again. Since 1867, when Quebec became a province in the Dominion and separated from Ontario, the provincial revenue derived from the forests has steadily increased, with slight fluctuations showing the effects of world-wide depression or prosperity.

The following table, by fiscal years ending June 30 of each year named, shows the amounts collected from Crown lands, as timber dues, ground rent, timber limits sales, etc. :

As to the quantities of timber cut in Quebec, this is not easy to ascertain, since different methods have been adopted at different times and the products of private lands are not included, except in the decennial census. This is particularly the case with pulpwood, which has become an article of great importance in the last few years. The following tables are of timber cut on Crown lands:

A review of the area of Crown lands in Quebec under license to cut timber and the quantity of sawlogs produced from such lands is interesting as showing the changes in areas so held, the gradual decline in the pine trade, due to the diminishing supply of pine timber, and the rapid growth in recent years of the spruce industry. Such a table, covering the twenty-five years ended with 1903, has been compiled from the reports of the Commissioner of Crown Lands. It is as follows:

3

It is only within the last few years that pulpwood has become of consequence, but in 1903 the Government reported a total of 259,231 cords cut on Crown lands. There were also in that year 94,079 lineal feet of poles, 780,960 railway ties, 9,174 pickets, 2,424,500 shingles, 426 rails, 231⁄2 cords of hemlock bark and 11,710 cords of white birch spool wood.

The most important point at the present time is the outlook for the future. It may be said that, whereas ten years ago very pessimistic views were entertained as to the quantity of timber left standing in Quebec, today the views are much more hopeful. There are two reasons for this: First, the development of the use of other woods, particularly of spruce; and, second, the realization that if fire is kept out and the fake settlers stopped, the forests will reproduce themselves much more rapidly than formerly supposed. Besides, people are realizing that much of Quebec is unsuited for agriculture, whereas these districts are eminently suited for the perpetual growth of timber. The Government and the lumbermen are coöperating in the preservation of the forests by a system of fire ranging and by leaving the young timber to attain its full growth. Senator Edwards, of Ottawa and Rockland, one of the largest limit holders in Quebec, in speaking recently on this subject said that his candid opinion was that Quebec possesses today the best asset in America. Ontario has timber larger and of better quality, but Quebec has the young and growing timber. The pine in sight, Mr. Edwards was inclined to think, might last, with care, fifty years, but if fires (which have destroyed ten times as much as the ax) are kept out and settlement prohibited on the small areas of good land occurring in the forest regions, the trade might be continued indefinitely.

As Quebec is the largest eastern province and also the greatest forested province in the Dominion, with a land area of 341,756 square miles, and reaches back into the unexplored north, it is likely that it will continue to be the great source of timber production in Canada.

During the spring of 1904 a commission reported to the Quebec government against indiscriminate settlement, with the result that the Government and the lumbermen are nearer together and working more in harmony than ever before. The commission favored an increase in the numbers and joint control of the fire rangers; and, seeing that a million dollars a year of the provincial revenue comes out of forests, the legislators can be relied upon to be anxious to preserve the goose which lays this golden egg.

Both Quebec and Ontario have been fortunate in the supply of right kind of labor for this trade. The cheerful, fun-loving, hardy FrenchCanadian takes to lumbering like a duck to water. His skill in handling the ax, in driving, in walking on floating logs and in jam-breaking, have a world wide celebrity; while the songs with which he lightens his labors with the oar or on snowshoes are a national inheritance and pride. Curiously enough from the other side of the great river, from the Ontario shore, have gone with him the men of a supposedly antithetical race, the canny, dour Scots of Glengarry County, men who knew no language but Gallic and no law but the strong hand. Although they have fought for their masters over disputed lines and fought for themselves out of sheer prowess so as to make "The Man from Glengarry" one of the most picturesque of modern novels, yet these deeds of daring have served only to unite the two sides of the Ottawa in firmer bonds of respect and admiration.

CHAPTER IX.

QUEBEC-PRESENT CONDITIONS.

According to an estimate published in 1895 by the Dominion statistician, there were then in Quebec 116,521' square miles of forest and woodland. This, however, included a considerable area unfit for lumbering and covered with a small growth of little merchantable value. That portion of the Province extending north of the Ottawa River to the Height of Land, and the districts watered by the Saguenay, the St. Maurice and their tributaries were originally covered with forests of great value, with pine their most important component, though now much depleted by fire and by lumbering operationsespecially in the Saguenay and Lake St. John districts. North and east of this region there are considerable areas of spruce suitable for pulpwood. South of the St. Lawrence from the Gaspe Peninsula to the boundary only small and scattered pine forests remain. Spruce is the dominant tree, but owing to the demand for pulpwood the supply is rapidly diminishing. Much hemlock is cut for tan bark, and maple, birch, cedar and tamarack are largely cut throughout the Province.

Much of the present area of Quebec is still largely unexplored. The territory embraced within the provincial lines prior to 1895 has been largely surveyed but the additions made as a result of the legislation which then took place included territory that previously had been designated as a part of Labrador. The present northern boundary of the Province, beginning at the west, follows the East Main River, which empties into the James Bay, a branch of Hudson Bay, nearly one hundred miles north of its southern extremity. From the headwaters of the East Main River at Lake Patamish, just south of the fifty-third degree of north latitude, it runs due east until it strikes the Hamilton River, which at that point runs almost due north. The Hamilton River is followed thence throughout its entire course and through Rigolet Bay to about the head of Hamilton Inlet, on the Atlantic, from which the boundary sweeps in a long curve a little east of

1The total area of the Province of Quebec, according to the "Statistical Year Book of Canada," is now 351,873 square miles, of which 341,756 square miles are land. The above estimate of wooded area does not agree with that given on page 61-225,552 square miles-the latter and later estimate applying to the increased area of the Province since 1896, though the remarks as to quality apply with even more force to the larger area. 114