2 14 Canadian Forestry Journal. 



diameter. There was also a vast quantity of spruce observed 

 along the route, which is rather too small for lumber, but would 

 furnish a world's supply of pulpwood. 



The driftwood carried down to the Slave and Mackenzie 

 rivers by such streams as the Peace and the Liard, is conclusive 

 evidence that there is large timber up these rivers. 



The fish in these northern waters, especially in Athabasca 

 and Great Slave lakes, are of excellent quality and will some 

 day be of great value. 



The weather during the latter part of June and the beginning 

 of July was exceedingly hot, and with the almost constant sun- 

 shine, vegetation was forced with hot-house rapidity. 



The general conclusion arrived at, was that this cotmtry, 

 both in climate and soil, is quite equal to northern Europe, and 

 that when the more southerly lands are appropriated settlers 

 will find comfortable homes in portions of the Mackenzie water- 

 shed that are now generally regarded as unfit for settlement. 



SPRUCE INJURED BY FUNGUS NORTHWEST OF 

 LAKE WINNIPEG. 



In making a geological exploration of the country between 

 the lower Saskatchewan and Churchill rivers during the past 

 summer, the white spruce, over a tract of forested land between 

 Lat. 54° 45' and Lat. 55° 30', and extending to about half a 

 degree east and west of Long. 100°, were found to be all more or 

 less withered and yellow, as though a fire had run through the 

 moss covering their roots. Closer examination shewed that the 

 damage was caused by a cup-shaped fungus growing on the 

 leaves. Specimens of this were collected and submitted to Pro- 

 fessor John Macoun, who was able to identify it as a species of 

 Peridermium, a fungus attacking all the spruces. 



Ascending the Burntwood River, a tributary of the Nelson 

 River from the west, the spruces were first found to be aflfected 

 on July 23rd, at a point on the river a few miles below Burntwood 

 Lake, where the tips of the branches, the growth of this year, 

 were quite yellow, and where the surface of the water was covered 

 with a bright red powder, made up of the spores of the fungi that 

 were shaken off in clouds bv everv breeze. 



