101 



luost of the bailding lumber, both common and finishing. In favorable 

 situations the trees of this species attain a height of 100 feet and the 

 trunks a diameter of 6 or 7 feet. 



The White Pine is of smaller growth than the Yellow, the wood is 

 softer and more subject to decay. The two kinds are, however, used 

 for many similar purposes. 



Lodge-pole Pine seems to be a stunted variety of Finns Murrayana. 

 It is a slender tree which covers large areas upon the mountains. It 

 grows to a height varying from 20 to 100 feet, with trunks from 2 to 10 

 inches in diameter, often forming masses so nearly impenetrable that 

 trails must be made with the ax. A section from the trunk of one of 

 these trees measures 2J inches in diameter and has fourteen layers of 

 annual growth. A lumberman of experience states that good saw-tim- 

 ber can be had from the same kind of pine where the growth is less 

 dense and crowded. The smallest kinds are extensively used for fenc- 

 ing, '^logging" for mines, and by the Indians in the construction of 

 their lodges. A similar growth is found in portions of Wyoming and 

 Colorado. 



Cottonwood and Box-Elder border the streams at comparatively low 

 elevations. The Aspen covers large surfaces which have baen denuded 

 of the original forest growth. It prefers northern slopes and narrow 

 moist valleys. 



Although the forest area of the Territory is large, it is being rapidly 

 reduced. The destruction by forest fires is almost beyond computation ; 

 railroads use and transport immense quantities of timber ; lumbering 

 operations cause a large and steady drain upon the forests ; while the 

 consumption of timber for mining purposes is of equal magnitude. 



The Territorial laws prescribe penalties for the willful or careless set- 

 ting of fires, or failure to extinguish them ; and county commissioners 

 are required to post notices annually in conspicuous places, calling atten- 

 tion to the provisions of the law. Notwithstanding these precautions, 

 forest fires are frequent and destructive in the extreme. 



A recent legislative act provides for rebatements in taxation to per- 

 sons planting and cultivating forest trees, under certain conditions 

 named in the law. 



Irrigation is practicable at different points upon all streams near the 

 mountains, and it is stated that by this means crops are cultivated in 

 every county of the Territory. 



East of Great Falls the Missouri River has cut a channel 600 to 900 

 feet deep, through the table-lands to the Dakota line. This gives to its 

 tributaries a very swift current, although their channels are quite deeply 

 sunken below the adjacent plains. In the Yellowstone system the 

 waters flow somewhat nearer the general level. 



A number of great irrigation enterprises have been undertaken. The 

 canal of the Minnesota and Montana Land and Improvement Company, 

 in Yellowstone County, is about 40 miles long by 35 feet wide, and 5 



