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 THE 
 
 FORESTS OF CANADA. 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT BELL, B.A.Sc, M.D., LLD., 
 
 Assistant Director of the Geological Survey, Ottawa. 
 
 (Reprinted from the Reicord of Scibncb, Vol. II., No. 2, 1886.) 
 
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 MONTREAL : 
 
 GAZETTE PRINTING COMPANY. 
 
 1886. 
 
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 National Library Bibliotheque nationale 
 of Canada du Canada 
 
THE 
 
 FORESTS OF CANADA. 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT BELL, B.A.Sc. M.D., LLD., 
 
 Assistant Director of the Geological Suri'ey, Ottawa. 
 
 I 
 
 (Repi.nted from the Record of Science, Vol. II., No. 2, 1886.) 
 
 MONTREAL : 
 
 GAZETTE PRINTING COMPANY. 
 
 1886, 
 
THE FORESTS OF CANADA.^ 
 
 By R. Bell, B.A.Sc, M.D., LL.D., 
 
 Assistant Director of the Geological ,Surrey. 
 
 The writer, who has had extensive opportunities during 
 the last thirty year!? of becoming personally acquainted with 
 the forests of the Dominion east of the Rocky Mountains, 
 endeavoured to give an account of their extent, general 
 characters, peculiarities, value, means of preservation, etc. 
 Yiewing the forests of the continent as a whole, only the 
 northern poi'tions come within the Dominion, a large part 
 of which lies beyond the limit of trees of any kind. The 
 central an<l eastern forest region of Canada and the United 
 States presents the greatest variety of species. In the north, 
 a wide border of coniferous trees, which become smaller and 
 more limited in number of species as we approach the 
 verge of the forests, stretches across the continent ; while 
 toward the south deciduous trees prevail, but they are inter- 
 spersed with large areas of pines of various kinds. The 
 sombre coniferous forests of the north are continuous over 
 vast regions, which, from their high latitudes and the pov- 
 
 ^ The above paper in extmso was contributed by the author to the 
 Montreal meeting of the British Association for the Advancement 
 of Science, in 1884, and was accidentally omitted from the volume 
 of "Canadian Economics." Our abstract is somewhat fuller than 
 that given by the authorized Report of the Association. We may 
 mention that, at the late International Forestry Exhibition in 
 Edinburgh, Dr. Bell was awarded a diploma for a large map show- 
 ing the northern limits of some thirty species of timber trees. 
 
4 Tlie Forests of Canada. 
 
 erty of their soil, will never be cultivated to any great 
 extent. This great coniferous belt has a crescentic form, 
 curving southward from Labrador to the far Northwest, 
 keeping Hudson Bay on its northern side. The distribution 
 of our forests ajipears to be governed almost entirely by 
 existing climatic conditions, although it may be modified to 
 some extent by the geological character of different districts; 
 and some of the peculiarities of their present distribution 
 may be due to former conditions affecting their dispersion. 
 
 Beyond the northern limit of the forests on themainland- 
 of the continent there is a large triangular area to the north- 
 west and another to the north-east of Hudson Bay. called 
 the Barren Grounds, which are destitute of trees solely on 
 account of the severity of the climate, as the other condi- 
 tions do not appear to differ from those of the adjacent 
 wooded regions to the south. The treeless region of the 
 Western States and the south-western part of the Xortli- 
 west Territories of Canada are called plains as distinguished 
 from the prairies, which often are partially wooded. The 
 latter occupy an immense space between the plains and the 
 forest regions to the east and north-east. The plain and 
 prairie conditions are also due to climate, and not, as some 
 have supposed, to fires having swept away formerly existing 
 forests. This is shown by the contoursof the lines marking 
 the western limits of the various kinds of trees which pre- 
 vail in the east, as well as from the absence of water-courses, 
 which would exist if sufficient rain had fallen in compara- 
 tively recent times to have maintained forest growth. 
 
