THE FORESTS OF CANADA.^ 



By R. Bell, B.A.Sc, M.D., LL.D., 



Assistant Director of the Geological ,Surrey. 



The writer, who has had extensive opportunities during 

 the last thirty year!? of becoming personally acquainted with 

 the forests of the Dominion east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 endeavoured to give an account of their extent, general 

 characters, peculiarities, value, means of preservation, etc. 

 Yiewing the forests of the continent as a whole, only the 

 northern poi'tions come within the Dominion, a large part 

 of which lies beyond the limit of trees of any kind. The 

 central an<l eastern forest region of Canada and the United 

 States presents the greatest variety of species. In the north, 

 a wide border of coniferous trees, which become smaller and 

 more limited in number of species as we approach the 

 verge of the forests, stretches across the continent ; while 

 toward the south deciduous trees prevail, but they are inter- 

 spersed with large areas of pines of various kinds. The 

 sombre coniferous forests of the north are continuous over 

 vast regions, which, from their high latitudes and the pov- 



^ The above paper in extmso was contributed by the author to the 

 Montreal meeting of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, in 1884, and was accidentally omitted from the volume 

 of "Canadian Economics." Our abstract is somewhat fuller than 

 that given by the authorized Report of the Association. We may 

 mention that, at the late International Forestry Exhibition in 

 Edinburgh, Dr. Bell was awarded a diploma for a large map show- 

 ing the northern limits of some thirty species of timber trees. 



