162 Mr. J. W. Dawson on the Destruction and 



by civilized men. The forests have been destroyed, their living 

 inhabitants extirpated or obliged to adopt new modes of life, new- 

 animals and plants introduced and naturalized ; and, indeed, a 

 revolution effected in all the departments of organized nature, in 

 the lapse of a single generation. To notice a few of these chan- 

 ges, with reference more especially to the destruction and partial 

 reproduction of forests, is my present object. The facts which I 



propose to state have been collected principally in the province of 

 Nova Scotia. 



In their natural state, Nova Scotia and the neighboring provin- 

 ces were covered with dense woods, extending from the shores 

 to the summits of the hills. These woods did not form detached 

 groves, but constituted a nearly continuous sheet of foliage, the 

 individual trees composing which were so closely placed as to 

 prevent them from assuming full and rounded forms, and to oblige 

 them to assume tall and sfender shapes, that each might obtain 

 air and light. The only exceptions to this are certain rich and 

 usually light soils, where the forest is sometimes more open, and 

 hills too rocky to support a covering of trees. When viewed 

 from the summit of a hill, the forest presents a continuous undu- 

 lating surface of a more or less dark color and uneven form, in 

 proportion to the prevalence of the deep colors and uneven out- 

 lines of the evergreen conifers*, or of the lighter tints and rounded 

 contours of the deciduous trees ; and these two classes are usual- 

 ly arranged m belts or irregular patches, containing mixtures of 

 trees corresponding to the fertility and dryness of the soil. In 

 general the deciduous or hardwood trees prevail on intervale 

 ground, fertile uplands, and the flanks and summits of slaty and 

 trappean hills ; while swamps, the less fertile and lightest upland 



rp. an ? S ramtic hllls > are chiefly occupied by coniferous trees. 



1 he forest trees spring from a bed of black vegetable mould, 

 whose surface is rendered uneven by the little hillocks of earth 

 and stones thrown up by windfalls ; and which, though usually 

 named Cradle hilts, are in reality the graves of departed members 

 of the forest, whose trunks have mouldered into the mossy soil. 

 These cradle hills are most numerous in thin soils ; and are chiefly 

 produced by the coniferous trees, and especially by the hemlock- 

 spruce. There is usually little underwood in the original forest; 

 mosses, lycopodia, ferns, and a few herbaceous flowering pla" ts ' 

 however, flourish beneath the shade of the woods. 



The woods perish by the axe and by fire, either purposely ap- 

 plied for their destruction or accidental. Forest fires have not 

 been confined to the period of European occupation. The tradi- 

 tions of the Indians tell of extensive ancient conflagrations: and 

 it is believed that some of the aboriginal names of places in >° ra 

 bcotia originated in these events. In later times, however, fif 

 nave been more numerous and destructive. In clearing land, the 



