REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS.

TO THE HONOURABLE GEORGE AIREY KIRKPATRICK,

Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Ontario.

The commissioners appointed by your predecessor in office to inquire into and make report respecting the setting apart of certain territory situated in the district of Nipissing, for the purpose of a Forest Reservation and National Park beg to submit their report herewith.

The first meeting of the commissioners was held on Friday, the 4th day of November, 1892, for organization and discussion of the methods to be employed in the discharge of their duties. Mr. Kirkwood was elected chairman. A further meeting was held on Friday, the 3rd day of January, 1893, at which this report was considered and adopted.

In conjunction with the Honourable the Commissioner of Crown Lands, within whose department the matters referred to them more particularly fell, and who manifested a warm interest in the subject, the commissioners endeavored to procure all available information as to the public advantages which might be expected to accrue from reserving a portion of the ungranted Crown domain to be set apart as a Forest Reservation and National Park, and the suitability of the tract of land suggested in the commission for such a purpose.

IMPORTANCE OF FOREST PROTECTION.

Without entering into the general subject of forestry, or the system or systems by which the forest wealth of this Province may be best conserved and utilized, the commissioners found that forest preservation and protection is in almost every civilized country one of the most pressing and vital of economic questions. It touches the welfare of the people at many points. The experience of older countries has everywhere shown that the wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter of forests brings a host of evils in its train. Wide tracts are converted from fertile plains into arid deserts, springs and streams are dried up, and the rainfall, instead of percolating gently through the forest floor and finding its way by easy stages through brook and river to the lower levels, now descends the valleys in hurrying torrents, carrying all before its tempestuous flood. In some places, where the country is mountainous and the soil friable and easily disintegrated, the whole surface, deprived of its forest covering, is torn up and swept away year after year by these recurring floods, until the mischief wrought within the memory of man may be compared in extent to the denudation brought

The influence of forests upon climate is almost always beneficial, as they tend to promote its humidity and exert a tempering effect upon injurious winds; consequently the destruction of a large portion of the forest growth of a country is generally attended by a deterioration in its climate. Again, an ample supply of wood is a prime necessity in the arts; indeed it is difficult to see what substitute could be provided for it in many of the manufacturing and other purposes for which it is now used. The reckless removal of the forests, such as that which has characterized the greater portion of wooded America, including our own country, may for a limited time provide such a supply in prodigal profusion, but the waste of one generation must be atoned for by the enforced economy of the next. To obtain from a forest the largest amount of product which it is capable of yielding without at the same time trenching upon its capacity, calls for careful and scientific management, such as has hitherto been but little practised on this side of the Atlantic.

Considerations of this kind, while perhaps not falling in their entirety within the scope of the commissioners' inquiry, are nevertheless closely connected with the proposal to establish in our Province a Forest Reservation.

Experience in other lands, as set out in official reports and the many other volumes which an increasing interest in the subject of forestry has called forth, is overwhelmingly in favor of the establishment of such a Reservation as is here proposed, and in the succeeding pages the manifold advantages to be derived therefrom are shortly set out.

LOCATION OF THE PROPOSED PARK.

The territory which, in the opinion of the commissioners, is suited for the purposes of a Forest Reservation and National Park is a compact tract of land in the district of Nipissing, south of the Mattawa river and lying between the Ottawa river and Georgian bay, as shown on the map accompanying this report. It is almost a parallelogram in shape consisting as it does of four tiers of four townships each, with two townships on the northwest corner, its greatest depth. being from north to south. The townships comprised in this tract are the following-Peck, Hunter, Devine, Biggar, Wilkes, Canisbay, McLaughlin, Bishop, Osler, Pentland, Sproule, Bower, Freswick, Lister, Preston, Dickson, Anglin and Deacon, eighteen in all. Of these all have been surveyed and subdivided into concessions and lots except Sproule and Preston. Their united area is 938,186 acres, of which 831,793 acres is land and 106,393 acres is water, or 1,300 square miles of the former and 166 square miles of the latter.

The western boundary of this tract has a mean distance of about nine miles from the eastern boundary of Parry Sound district, while on the east at the northeast angle of the township of Deacon it approaches to within about twelve miles of the Ottawa river. As the course of the river, however, is southeasterly,

while the boundary of the Park is almost due north and south, the distance from the confines of the Park to the river rapidly increases as the southern limit of the latter is reached. The average length from north to south of the Reservation is

about 40 miles, and its breadth from east to west 36 miles.