 Although the Dominion embraces about half of the con- 
 tinent, only some ninety out of the 340 species of the forest 
 trees of North America are found within her borders, 
 including the Pacific slope. Yet the area under timber in 
 Canada is perhaps as great as that in the United States. 
 It is, therefore, evident that the forests are less diversified 
 in the north than in the south. This is in accordance with 
 the general law of the greater richness of the flora of warm 
 countries ; but it may be due also in part to the fact that in 
 the north we have greater uniformity of physical and 
 climatic conditions over wide areas than in the south. For 
 
The Forests of Canada. 5 
 
 example, we have asimilarity in these conditions from New- 
 foundland to Alaska, and hence throughout the great dis- 
 tance of 4,000 miles we find the same group of trees. Again 
 in the great triangular area of the Northwest, between tha 
 United States boundary, the Rocky Mountains, and the Lau- 
 rent ian region, embracing over 600,000 square miles, very 
 little difference could be observed in the climate, the soil, or 
 the general level of the country, and hence the same group 
 of trees — onlv about half a dozen in all — is found through- 
 out this immense tract. In striking contrast with this is 
 the fact that on the same farm lot in the south-western part 
 of the Province of Ontario one may often count as many as 
 fifty different kinds of trees. The richness in variety of the 
 native ti-ees of Ontario and the adjacent States is owing to 
 the fertile soil and the favoura1)le conditions as to summer 
 temperature, constant moisture, and the absence of intense 
 cold in the winter. 
 
 The writer exhilnted a map showing the northern and 
 western limits of the principal forest trees of the Dominion 
 east of the Eocky Mountains. From this it appears that 
 the range of species is not according to the mean annual 
 temperatui-e or precipitation, but rather to the absence 
 of extremes of heat and cold, and of great dryness. For 
 these reasons a number of the trees of the Province of 
 Quebec and northern Ontaiio do not range west into Mani- 
 toba, although the annual means of teraperatui-e and preci- 
 pitation are nearly the same in both. This map also shows 
 in a stj'iking manner that the northei-n limits of our various 
 forest trees are by no means parallel to one another, 
 although locally some groups may be nearly so foi* a certain 
 distance. Some of them pursue cxtraordinarj' or eccentric 
 courses, which are difficult to account for. The most 
 remarkable of these is the white cedar, which in the central 
 part of its trend reaches James Bay, but drops suddenly to 
 the south at the Grulf of St. Lawrence in the east, and on 
 reaching the longitude of the head of Lake Superior in the 
 west. Yet the climate and other conditions appear to be 
 the same for some distance both east and west of these 
 lateral boundaries. An outlying colony of the white cedar 
 
6 The Forests of Canada. 
 
 is found at Cedar Lake near the north-western part of Lake 
 Winnii)eg. Colonies or outlying patches of other trees have 
 l»een noted in ditteront localities, such as of the hasswood 
 and sugar-maple at Lake St, John, north of (Quebec, of the 
 gi-ey elm <m Missinaibi River, near James Bay, and of the 
 hemlock spruce at Thompson, near the west end of Lake 
 Superior. 
 
 JUvers and lakes, by supplying heat and moisture and 
 warding ott' summer frosts, often promote the growth 
 of trees on their immediate banks which are not found 
 elsewhere in the surrounding country. Instances of this 
 may be seen along the North Saskatchewan, where the 
 negundo, green ash, grey elm, white birch, alder, etc., thrive 
 only on the river banks. Tn the cold regions, the white 
 spruce grows to a much larger size on the shores and islands 
 of rivers flowing north than elsewhere. It has been found 
 that exotic fruit trees and other intj-oduced plants can be 
 successfully cultivated around the shores of the larger lakes, 
 especially on their southern sides, which will not grow at a 
 short distance inland. On the other hand, the immediate 
 [)roximity of the sea, with a lower summer temperature 
 than the land, is unfavourable to the growth of timber in 
 the north. The habits of some trees are much modified in 
 different latitudes. Species which grow in warm dry soil 
 in the north may be found in cold, heavy, or wet land in 
 the south. The larch, balsam, white cedar, white pine, 
 white birch, etc., are examples of this tendency. Some 
 species extend far to the south of their general home along 
 mountain ridges, while others seem to refuse to follow such 
 lines. The existence of extensive swamps, the shelter of 
 hills, or the elevations which they afford, are therefore to 
 be regarded as among the minor conditions governing the 
 distribution of trees. 
 
