858 



REPORT— 1884. 



ii 



■ f M 



-Ic 



he infers that the latter is retreating southward. A similar condition ia said to 

 exist in Siberia. 



In tracing the nortlieru lin-iita of several of the trees as laid down on the author's 

 niiip, it would be observed that the northward variations from the ijeneral direction 

 usually corresponded with depressions in the country, while the southward curves 

 occurred where the elevations were greatest. The height of land dividing the waters 

 •of the St. Lawrence from those of Hudson's Bay had a general parallelism with the 

 northern limits of many of the species ; but as the watershed is not marked by any 

 great elevation or by a ridge, the circumstance referred to may be owing simply to 

 the accident of its trend coinciding with the average course of the isothermal lines. 

 The author divides the trees of the Domihiun east of the llocky Mountains into 

 four groups in regard to geographical distribution, namely ; (1) A northern group, 

 including the white and black spruces, larch, lianksian pine, balsam-fir, aspeu, 

 balsam-poplar, canoe-birch, willows, and alder, — these cover the vast territory 

 from the northern edge of the foiests down to about the line at which the white 

 pine begins; (2) a central group of about forty species, occupying the belt of 

 country from tiie white-pine line to that of the button-wood ; (•i) & southern 

 group, embracing the button-wood, black walnut, the hickories, chestnut, tuUp- 

 tree, prickly ash, sour-gum, sassafras, and flowering dog-wood, which are found 

 only in a small area in the southern part of Ontario ; (•') a western group, con- 

 sisting of the ash-leaved maple, bur-oak, cotton-wood, and green ash, wliich are 

 scattered .sparingly over the prairie and partially-wooded regions west of the Red 

 lliver and Lake Winnipeg. 



The distribution of our forest trees allbrds us one of the most obvious testa of 

 climate, and although it may not be more reliable than that of the smaller plant.s 

 it is more noticeable by the common observer. In the older provinces of Canada 

 the settlers are often guided to a great extent in their selection of laud by the 

 kinds of trees it supports, a tiirifty growth of beech and sugar-maple, for instance, 

 being generally considered a good sign ; but such tests must necessarily be only of 

 local application. In the prairie region timber may be entirely absent from the 

 finest soil, while the least hardy trees of the west Uourish in the stiff clay-banks 

 •or among the stones along the rivers. 



The map which has Ijeeu referred to is useful in defining the extent of country 

 over which each kind of timber w.as to be found. Jiut in estimating the quantities 

 ■which may ' e yet available for commercial purposes in the regions still untouched 

 by man, various circumstances require to be considered, such as the favourable or 

 unfavourable conditions of soil, &c., tlie prop(n'tion which has been destroyed by 

 ■tire, and other causes. Tiie amount of timber which has lieeii destroyed by foivi«r 

 tires in Canada is almost incredible, and can only be appreciated by tliose who 

 have travelled in our northern districts. Tlie proportion of white and red pine 

 which has been thus ssvept away in the Ottawa ^'alley and in the St. Maurice and 

 Oeorgian JJay regions is estimated by the lumbermen as many times greater tliau 

 all that has hein cut by the axe. Yet all this is iusiirnilicant in quantity corn- 

 pare<i with the pine .spruce, cedar, larch. Iialsam, Sec, which has been destroyed l>y 

 this means in the more nortberii latitude all the way from the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 to the Nelson liiver, and thence north-westward. It is true that the coiumercial 

 value of this timber was not so great as that of the more southern pine re;.'ions 

 ■which have also Ijeen partially <lestroyt'd. The total quantities destroyed are 

 almost incalculable, but even a rough estimate for each hundred or tbousaiid square 

 miles shows it to have been enormous, and of serious national consequence. The 

 ■writer had traversed these great regions in many directions, and could testify to 

 the wide.spread devastation which had talccn place. Nearly every district was 

 more or less Ijurnt, tiie portions which had been overrun by lire usually exceeding; 

 those whicli remained given. These northern coniferous forests were nune liable 

 than others to be thus destroyed. In the summer weather, when their gummy 

 tops and the mossy ground were alike dry, they burn with almost explo.sive 

 rapidity. Small trees were thickly mingled witii the larger ones, and they all 

 stand so closely together that their thick liranches touch eacli other so that they 

 form a suHiciently dense fuel to support a continuous sheet of dame on a grand 



