fr\\-n $\ 



: ; 



f! ii 



Is: 



856 



REPORT — 1884. 



moist climate lias favoured thi,a. The white pino, yellow pine, and Tt,ui;.ylas Bpruee 

 are more or less known to conniierce, Ijiit there are several other IJritish Coiimiljia 

 trees which are as yet comparatively untried. In tiienear future the lumber trade 

 there is likely to attain larjjre proportions, lleferrinp: to the North-west prairies the 

 future cities and towns could exist only where abundant water was present, and 

 thus the supply (if Avater in the rivers was of vast importance. To preserve a 

 constant and uniform supply it was absolutely necessary to have the sources of each 

 importatit stream examined. If forests already exist there, then reserve a lar"e 

 area of them from public sale ; if they do not, then the Government should ,it once 

 promote the plantinuf of forests or institution of national parks at such pdints. 

 There are numerous rivers rer^uiring such attention. 



The paper was illustrated by a large map showing the forest areas and nortlieni 

 range of leading trees. 



9. The Forests of Canada. By Robert Bell, M.T)., LL.D. 



The writer, who has had extensive opportunities dui'ing the last thirty years of 

 becoming personally acquainte<l with the forests of the Dominion east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, endeavoured to give an account of their extent, general character.", 

 peculiarities, value, means of preservation, &c. A'iewiug the forests of the coutinent 

 as a whole, only the northern portions come within rhe Dominion, a large part of 

 which lies beyond the limit of trees of any kind. Tlii> centr.-xl and eastern lovest 

 region of Canada and the United States presents the grdatest variety of gpeciis. 

 In ..he north a wide border of coniferous trees, which becomes constantly smallc 

 and more limited in species as we approach the verge of the forests, stretches acio^i 

 the continent ; while toward the south deciduous forests prevail, but are ima- 

 spersed with large areas of pines of various kinds. The sombre coniferous f jrests 

 of the north are continuous over vast regions, which from their high Iitituaes and 

 the poverty of their soil will never be cultivated to any great extent. Tliis great 

 coniferous belt has a crescentic form, curving southward from Labrador to the far 

 north-west, keeping Hudson's Bay on its northern side. The distribution o/ our 

 forests appears to be governed almost entirely by existing climatic conditions, 

 although 't may be modified to some extent by the geological character of ditferent 

 districts ; and some of the peculiarities of their present distribution may be due to 

 former conditions aflecting their dispersion. Beyond the northern limit of tlu' 

 forests on the mainland of the continent there is a large triangular area to tiie 

 north-west and another to the north-east of Hudson's Bay, called the barren 

 grounds, which are destitute of trees solely on account of the severity of the ehmate, 

 as the other conditions do not appear to differ from those of tiie adjacent wooded 

 regions to the southward. The treeless regions of the A\^estern States and the 

 south-western part of the north-west territories of Canada ere called plains as dis- 

 tinguished from the prairies, which often are partially wood^ d. The latter occupy 

 an immense space between the plains and the forest regions to the east and nortli- 

 east. The plain and prairie conditions are also due to climate, and not, as some 

 have supposed, to fires having swept away formerly-existing forests. This is shown 

 by the contours of the lines marking the western limits of the various kinds of trees 

 which prevail in the east, as well as from the absence of water-courses, which would 

 exist if sufficient rain had fallen in comparatively recent times to have maintained 

 forest growth. 



Although the Dominion embraces about half of the continent, only some ninety 

 out of the 340 species of the forest trees of North America were found within her 

 borders, including the Pacific slope. Yet the area under timber in Canada was 

 perhaps^ as great as thah in the United States. It is, therefore, evident that the 

 forests are less diversified in the north than in the south. This is in accordance 

 with the general law of the greater richness of the flora of warm countries ; but it 

 may be due also in part to the fact that in the north we have greater uniformity 

 of physical and climatic conditions over wide areas than in the south. For example, 

 we have a similarity in these conditions from Newfoundland to Alaska, and hence 