 The peculiarities in the outline of the northward limit of 
 the white cedar and other species of troes, may throw some 
 light on questions as to the direction from which they have 
 migrated or been dispersed. In some cases which the author 
 has studied, the trees appear to have reached the most north- 
 ern limit possible. For example, in its most northern range, 
 
___=„ Tlie Forests of Canada. 7 
 
 the first tender leaves and shoots of the black ash are 
 blighted almost every year by the spring frosts; the trees 
 are of small size or stunted in height, and only occasionally 
 bear seed. Sir John Eichardson mentions that, on the barren 
 grounds, outlying patches of dying spruces were sometimes 
 met with far out from the verge of the main forest, and that 
 he saw no evidence of young ti-ees springing u]) beyond the 
 general line (jf ti-ees; from which he infers that the latter 
 is retreating southward. A similar condition is said to 
 exist in Siberia. 
 
 In tracing the northern limits of several of the trees as 
 laid down on the author's map, it would be observed that 
 the northward variations from the general direction usually 
 corresponded with depressions in the country, while the 
 southward curves occurred where the elevations were 
 greatest. The height-of-land dividing the waters of the St. 
 Lawrence from those of Hudson Bay has a general paral- 
 lelism with the northern limits of manj'- of the species ; but 
 as the watershed is not mai'ked by any great elevation or 
 by a ridge, the circumstance referred to may be owing 
 simply to the accident of its trend coinciding with the aver- 
 age course of the isothermal lines. 
 
 The author divides the trees of the Dominion east of the 
 Rocky Mountains into four groups in regard to geographi- 
 cal distribution, namely: (1) A northern group, including 
 the white and black spruces, larch, Banksian pine, balsam- 
 fir, aspen, balsam-poplar, canoe birch, willows and alder, — 
 these cover the vast territory from the northern edge of the 
 forests down to about the line at which the white pine 
 begins ; (2) a central group of about forty species, occupy- 
 ing the belt of country from the white-pine line to that of 
 the button-wood ; (3) a southern grou]), embracing the 
 button-wood, black walnut, the hickories, chestnut, tulip 
 tree, prickly ash, sassafras, and flowering dog- wood, which 
 are found only in a small area in the southern part of 
 Ontario ; (4) a western group, consisting of the ash-leaved 
 maple, bur-oak, cotton-wood, and green ash, which are 
 scattered sparingly over the prairie and partially-wooded 
 regions west of Red River and Lake Winnipeg. 
 
8 The Forests of Canada. 
 
 The finest timber of the second group within the limits of 
 Canada is to be met with along the east side of Lake 
 Huron in the counties of Lambton, Huron and Bruce, where 
 the button-wood, elm, maple, yellow birch, chei-ry, bass- 
 wood and hemlock attain a height of one hundred feet and 
 upwards. Although the Ottawa valle}^ has produced more 
 white pine timber than any other region in the Dominion, 
 the largest and tinest trees grow on the sandy soils of the 
 counties bordering the northern sides of Lake Erie and of 
 the western part of Lake Ontario, where extensive and splen- 
 did pineries stood when these regions were first invaded by 
 the white man. In the Northwest Territories, the largest 
 trees are the elms along the rivers (which, however, do not 
 extend far north) and the rough-barked poplars, which, even 
 as far north as the Laird and the lower Mackenzie, have 
 trunks five feet in diameter. Along Athabasca River the 
 author had seen spruces which measured ten and twelve 
 feet in girth. 
 
