TUAN^^ACTIOA'S OF SECTION F. 



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srnle. Before a high wind the fire sweeps on \-ith a roaring noise, and at a rate 

 Aviiicli prevents the birds and beasts from escaping. After a time the burnt 

 (lititrict becomes overgrown, first with shrubs ana bushes, then with aspens and 

 white birches, among which coniferous trees by-and-by appear ; but finally, at the 

 end of a hundred and fifty years or more, they regain possession of tlie burnt tract. 

 This process of alternation of crops of timber appears to have been going on for 

 centuries, but in modern times the fires must have been more numerous and frequent 

 than formerly. These fires are undoubtedly due occasionally to lightning, but most 

 ot' them are traceable to the carelessness of white men and demoralised Indians. 

 In the partially-inhabited regions, most of the forest fires originate by the settlers 

 burning brush and log-heaps in clearing the land. It may be asked if we have no 

 means of stopping tliis fearful destruction of the timber of the country. Laws on 

 the subject do exist, but no means appear to be provided for enforcing tliem. The 

 author recommended a reform iti this respect, before it be too late. Crown lands of 

 real value for agriculture should be separated for the purpose of administration from 

 those which are acknowledge<i to be useful only or prmcipally for their timber, and 

 jettlement should be prohibited within the latter. Heretofore, the great considera- 

 tion of Government was the peopling of the country, the timber being looked upon 

 as of secondary importance, and it was willingly sacrificed in the interests of tlii> 

 settler, who came to regard it as his natural ruemj'. The time has come when we 

 must change all this. In the absence of forest guardians and proper regulations, 

 iumbernieu have often to submit to a species of l)laokmail from discliarged emplnyf^s 

 and pretending settlers in urder to keep them oil' their limits. Indians sometimes 

 hum the forests off each other's hunting-grounds from motives of revenge, but as a 

 rule the fires which tiiey start are from carelessness or indifl'erence. When 

 cautioned in a fiieiidly way, they are willing to exercise greater care, and tlio 

 tienelicial efi'eets of this course are already niiinifest in the region between Lake 

 Winnipeg and Hudson's Hay where the author hi d remonstrated with them on the 

 subject. He suggests that the amuiities which ibey receive from Government be 

 witiilield as a punishment for burning tiie woods, or tiuit a bounty be paid eacli 

 vear that no fires occur. In this way the Indian chiefs and headmen may be 

 made the most efficient and earnest forest guardians we could possibly have. 



Fires are not so liable to run in forests of full-grown wiiite and red jjines, and such 

 as those of southern Ontario, whicii have suffered comparatively little from tliis 

 cause, but have now been mostly cut down and utilised by the lumbermen. I fatd- 

 wood forests are seldom burnt to any great extent, excejjf wlien the soil is shallow 

 and becomes parched in sunnner, as, for instance, on the flat limestone rocks of 

 Grand Manitonlin Island and the Indian Peninsula, through much of which fires 

 have run, burning the vegetable mould and killing the roots, thus causing the trees 

 to fall over even before they have decayed. Hence the terra ' fire-falls ' applied in 

 such cases. 



lu regard to the future supplies of timber which may be available in < 'anada, 

 the greater part of the white oak and rock elm had been already exported. 

 The cherry, black walnut, red cedar, and iiickory had likewise Ijeen practically 

 I'xhausted. lied oak, basswood, wliite ash, red cedar, hemlock, butternut, hard 

 ma]ile, Sec, as well as many inferior woods, were still to be fuun<l in suthcient 

 iiuantity for home consumption. A considerable supply of yellow biroli still exists, 

 and in some regions it is yet almost untouched. Unti' "ecently tliere was an indis- 

 tiiict popular notion that the white pine, our great timber tree, extended tln-ougii- 

 out a vast area in the northern parts of the Dominion, from which we mi'.'lit draw 

 a supply for almost all time. '1 he author's map showed, however, tluit its range 

 was comparatively limited. Although it was found over an extensive area to the 

 niu'tli-westward of Lake Superior, it was very sparsely distributed, of siualler size, 

 mA poorer qiuility tlian further south. Our principal reserves of white i)ine, as 

 vet almost untouched, are to be found in the region around Lake Tenniscoming, 

 and thence westward to the eastern shores of I^ake .Superior. Tl)' ' region lies 

 partly to the nfU'thward of the height of land. There is also more or less red pine 

 ill the district referred to. When the exportable white and red pine .shall have 

 become exhausted, as it must before many more years, we have still vast quantities 



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