 

 divided loose material, and gentle slopes facing the direction 

 which will allow the trees to receive the niaxinuun amount of sun- 

 light. 



During the months of June and July the length of the day 



