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and the diminished consumption of Canadian timber in Great Britain brought prices down to the lowest ebb. When the trade is in a prosperous condition the profits are sometimes excessive, speculation then ensues and ruin frequently follows. The character of the trade is changing as the timber groves become more remote, more capital being required to carry on lumbering operations on a profitable scale. Many lumberers now invest a considerable portion of their capital in clearing and cultivating farms in connection with their timber limits for the purpose of rais ing provender for their stock and food for their hands.

A glance at forest industry would be incomplete if we were not to note a contingency to which the timber trade is becoming more and more liable each year. One of the most destructive agents in the vast pine forests north of the St. Lawrence, is fire. Thousands of square miles of the forest timber have been ruined by this ruthless destroyer. Fires in the woods do not generally extend so far as one at the first blush supposes; they rarely go beyond thirty miles in length by ten in breadth, but it is the frequent occurrence of these fires which in the long run of years lays waste so much valuable property; and with the progress of the lumberers in the wilderness the chances of fresh conflagrations yearly become more imminent.

The produce of the forest of most importance next to lumber has always been pot and pearl ashes. Potashes are made from the crude ashes by dissolving the soluble salts with water, evaporatiug to dryness and fusing at a red heat into a compact mass, which although grey on the outside is pink colored within. Pearlash is made by calcining potashes upon a reverberatory hearth until the carbon and much of the sulphur is dissipated. Water is then added, and a lye formed, which, when evaporated to dryness, yields the pearlash of commerce. Canadian potashes con

tain on an average about 60 per cent. of carbonate of

potassa. Pearlash contains generally about 50 per cent. of caustic potassa. The quantity of potashes obtained from the combustion of the trees or vegetables on a given area of ground depends altogether upon the species. Thus, while the pine yields only 0.45 per mille, the oak gives 1.53, the willow 2.85, elm and maple 3.90 per mille, or 39 per cent. The value of ashes, both pot and pearl, exported from Canada during the years 1859 to 1861 inclusive, was as follows -three-fourths going to the United Kingdom:

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In addition to these staple productions of our forests, we have a growing trade in Canada balsam, turpentine, pitch, spruce gum, oil of spruce, oil of hemlock, hemlock bark, maple sugar, bark of the basswood, bark of the butternut, and of the hickory, sassafras, sumach, bark of the white oak, and of the slippery elm, besides the medicinal plants common to Canada and the northern States of the American Union.

GENERAL RESULTS.

Comparative Statement of the Produce of the Forest, from 1853 to 1861,

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Very few years have elapsed since the produce of the forest formed the most important of Canadian exports, as the following comparison will show. Of late years, agriculture has asserted a superior claim and will no doubt maintain it:

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A lumberer's life is full of that half-wild excitement which belongs to the wilderness, and few who have engaged in this apparently laborious and at times dangerous industry are willing to relinquish it for the tamer pursuits of the farm. When any one intends to "make timber," as it is technically called,—that is, to cut and bring lumber to market, the first operation is to take a "limit," and having thoroughly explored it and laid out roads to the most convenient water-course or "drivable" creek, he engages his men, either for cutting the timber, or for cutting the timber and the "drive" (or from the time of commencing operations to the period when it is brought to Quebec or any other convenient port.) A "grove of pine" having been found and rough roads cut or laid out if necessary, the operation of making the timber commences. The hands are divided into gangs, which generally consist of four or more cutters who fell the trees and bark them for the liner. The liner marks the tree for the "scorers," who block it off,that is, cut off branches, knots, &c. The broad-ax man follows, who squares and finishes the "pieces." During the winter, when the snow lies sufficiently deep on the ground, each piece is hauled by a yoke of oxen or a pair of horses to the bank of the drive, where the timber is piled on or near the roll-way until the return of spring melts the

frozen creek and the waters rise to a convenient "driving condition." A lumber "shanty" generally contains three or four gangs, headed by a foreman whose duty it is to call the men up in the morning, lay off their work, take their time, and superintend operations generally. The broad-ax man makes each night a return of the quantity of timber made during the day. When the rivers are in suitable driving condition, the most perilous and laborious part of lumbering operations begins. The pieces are pushed into the stream and floated down to its junction with the main river, where they are retained by a temporary boom. When the tributary streams on which the lumber is made are narrow, it is a matter of some difficulty to accomplish the drive, and the men are often exposed for weeks together to all the inconveniencies and dangers which attend frequent wading through in cold water. Jams not unfrequently occur at the bends of the stream or above falls, and the utmost caution is necessary in removing the obstruction which retains the confused mass of pieces, apparently involved in inextricable confusion. The cutting away of a single stick or piece is often sufficient to set the accumulated mass in motion, and accidents of a fatal description are not unfrequent in endeavoring to loosen a "jam." The main river once reached, a number of pieces are fastened together by means of withes, and formed into a raft, which slowly floats down the river towards a sea or lake port. The great distance up the tributaries of the large rivers draining a timber territory to which the lumberers have penetrated, often causes the drive to occupy from two to three months. An idea of the immense distance from which lumber is now brought may be obtained when it is known that the lumberers traveling up the tributaries of the Ottawa are now meeting those who have ascended the rivers flowing into Lake Huron; and the broad height of land which sends waters to the St. Lawrence by the tributaries of the Ottawa,

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to Lake Ontario by the Trent, and to Lake Huron by the Muskoka and other rivers, resounds with the ax and shout of lumbermen who have reached the same spot by traversing the rivers draining three different water-sheds, after clearing the country of all timber groves conveniently situated for driving.

CHAPTER VI.

THE NORTH-WEST TERRITORY.

Beyond the dividing ridge which separates the waters flowing into Lake Superior from those which take a northwesterly and then northerly direction towards Hudson's Bay, lies the Great Inland Basin of Lake Winnipeg, occupying a very considerable extent of the North American continent, and forming part of the British possessions known as the North-West Territory, or Rupert's Land.

The Basin of Lake Winnipeg extends from the 90th to the 118th meridian. Its most easterly margin lies on the boundary of Canada, west of Lake Superior, in long. 90° 14, lat. 48° 53, being the head waters of Savanne River, a remote tributary of the Winnipeg. The most westerly limit of this vast basin is the Glacier, near Hoyse' Pass, in long. 117° 35, lat. 51° 52', from which a branch of the Saskatchewan takes its rise. The southern extension of its boundary is Lake Traverse, in Dakotah territory, long. 96° 43, lat. 45° 58. It stretches north as far as Frog Portage, long. 103° 30, lat 55° 26. This Basin consequently extends over 28 degrees of longitude and 10 degrees of latitude. The elevation of its eastern boundary is 1,485 feet above the ocean, and the height of land near the sources of the tributary which rises farthest to the west is 6,347 feet above the same level. Its northern boundary is separated from the valley

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