THE CONIFERS OF THE NORTHERN ROCKIES. 



I. THE FORESTS. 



The forest appeals strongly to the human mind and heart. It has 

 a deeper hold in our sentiment than all other forms of the earth's 

 vegetation. In song and story, in the pages of romance, in the litera- 

 ture of history, of religion, and of science, thoughts of the forest 

 have quickened the facile pens of many writers. The genesis of man- 

 kind was in the forest, and in the forest man lived and fought and 

 grew ; the trees he venerated and in the groves worshipped. The in- 

 fluence of the forest in the distribution of the human race can never 

 be reckoned. From the first venturing upon a clumsy raft bound 

 with roots and vines to the hulls of sturdy oak that breasted unknown 

 seas, the history of settlement and conquest, of occupation and de- 

 velopment, is inseparable from the story of the forest use. 



The economic value of the forest can hardly be told, for when we 

 have reckoned in terms of board feet and dollars and cents, there re- 

 mains the less obvious but not the less real influence, far reaching into 

 all manner of conditions and impossible of calculation. When the* 

 forest goes, there go with it the forest animal life, the game and the 

 fish, the fur-bearing denizens of the woods, the clear streams, the 

 storage of waiters for power and irrigation, and last but not least the 

 influence of the forest itself upon the soil whereon it grows, tend- 

 ing ever to greater richness and depth. We are told that the forests 

 of Montana alone, if converted into lumber at the present prices, 

 would exceed in value all the precious metals mined in the State since 

 the discovery of gold over 50 years ago. But this vast wealth is far 

 surpassed by the value of the great streams to manufacturing and 

 agriculture. It is stated upon authority that more power can be de- 

 veloped in seven miles of the Missouri at Great Falls than is possible 

 at several other populous cities whose wealth and influence are 

 largely dependent upon their power sites. 



The Rocky Mountain forest is one of the distinct vegetation regions 

 in North America at the present day. It is conspicuously coniferous, 

 evergreen; everywhere the somber influence of the fir and pine. 

 But while the conifers or softwoods are in the ascendency as to 

 numbers, as species the hardwoods far exceed them. The latter, of 

 course, are more abundant along streams and in other situations 

 where soil moisture is adequate the year round. 



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