HARDY ON NOVA SCOTIAN CONIFERS. 121 



four hundred years are required to bring the stem of the white 

 spruce to the thickness of a man's wrist. 



Leaving these desolate scenes, and tracing the influence of 

 decreasing latitude and more genial climate upon the great belt of 

 coniferae where, skirting the prairies, it enters the lake districts of 

 Canada, we find that at about the neighbourhood of Lake Winnipeg 

 the forest is diversified by the accession of several species of deciduous 

 trees, the elm and the ash ; further south, by the various descrip- 

 tions of maples, oaks, and beeches ; and, at length, by the shores 

 of Superior, the character of the Canadian forest becomes fully 

 developed, exhibiting that beautiful admixture of deciduous trees 

 with the various pines and spruces, which constitutes its picturesque 

 grandeur. 



Embracing the Canadian Lakes and the shores of the St. Law- 

 rence, this woodland district stretches away to the Atlantic sea- 

 board, and covers the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 

 and Prince Edward Island, including a large portion of the North- 

 ern States. This large tract of forest has been termed by Dr. 

 Cooper in his admu'able monograph on the North American forest- 

 trees, the Lacustrian Province, from the number of its great lakes, 

 and is chiefly characterized by the predominance of evergreen 

 coniferae. 



The consideration of this family, extending over so large a por- 

 tion of our North x4.merican colonies, involves many subjects of 

 great importance as to the physical aspects and climate of the country, 

 the influence of its forests on rainfall and sjjrings, on the vegeta- 

 tion and on the health of its inhabitants, which cannot be discussed 

 this evening. Nor can we notice, more than briefly, another inter- 

 esting topic in connection with our subject — the extreme geological 

 antiquity represented by the fir-tree. Hugh Miller states, that he 

 found a fossil of coniferous lignite in the Lower Old Red Sandstone, 

 and that Pine forests existed, and there was dry land, where it had 

 been previously thought that all was covered by the ocean. 



Conifers formed a leading feature of the coal formation ; and, 

 though all the ancient species, up to the Post Tertiary period, have 

 perished, the type is still continued in all its low state of organization. 



The animals characterizing the North American fir forest are 

 all, likewise, of most ancient type ; especially the musk ox, the 



