40 



Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1915. 



MAKING KNOWN CANADA'S PLAY- 

 GROUNDS. 



The opportunities for outdoor recrea- 

 tions which nature has provided in the 

 great national parks of Canada and the 

 abundance and variety of her mountain 

 scenery are vividly described in four illus- 

 trated pamphlets, recently issued by the 

 Dominion Parks Branch of the Depart- 

 ment of Interior, Mr. J. B. Harkiu, Com- 

 missioner. 



Mr. Harkin, in a booklet called Just a 

 Sprig of Mountain Heather, treats the 

 subject comprehensively. The title is sug- 

 gested by the beautiful heather growing 

 in Rocky Mountains Park, a sample of 

 which is attached to each pamjjhlet, mak- 

 ing it a pretty souvenir. The writer shows 

 that the vast areas — six scenic parks and 

 two animal i^arks — now established in 

 Canada, insure the people, for all time, of 

 a means of associating with nature in its 

 wildest and grandest form. Not only this, 

 but the revenue derived from tourists 

 would make a satisfactory return from the 

 money invested in the national parks. One 

 of Mr. Harkin 's examples, in support of 

 this view, is that $40,000,000 a year is 

 spent by visitors to the pine woods of 

 Maine. 



Glaciers of the EocMes and SelkirTcs, 

 written by Dr. A. P. Coleman, Professor 

 of Geology, Toronto University, is a schol- 

 arly work in simple but picturesque lan- 

 guage. He takes the reader up the moun- 

 tain slopes, describing nature's majesty as 

 he goes, until the snowline is reached. The 

 last trees are seen at 7,500 feet. In the 

 western Selkirks, where the snowfall is 40 

 or 50 feet a year the timberline and snow- 

 line are about the same, but in the east- 

 ern Rockies, the snowline is 9,000 feet. 

 Glaciers of Canada are retreating, says Dr. 

 Coleman, either because of warmer climate 

 or reduced snowfall. Many of the beauti- 

 ful glaciers are easily accessible by tourists 

 and every type of Alpine scenery can be 

 found. 



A fund of useful information for anglers 

 is contained in Mr. S. C. Tick's Classified 

 Guide to Fish and Their Habitat in the 

 BocTcy Mountains Park. Six varieties of 

 game fish are found there and he men- 

 tions the lake trout of Lake Minnewanka, 

 reaching sometimes 40 pounds, as the 

 largest. The brook trout, introduced into 

 the mountain waters from the Nipigon dis- 

 trict, adapted themselves well. Mr. Yick 

 relates many appealing stories of the vast 

 fishing region — 1,800 square miles of moun- 

 tain lakes and streams. He refers to the 

 mountain pony as a true friend of the 

 traveller as he goes from lake to lake. 



Some interesting facts regarding the 

 Nakimu Caves are given in a pamphlet 

 compiled chiefly from writings of A. 0. 



Wheeler and W. S. Ayres. These caves are 

 a feature of Glacier Dominion Park, B.C., 

 and the Government is making them more 

 accessible to the jjublic. Thrilling descrip- 

 tions are given of the hazardous work of 

 exploring these marvellous caverns of the 

 Selkirks, following the discovery of the 

 series by Deutschmann in 1904. Mr. 

 Ayres' opinion that the weird passages are 

 the result of ages of erosion by the waters 

 of the Cougar creek is not supported by 

 Mr. Wheeler, who suggests seismic dis- 

 turbances. 



NOVEL FIRE NOTICE. 



While considerable difference of opinion 

 exists as to how permanent a fire notice 

 ought to be, some holding that paper 

 notices frequently renewed are the best 

 form, most administrative officers have 

 adopted buckram or cotton as the ma- 

 terial on which to print notices to be 

 posted up along trails in the forest warn- 

 ing travelers and campers to be careful in 

 their use of fire. The Dominion Parks 

 Branch, Mr. J. B. Harkin, Commissioner, 

 has carried this idea of weatherproof jjost- 

 ers a step further, and its most recent 

 poster is of sheet iron, on whicli the warn- 

 ing notices are enamelled in letters of 

 bright colors. At the top of the poster is 

 a picture of a forest fire which attracts 

 attention and at the same time enforces 

 the truth of the warning given below. 

 These notices are to be 4istributed 

 throughout the Dominion Parks in the 

 Rocky Mountains during the coming sea- 

 son. The idea is a novel one and the suc- 

 cess of these notices will be watched with 

 interest by forest administrators. 



FLOWERS AND FORESTS. 



The beautiful flower plots, which delight 

 the traveller at stations along the Cana- 

 dian Pacific Railway, are the development 

 of an interesting experiment of 25 years 

 ago. It was then Mr. N. S. Dunlop entered 

 the employ of the C. P. R. As a school 

 teacher he had learned the advantage of 

 encouraging aesthetic qualities among peo- 

 ple. Being very fond of flowers, he 

 brought seeds to his little country school 

 and enlisted the co-operation of the pupils 

 in planting them. This was a rather bold 

 innovation at that period. The teacher's 

 artistic temperament earned for him only 

 ridicule from the parents of the pupils and 

 from neighboring school sections. The chil- 

 dren were not enthusiastic, at first, but the 

 zeal and persistence of their teacher soon 

 won them over. 



After a while the children became proud 

 of their lovely flower plots and began to 