 The distribution of our forest trees affords us one of the 
 most obvious tests of climate, and although it may not be 
 more reliable than that of the smaller plants, it is more 
 noticeable by the common observer. In the older provinces 
 of Canada the settlers are often guided to a great extent in 
 their selection of land by the kinds of trees it supports, a 
 thrifty growth of beech and sugar-maple, for instance, being 
 generally considered a good sign ; but such tests must neces- 
 sarily be only of local application. In the prairie region, 
 timber may be entirely absent from the finest soil, while the 
 least hardy trees of the west floui'ish in the stiff clay-banks 
 or among the stones along the rivers on account of the mois- 
 ture and heat derived from the water. 
 
 The map which has been referred to is useful in defining 
 the extent of country over which each kind of timber was 
 to be found. But in estimating the quantities which may 
 be yet available for commercial purposes in the regions still 
 untouched by man, various circumstances require to be con- 
 sidered, such as the favourable or unfavourable conditions 
 of soil, etc., as well as the proportion which has been des- 
 troyed by fire, and other causes. The amount of timber 
 
The Forests of Canada. 
 
 which has been lost through forestjfires in Canada is almost 
 incredible, and can only be appreciated by those who have 
 travelled much in our northern districts. The proportion 
 of white and red pine which has been thus swept away in 
 the Ottawa Valley and in the St. Maurice and Georgian 
 Bay regions, is estimated by the lumbermen as many times 
 greater than all that has been cut by the axe. Yet all this 
 is insignificant in quantity compared with the pine, spruce, 
 cedar, larch, balsam, etc., which has been destroyed by this 
 means in the more northern latitudes all the way from the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence to Nelson River, and thence north- 
 westward. It is true that the commercial value of this 
 timber was not so great as that of the more southern pine 
 regions which have also been partially luined. The total 
 quantities which have disappeared are almost incalculable, 
 but even a rough estimate of the amount for each hundred 
 or thousand square miles shows it to have been enormous, 
 and of serious national consequence. The writer had 
 traversed these great regions in many directions, and could 
 testify to the widespread devastation which had taken 
 place. Nearly every district was more or less burnt, the 
 portions which had been overrun by fire usually exceeding 
 those which remained green. These northern coniferous 
 forests were more liable than others to be thus destroyed. 
 In the summer weather, when their gummy tops and the 
 mossy ground are alike dry, they burn with almost explo- 
 sive rapidity. Small trees are thickly mingled with the 
 larger ones, and they all stand so closely together that their 
 compact branches touch each other, thus forming a sufiicient, 
 ly dense fuel to support a continuous sheet of flame on a grand 
 scale. Before a high wind the tire sweeps on with a roaring 
 noise, and at a rate which prevents the birds and beasts from 
 escaping. Thus, in one day, the appearance which a large 
 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 j but finally at the end of a hundred and fifty years 
 or more they regain possession of the burnt tract. This 
 
10 The Forests of Canada. 
 
 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 Ttiver and the lower part of the Missinaibi, 
 the oi-iginal 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 everj^where under the deciduous 
 growth, the chari-ed stumps of the old conifers may be tbund. 
 On the east side of the southern part of Lake Winnipeg, and 
 nearly all along Winnipeg Eiver, the principal forests have 
 been destroyed by lire, and ceplaced by aspen and white 
 bircli. 
 
