Timber Resources of the United States and Canada. 89 



. . . nothing answering to sassafras, nor to benzoin tree, nor to hickory; 

 neither mulberry nor elm ; no beech, true chestnut, hornbeam, nor iron wood, 

 nor a proper birch tree; and the enumeration might be continued very much 

 further by naming herbaceous plants and others familiar to botanists." 



323. The enormous sizes to which some of the conifers of this 

 region grow, has been the wonder of all travelers ; but these im- 

 mense growths do not cover large areas, and nowhere can such 

 strong contrasts between abundance and scarcity be elsewhere seen. 

 The heavy forests do not extend much beyond the coast region, the 

 borders of rivers or the mountain sides and valleys, and these usually 

 present remarkable peculiarities in the prevailing growth. 



324. The consumption aud waste that have been going on since 

 settlement began, have already made serious inroads upon these ap- 

 parently " inexhaustible" supplies, and probably already more than 

 half, in all the accessible portions, is now gone. There is a most 

 urgent need of conservative measures, and the time is not distant 

 when the inhabitants of that region, and those depending upon 

 these supplies, will be admonished by enhanced prices of the im- 

 portance of economy and the value of a growing tree. 



325. In Canada, there are found sixty-five native species of trees, 

 in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime Provinces ; of which about 

 a dozen range as far north as James Bay. The birches, poplars, 

 and tamarac are found in the more northerly region, and south of 

 these the pines and the beech, the latter chiefly south of a line 

 drawn from the outlet of Lake Superior to Quebec. West of Ni- 

 agara river is a zone where the walnut, butternut, tulip-tree, sassa- 

 fras, and chestnut occur, with an increasing abundance of oaks. 

 The absence of trees and of mosses is a notable feature of the prairies 

 of Manitoba and westward. 1 The principal pine forests of Canada 

 have receded to the upper waters of the great rivers flowing into 

 the St. Lawrence and the lakes, and from the investigations that 

 have been undertaken by the government in recent years, it appears 

 evident that the time of principal exhaustion is not many years 

 distant. 



Great Britain. 



326. Of the native trees of Great Britain, there are only about a 

 dozen genera and thirty species, that grow to thirty feet or more 



1 Drummond's Canadian Timber Trees, p. 5. 



