FOREST AND STREAM 
770 
THE WHITE PINE FOREST. 
We do not know how many centuries the 
White Pines have shared their divided glory of 
sunshine and shade, of rain and snow, of calm 
and storm, and the rise and set of sun. The 
grand patriarchs have spread their breadth day 
and night in the mountain ranges and in the 
valley plains. They have sowed their seeds so 
that their fruitage would not perish from the 
earth, and every seed sowed was nature’s high¬ 
est expression of freedom. The seeds that 
wrought miracles—that gave mankind all there 
is of perpetual and beneficent force—the fruit¬ 
age that build homes for humanity, and founded 
nations with its industries. 
Right and wrong exists in the nature of things. 
Man has inflicted injury upon his fellow-trees 
with his tools, and other bad actors added bur¬ 
dens to the trees. The burdens of the trees in¬ 
creased for ages—-then the science of Forestry 
came as a holy dawn to liberate the struggles of 
the trees. 
We must teach the world that the consequences 
of greed and ignorance cannot be avoided. The 
progress of the forest-kingdom depends upon 
man to place greater value on the trees. He 
gives a greater value to mankind and country, 
when he gives the trees their rights for preser¬ 
vation. The trees are the levers for convenience, 
for the use, and the elevation of man and in¬ 
dustry. 
Let us give the highest prophecy to our White 
Pines; let us help to spread the younger race, 
so that their seeds will bear fruits, and extend 
the perpetuation of their race. 
Agnes L. Scott. 
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPER CANOE 
DIMENSIONS. 
Edtor Forest and Stream: 
For the past 20 years, I have been using a 
canvas or bark canoe on my trips in the woods. 
To those who have toiled all day in the teeth 
of a gale it makes a vast difference whether the 
canoe is one that responds quickly to the push 
of the paddle and slips through and over the 
seas or has to be fairly lifted by main force to 
make headway. 
A canoe to be satisfactory must not only be 
seaworthy, easy to paddle, capable of carrying a 
good load, but also light in weight that it may 
be portaged with the least effort. 
From lack of trees of a suitable size and be¬ 
cause it is less durable than the canvas, the bark 
canoe is rapidly disappearing from all but the 
more primitive sections of the country. Its run¬ 
ning qualities, owing to a less even surface, leave 
much to be desired and the sole advantage it 
has is lightness, though a canvas canoe built to 
last only as long as a bark might be just as light. 
A canvas canoe will endure more scraping on 
sharp rocks than a bark, but the latter can be 
easily mended with pitch. 
As to weight, builders have probably made 
canvas canoes as light as possible to retain their 
shape in hard use, but in regard to form, there 
is a wide divergence even as between boats of 
the same length and apparently designed for 
similar service. This is more noticeable in the 
handling than to the eye of one not a boat 
builder. 
Last fall, I had a 15 ft. 50 lb. canoe that ap¬ 
peared to carry its width further forward than 
aft; this gave it buoyancy in rough water and 
did not seem to interfere with its running quali¬ 
ties under the paddle. One of the Canadian 
builders has had very good reports, especially, 
as regards speed, from some large canoes built 
with the rocking chair or curved keel. 
The man who uses the canoe most, often has 
not sufficient means to carry out experiments 
with several models, but takes that which he 
believes to be the best from catalogues that often 
fail to give definite form lines and explanations 
of why their canoes are built as they are. 
It is possible that tank tests of the actual power 
required to drive the different models when load¬ 
ed might not show great variation, but as the 
motive power of paddling is small compared with 
sail or engine, the least advantage or disadvan¬ 
tage becomes a very important factor in the 10.- 
000 strokes of the day’s work for the man in the 
canoe. 
Mic Mac Pattern of Birch Bark Canoe. 
Possibly some of your correspondents may 
have made experiments and can give interesting 
results of the effect of hollow lines, etc., or, the 
disadvantage, if there is any, in the model of 
the bow and stern of the Mic Mac canoe here 
shown. Livingston E. Jones. 
