356 Canada. 
stand, branchy, and stunted, hardly fit even for pulp, 
for the most part with birch and aspen intermixed. 
This open spruce forest continues more or less to the 
northern tundra and across the continent to within a 
few miles of the mouth of the Mackenzie River and the 
Arctic Ocean, the White Spruce being the most north- 
ern species. In the interior northern prairie belt groves 
of aspen, dense and well developed, skirt the water 
courses and form an important wood supply. 
If much of the forest area in the settled provinces is 
burnt over and damaged by forest fire, much more 
extensive destruction is wrought in this northern 
forest by fires sweeping annually over millions of acres 
unchecked, many of them started by lightning. 
Among the large notable forest fires the great 
Miramichi fire in New Brunswick in 1825 destroyed 
more than 6,000 square miles in a few hours. In 1880 
the loss by forest fires in the Ottawa valley alone was 
still estimated at $5,000,000 annually. 
The forests of British Columbia partake of the 
character of the Pacific forest of the United States, 
the Coast Range with conifers of magnificent develop- 
ment, Douglas Fir, Giant Arborvite, Hemlock, Bull 
Pine and a few others, the Rocky Mountain range also 
of coniferous growth, but of inferior character, large 
areas being covered with Alpine Fir (Abies lasiocarpa) 
and Lodgepole Pine, important as soilcover and for 
local use in the mining districts, but lacking in com- 
mercial value. 
The river systems of Eastern Canada, with the 
mighty St. Lawrence permitting sea-going vessels to 
come up to Montreal, have been most potent factors 