Deux Rivieres on the Ottawa, some twelve miles distant from its northern limit, is the nearest settlement of any importance, the population in the townships lying between the eastern boundary and the Ottawa, through which the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company runs, being very sparse. Otherwise, for considerable distances on all sides of the Park, north, south, east and west, there is almost no settlement at all, though a few hardy pioneers have pushed far up the Hastings and Opeongo roads, whose northern extremities approach the southern confines of the proposed Reserve.

THE TIMBER OF THE PARK.

This tract forms part of the great forest which once covered the whole of Ontario, and which in this part of the Province consisted of a variety of trees, including the white and red pine, hemlock, tamarack, balsam, cedar, birch, maple, beech, ironwood, ash and basswood. Forest fires and the operations of lumbermen have greatly diminished the quantity of pine, but extensive areas are still wellstocked with this valuable timber, and for many years may be expected to send large quantities of it to market.

The hardwood trees grow in great abundance, and are found in groves or intermingled with the pine. It is the home of the black birch, perhaps the prevailing deciduous tree, which in places combines magnificent proportions with perfect soundness. Next in point of numbers comes the maple, which also attains to great size and beauty, and when touched with the frosts of autumn throws out its crimson banners in vain defiance of the coming storms.

Hemlock is common, the tough ironwood is well represented, and smaller quantities of beech, and in moister spots black ash and basswood, are met with.

The cedar found on the western side of the proposed Reserve is represented as being small and of little value, but on descending the Madawaska and Petawawa it is found to increase in quantity and to improve in size and quality. Small spruce and tamarack abound in the swamps, and there is a dense undergrowth of balsam, hazel and ground hemlock in all parts, with alder along the creek beds and in the marshes.

The burned portions, or brulés, which are confined mainly to three or four townships, are invariably covered with a second growth of poplar, white birch, cherry, young maple and pine, all striving for the mastery, the chances being of course in favor of the softer and more rapidly-growing varieties. As in other parts of America, it is found that a pine forest when burned does not reproduce

itself after its own kind, but is succeeded by other and less valuable trees whose seeds appear to be present in the soil awaiting only a favorable opportunity of development.

A REGION OF ROCK, FOREST AND WATER.

As for the land itself, it is in general of little value for agricultural purposes, being, as might be expected from its situation on a watershed, for the greater part rough, broken and stony. There are few high hills, the surface being mostly composed of rocky ridges, alternating with valleys, swamps and marshes.

The rough ribs of the Laurentian formation everywhere protrude, and in granite or gneiss dip at all angles to the southeast, the strike of the strata being northeast by southwest. No limestone, so far as is known, occurs, and the indications of mineral hitherto met with are few, comprising principally traces of

iron ore.

There are patches of soil here and there fit for cultivation, but they exist at considerable distances from each other, and are so isolated by great stretches of poorer land that the want of neighbors, of roads, and the distance from market preclude the idea of prosperous settlement so far as that depends upon the existtence of sufficient quantities of arable land. Where found at all, such land is chiefly a light sandy or loamy soil, and is more or less stony. There is probably not more than enough in any one block to form a school section of ordinary size and from the best available data the conclusion would seem to be warranted that not more than fifteen or twenty per cent. of the whole area could under any circumstances ever be brought under cultivation.

This tract of land contains within its boundaries an immense volume of water in lake and river, brook, pond and marsh. The spring and autumn rains and the heavy snows of winter keep the fountain heads of the important streams rising here continually replenished, the density of the forest retarding evaporation, and the spongy layer of leaves and decaying vegetation which covers the ground tending to maintain an equable flow throughout the year.

A NATURAL GAME PRESERVE.

A region so wooded and watered, and so remote from civilization, cannot but be the home of a vast variety of birds, game and fur-bearing animals and fish.

Here not many years ago the moose, the monarch of Canadian woods, roamed and browsed in large numbers, the leaves and tender branches of the young trees supplying him with his favorite diet;* here herds of red deer grazed in the open meadows or quenched their thirst at the brooks or crystal lakes; here the industrious beaver felled his trees and built his dams on every stream; here the wolf's

* It is worthy of note that the first appearance of the moose in this part of Ontario, at any rate during recent times, was about the year 1870, when they are supposed to have crossed over from the Quebec side of the Ottawa river. Indians born in this district had never seen a moose until that time, and did not know what kind of animal it was when they first encountered it in the woods. They speedily became numerous after their arrival.