 Forest tires are undoubtedly due occasionally to lightning, 
 the authoi- having once actually witnessed the origin of a 
 fire in this vvay, and he had often been intbi'med by the 
 Indians that they had seen similar cases. But most of them 
 are traceable to the carelessness of white men and demoial- 
 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 destructicm 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 (rovernmer was the peopling 
 of the country, the timber being looked upon as of secondary 
 importance, and it was willingly sacrified in the interests of 
 the settler, who came to regard it as his natural enemy. The 
 time has come when we must change all this. In the absence 
 of forest guardians and proper I'egulations, lumbermen have 
 often to submit to a species of blackmail from discharged 
 employees and pretending settlers in order to keep them ofi' 
 
The Forests of C nada. 11 
 
 their limits. Indians sometimes burn the forests off each 
 other's hunting-grounds from motives of revenge, but as a 
 rule the tires which they start are from carelessness or indif- 
 ference. When cautitjned in a friendly way, they are willing 
 to exei-cise greater care, and the beneticial ett'eets of this 
 course are already manifest in the ie<>:ion between Lake 
 Winnipeg and Iluds >n Bay, where the auth )r had icnion- 
 strated with them on the subject. lie suggests that the 
 annuities which they receive from Government be withheld 
 as a punishment for burning the woods, or that a bounty bo 
 [taid each year that no tires occur. In this way the Indian 
 chiefs and headmen may be made the most efficient and 
 earnest forest guardians we could possibly have. 
 
 Fires are not so liable to run in forests of full-grown white 
 and red pines, such as those of southern Ontario, which 
 have suffered comj^aratively little from this cause, but have 
 now been mostly cut down and utilized by the lumbermen. 
 Hardwood forests are seldom bui'nt to any great extent, 
 excel, t where the soil is shallow and becomes parched in 
 summer, as, for instance, on the flat limestone rocks of Grand 
 Manitoulin Island and the Indian peninsula of Lake Huron, 
 through much of which fii-es have run, burning the vegetable 
 mould and killin<>: the roots, thus cansini'- the ti'ees to fall 
 over even before they have decayed. Hence the term "tire- 
 falls " applied in such cases. 
 
 If we had educated and intelligent conservators of forests 
 in Canada, appointed by the Government, their duties, in 
 addition to preventing the destruction of the timber by fire 
 and otherwise, might be directed to promoting the growth 
 of existing timber, encouraging transplanting, the intro- 
 duction of foreign trees which might grow in this country, 
 the dissemination of information on practical forestry, etc., 
 investigating the causes of diseases among trees, directing 
 the attention of foreign purchaseis to our woo<ls and 
 pointing out to our lumbermen possible new markets for 
 timber products and tor varieties of woods not now utilized. 
 That disease does sometimes cause great havoc among our 
 forests is illustrated by the recent fact that the spruces in 
 New Brunswick, the principal timber tree of that province, 
 
1^ Ihe Forests of Canada. 
 
 died over extensive areas, a few years ago, and the disease 
 has now spread into the Gaspe peninsula. It is supposed to be 
 due to u fungus which attacks the roots, but it is not certain 
 that the fungus itself may not be induced by the pre-existence 
 of some other disease. In the Pi-ovince of (Quebec the hirches 
 or tamaracs, have sometimes died from unexplained causes in 
 extensive tracts. As soon as coniferous trees have become 
 scorched by fire or show signs of failing vitality, their trunks 
 are attacked by boring beetles, and they must be immediately 
 cut down and immersed in water if the timber is to be saved. 
 In regard to the future supplies of timber which may be 
 available in Canada, the greater part of the white oak and 
 rock elm has been already exported. The cherry, black 
 walnut, red cedar, and hickory have likewise been practically 
 exhausted. Eed oak, basswood, white ash, white cedar, hem- 
 lock, butternut, hard maple, etc., as well as many inferior 
 woods, are still to be found in sufficient quantity for home 
 consumption. A considerable supply of yellow birch still 
 exists, and in some regions it is yet almost untouched. Until 
 recently there was an indistinct popular notion that the white 
 pine, our great timber tree, extended thoughout a vast area 
 in the northern parts of the Dominion, from which we might 
 draw a supj^ly for almost all time. The author's map showed, 
 however, that its range was comparatively limited. The 
 shaded portions of the accompanying little map will serve 
 to give an idea of the extent of our pine lands, relatively 
 to that of the whole Dominion. Even if we include the 
 Douglas pine area of British Columbia, it will be seen to be 
 small in comparison with the rest of Canada. And it must be 
 observed that this shading represents the botanical and not 
 the commercial distribution of the pine, and that the valuable 
 timber has been already cut away or is very sparsely distri- 
 buted through a large proportion of it. Although it was 
 found over a very extensive district to the north-west of 
 Lake Superior, it was very thinly scattered, of smaller 
 size, and poorer quality than further south. Our principal 
 reserves of white pine, as yet almost untouched, are to be 
 found in the region around Lake Temiscaming, and thence 
 westward to the eastern shore of Lake Superior, and in the 
 
