72 Canadian Record of Science. 



tract of country is to wear for a hundred years maybe com- 

 pletely altered. After a time the burnt district becomes 

 overgrown, first with shrubs and 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 the 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. 



Along Moose Eiver and the lower part of the Missinaibi, 

 the original dark coniferous forest of these latitudes is re- 

 placed by the light green poplars and white birches, for more 

 than a hundred miles, and this condition has existed since 

 the memory of the oldest Indian of the district. Here and 

 there may be seen a patch of large spruce — remnants of 

 the original forest — and everywhere under the deciduous 

 growth, the charred stumps of the old conifers may be found. 

 On the east side of the southern part of Lake Winnipeg, and 

 nearly all along Winnipeg Eiver, the principal forests have 

 been destroyed by fire, and replaced by aspen and white 

 birch. 



Forest fires are undoubtedly due occasionally to lightning, 

 the author having once actually witnessed the origin of a 

 fire in this way, and he had often been informed by the 

 Indians that they had seen similar cases. But most of them 

 are traceable to the carelessness of white men and demoral- , 

 ized 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 this fearful destruction of the timber of the 

 country. Laws on the subject do exist, but no adequate means 

 appear to be provided for enforcing them. The author recom- 

 mended a reform in 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 acknow- 

 ledged to be useful only or principally for their timber, and 

 settlement should be prohibited within the latter. Hereto- 

 fore, the great consideration of Government was the peopling 

 of the country, the timber being looked upon as of secondary 



