858 report— 1881. 



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

 exist in Siberia. 



In tracing the northern limits of several of the trees as laid down on the author's 

 map, it would be observed that the northward variations from the general 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 Dominion east of the Rocky Mountains into 

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

 including the white and black spruces, larch, Banksian pine, balsam-fir, aspen, 

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

 from the northern edge of the forests 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 the white-pine line to that of the button-wood ; (3) a southern 

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

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

 only in a small area in the southern part of Ontario ; (4) a western group, con- 

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

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

 River and Lake Winnipeg. 



The distribution of our forest trees affords us one of the most obvious tests of 

 climate, and although it may not be more reliable than that of the smaller plants, 

 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 land by the 

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

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

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

 finest soil, while the least hardy trees of the west nourish in the stilt' clay-banks 

 or among the stones along the rivers. 



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

 .over which each kind of timber was to be found. But iu estimating the quantities 

 which may be 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, the proportion which has been destroyed by 

 fire, and other causes. The amount of timber which has been destroyed by forest 

 fires in Canada is almost incredible, and can only be appreciated by those who 

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

 which has been thus swept away in the Ottawa Valley and in the St. Maurice and 

 Georgian Bay regions is estimated by the lumbermen as many times greater than 

 all that has been cut by the axe. Yet all this is insignificant in quantity com- 

 pared with the pine spruce, cedar, larch, balsam, &c, which has been destroyed by 

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

 to the Nelson River, and thence north-westward. It is true that the commercial 

 value of this timber was not so great as that of the more southern pine regions 

 which have also been partially destroyed. The total quantities destroyed are 

 almost incalculable, but even a rough estimate for each hundred or thousand 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 widespread devastation which had taken place. Nearly every district was 

 more or less burnt, the portions which had been overrun by fire usually exceeding 

 those which remained green. These northern coniferous forests were more 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 explosive 

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

 .stand so closely together that their thick branches touch each other so that they 

 form a sufficiently dense fuel to support a continuous sheet of flame on a grand 