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 Iv. 
 
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14 The Forests of Canada. 
 
 central parts of the district between the Ottawa and 
 G-eorgian Bay. There is also more or less red pine 
 in the district referred to. The newly constructed Cana- 
 dian Pacific Railwa}^ between Lake Nipissing and Lake 
 Superior has afforded a means of access to the centre 
 of this great pine region, which could not so well be 
 reached by any of the rivers. Lumbei-ing operations have 
 ah'cady begun near the railway west of Lake Nipissing, 
 and unless the charges for transport pi-ove too high, the pro 
 babilities are that hereafter a large amount of timber will be 
 sent out of this district by rail. When the exportable wliite 
 pine shall have become exhausted, as it must before many 
 more years, we have still vast quantities of spruce and larcli, 
 which may even now be regarded as the principal timber 
 available for tliis purpose in the future. But our stock of 
 these woods is to be found mostly in the great country which 
 drains into James Bay, whose numerous large rivers afford 
 facilities for floating timber to the sea, and in the country 
 thence westward to Lake Winnipeg. Fine white spruce is 
 likwise found in some localities in the Northwest Terri- 
 tories between the prairie regions and the country of small 
 timber to the north-east. The Banksian pine, which ranges 
 all the wavfrom New Brunswick to Mackenzie River, is often 
 large enough for sawing into deals, and will afford large 
 quantities of good railway ties. 
 
 If the vast northei-n forests can be preserved from fire in 
 the future, our suf)ply of small timber is practicably inex- 
 haustible. When larger trees elsewhere shall have become 
 scarce, much of it may some day be sawn into boards, scant- 
 ling, joists, rafters, flooring, etc. Supplies of timber for rail- 
 way-ties, telegraph-poles, mines, fencing, piling, small spars, 
 cordwood, charcoal, paper-making, etc., may be drawn from 
 these immense districts for all time, since the greater part 
 of the regions referred to are not likely to be required for 
 agricultural purposes, and by a proper system of cutting, 
 a new growth will spring up to replace the timber removed, 
 and in its turn become available to keep up the supply. The 
 practically interminable extent of these forests will allow 
 ample time for the smaller trees, which may be left on any 
 
The Forests of Canada. 15 
 
 ground cut over, to come to maturity before it is again called 
 upon to furnish its quota. Some of the woods of the moj-e 
 southern districts of Canada, which have had little value 
 hitherto, except for fuel, only require to be better known to 
 be utilized for many purposes. 
 
 The people of Canada have heretofore been accustomed to 
 such an abundance of wood, and to the idea that trees stood 
 in the way of the progress of the country, that tree-plant- 
 ing has as yet made but little progress among us. A begin- 
 ning has, however, been made in the last two years in the 
 provinces of Xew Brunswick and Quebec, where " Arbor 
 Days" have been proclaimed. In Ontario an Act was passed 
 in 1883, and a fund set apart for the encouraging of tree- 
 planting along highways. The time has arrived for more 
 vigorous action by the general Government and the Local 
 Legislatures looking to the improvement and preservation of 
 the foi-ests which still remain in Canada, and for the partial 
 restoration of those which have been destroyed.