TRANSLATION OF THAT INDIAN SIGN. 
In the November issue of Forest and Stream 
an esteemed correspondent submitted for trans¬ 
lation a notice published in the Indian language, 
which he had copied on a trip through northern 
Quebec. The sign he had found to be one of 
many prin'ed on linen and tacked on trees at 
the beginning or ends of portages. 
Forest and Stream published the notice just 
as our correspondent had copied it, and asked if 
any of the learned readers of this journal could 
furnish a free translation, at the same time giv¬ 
ing an inkling as to the message conveyed in 
the notice. 
Deputy Minister Hon. E. M. Dechene, of the 
Department of Lands and Forests of the Prov¬ 
ince of Quebec, has kindly furnished the neces¬ 
sary translation and his letter which follows, is 
very interesting, as showing the thoroughness 
of the campaign which the Province of Quebec 
is conducting for the suppression or avoidance of 
forest fires. Mr. Dechene writes: 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I will endeavor to explain the raison d’etre of 
the signs and also give you a translation. 
We have in this Province a very large area, 
more or less timbered, but which is inhabited 
only by our Indians; the major part of this 
area is to the north; if is impracticable to police 
it with fire-wardens as the expense would- be 
excessive, therefore, we arrange with the factors 
of the Hudson Bay Company’s posts and the 
missionaries who pay an annual visit to these 
remote parts, to enjoin the Indians to protect 
the forests, as it is in their own direct interests 
so to do. As an aid to this object we distribute 
posters on linen, by means of the Hudson Bay 
Company; and the missionaries and the Indians 
tack them up at ends of portages, and in places 
where people pass most frequently. 
We have three distinct tribes of Indians, so 
find it necessary to have the posters made out in 
three different dialects; the one you quoted in 
Forest and Stream happens to be in the Mon- 
tagnais dialect. 
Herewith I give you a free translation of the 
poster quoted: 
Protect the Forests. 
My children, the King relies upon you to as¬ 
sist him in protecting the forest against fire. 
If the Indians will do this, then the King says 
that they will all profit by such action; they will 
be helping themselves. 
The King thinks that if the forests burn, the 
Indians will suffer and be sorrowful, for the 
wild animals will desert their places of abode, 
and the fish will be scarce in the lakes and 
rivers. 
My children, the merchants and the missiona¬ 
ries of the Church are all assisting the King al¬ 
ready in the good work of guarding the forests 
from fire—you also will help and follow such a 
good example, and this is the wish of the King. 
I, who call myself, Jules Allard, 
Guardian of the Forests. 
WINTER BIRDS AND OTHERS. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
How many of the readers of this magazine 
have ever tried feeding the winter birds? 
I have no doubt a large number have, for the 
movement for the protection of wild birds has 
spread over a large area. 
I had always wanted to do something for their 
comfort but never had a very good chance until 
last winter, when my wife and I came into pos¬ 
session of a house and a small piece of land. 
The land wasn’t very valuable as it was tilted up 
on a 45 degree angle, but it had a number of 
white pine trees of good size, also a number of 
apple trees and it joined some land with quite 
thick woods on it. We both thought it would be 
a fine place for birds, for just across the river 
from us a friend of ours has a bird table and 
feeds the chickadees every winter. One of the 
first things we did was to put up a shelf across 
one of our dining-room windows. I made, it 
about six or eight inches wide and put an edge 
around it so the wind wouldn’t blow the food 
off quite so easily. 
We didn’t put any food out, until it got to be 
quite cold, then we tied pieces of suet in the 
apple trees and put large bones that had some 
meat on them, on our shelf. The chickadees 
soon found the suet in the trees and it wasn’t 
long until we had four or five coming to our 
shelf. They continued to come until about nest¬ 
ing time when they left us and went to keeping 
house. They were in the apple trees every day 
this summer but never came onto the shelf until 
