6 Forests and Trees 



necessity, where waste meant starvation. Industry, re- 

 sourcefulness and thrift were necessary in this struggle for 

 existence, and we are once more learning that these primitive 









Courtesy Forestry Branch, Interior Dept. 



FIG. i. Jack Pine Forest, in Peace River District. 



virtues make for permanence in a nation. We are be- 

 ginning to realize the value of the moral inheritance handed 

 down to us by those hardy pioneers. 



In the intellectual life the influence of the forest was 

 also evident. Its magnitude and mystery stimulated the 

 imagination. The hardships it imposed made education 

 hard to get and highly prized. Out of these conditions 

 arose a set of men seldom equalled for vigor of mind and 

 firmness of will ; clergymen and lawyers who kept frontier 

 conditions from meaning lawlessness and irreligion, and 

 statesmen who welded a few scattered settlements into the 



