NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 93 



growths. The tall spire-like trees with their sombre foliage, carry with them 

 a suggestion of the solitude and grandeur which seem inseparable from 

 forest growths in high latitudes and at high elevation. 



INTERIOR OF A SPRUCE FOREST 



The first process in the manufacture of pulp is that which depends upon 

 the operations of the lumbermen in the depths of the forest, often remote 

 from the confines of civilization. For the purposes of the Laurentide Com- 

 pany, fifteen lumber camps are maintained in addition to those supported 

 by individual contractors. Here the life involves rugged hardships which, 

 while presenting a certain element of novelty to the uninitiated, are quickly 

 divested of their poetry when brought within the range of actual experience. 



The timber limits operated by the Laurentide Company extend over an 

 area of 1800 square miles, embracing the upper reaches of both the St. 

 Maurice and Matawan Rivers. From this great area are taken cedar, pine, 

 and spruce, as they are met with, since it is found to be a matter of economy 

 in lumbering to make a clean cut of all kinds of wood as met with, above 

 certain dimensions, rather than to make a way round a growth of pine for 

 the sake of the spruce which may lie behind. But none of the material 

 thus gathered is wasted, since each kind finds its own separate use. Thus 

 the cedar is converted into shingles and the pine into lumber, while the spruce 

 ultimately emerges as the chief product in the form of pulp. Some conception 

 of the magnitude of the operations involved in cutting over so great an area 

 may be gathered from the statement that in 1900 75.000 cords of wood were 

 removed for pulp, representing an equivalent of 45,000,000 feet of board 

 measure. 



HAULING LOGS 



As soon as cut, the logs are hauled out on sleds to the 

 LOGS READY FOR THE SPRING FRESHET 



places 'whence they may be delivered to the various streams which float 

 them to their destinations, or they may even be piled on the surface of the 

 frozen river in readiness for the spring freshet. As soon as this comes and 

 the rivers are flooded to their highest levels, the drive commences, and down 



LOG BOOM 

 these natural highways the logs' are driven and coaxed along by the thous- 



