284 SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE. 



matters, these lines may be of considerable importance in connection 

 with questions affecting the future supplies of our various kinds of 

 timber. Not so many years ago a vague impression prevailed in Canada 

 that there was scarcely any limit to the northward and westward range 

 of the white pine, which afforded our staple export timber. The author's 

 tree-map, published in 1879, first dispelled this illusion, and caused 

 some alarm among those interested in our forest wealth. One of the 

 causes of this erroneous impression was the frequent allusions by 

 travellers and the Hudson Bay Company's men, who came from 

 Britain, to "pine" in the northern regions. To Canadians the word 

 " pine," without any qualification, always means the white pine (Pinus 

 strolus), and it appears to have been taken for granted that the persons 

 just referred to used it in the same sense, whereas they referred to 

 the spruce or balsam fir. 



GRADUAL AND ABRUPT TERMINATION OF TREES. 



In approaching their northern limits, some kinds of trees become 

 gradually smaller and smaller, and are finally reduced to mere bushes 

 before they disappear altogether, while others terminate abruptly or 

 without any apparent diminution in the average size of the individual 

 trunks. The latter habit is commoner in the southern than in the 

 northern species, and it appears to prevail more in the eastern than in 

 the western parts of Canada. As examples of this we may cite the 

 black walnut, the chestnut, buttonwood, elm, yellow birch, basswood, 

 hemlock, white and red pine, and white cedar. 



It is probable that those trees which bear large numbers of seeds, 

 capable of being carried for some distance by the wind, such as the 

 conifers and the poplars, have now reached the extreme northern limits 

 of their growth; but some other species may be continuing to 

 extend their borders. Indeed the general tendency appears to be to 

 advance still farther north, as if many kinds of our trees had not 

 yet had sufficient time to occupy all the territory congenial to their 

 existence. In support of this view it may be mentioned that the few 

 experiments that have been made in artificially transferring the more 

 southern species northward have been successful through long distances. 

 Among these experiments one of the most important is that of the Hon. 

 Sir Henri Joly de Lotbiniere, who has found that the black walnut 

 grows well and forms wood rapidly near the city of Quebec, although 

 the nearest place in Canada where it is found growing naturally is in the 

 Niagara district, about 500 miles to the south-west. At Carleton Place, 

 thirty-five miles south-west of Ottawa City, and 200 miles from the 

 Niagara district, the late Mr. Kobert Bell raised black walnut-trees, 

 which are now producing ripe nuts. These facts prove that the range 

 of this, our most valuable timber, is capable of being extended over 

 a much greater area than it yet occupies naturally. Pelee Island, in 

 Lake Erie, is the most southern portion of Canada, and this is the only 

 locality in the country where the honey-locust and the Kentucky coffee- 

 tree are known to grow naturally ; but the former flourishes well 



