Mr. Preble reports the Koch tamarack (Larix Laricina) “is common at Fort Simpson and reaches a good size. On June 1, 1904, the leaves were just beginning to appear, tinging the swamps with their beautiful shade of green. As I descended the river the progress of vegetation kept pace in a general way with my rate of travel. At Fort Norman, on June 11, the leaves and cones of the tamaracks were just appearing and at Fort Good Hope, ten days later, they were about half grown.
“The tamarack is found throughout the region north to the limit of the forest, occurring mainly in muskegs where it is sometimes the predominating tree. Since its wood is tougher than any other native to the region, it is used to a considerable extent to form the keels and gunwales of boats, and for other purposes where extra strength is required.”
According to the evidence of Mr. R. G. McConnell before the Senate committee of 1907:—“Along the Liard there are good bunches of timber, and it is the same with all these tributary streams. Once away from the flats the timber is sparse and the trees are small. Small black spruce grow on the muskegs. The timber is simply on the flats and extends back two or three miles from the river. That is not solidly timbered on either side of the river. The poplar does not grow to a large tree as it does down here. It runs about three to six inches through. The rough bark poplar grows up to a foot or more.”
Magnificent Forests of Spruce.
Bishop Clut, before the Senate committee of 1888, stated that on Liard river, the south branch of which he had ascended often, and on Peace river also, there were magnificent forests of spruce. The trees were from eighty to one hundred feet high on the islands.
The branch of the Liard which extends south is called the Nelson. William Ogilvie explored this whole region across to the Peace, coming out at Fort St. John. Across the height of land the timber is very poor. On the Nelson above the forks where the Sikanni Chief branch flows in, it is heavily timbered. Mr. Ogilvie passed many extensive flats covered with beautiful spruce trees. The valley is quite wide and clothed with fine timber for a distance above the forks of about thirty miles. Farther down, above Fort Nelson, there are many extensive areas of open woods which almost might be classed as prairie, no doubt the result of forest fires.
Of Fort Nelson, Mr. Ogilvie says it is surrounded by dense, high forest, and as the clearing around it is only a few acres in extent, much of the sun’s warmth is lost during the day. The surface is all heavily wooded and there are many very large trees, both spruce and balsam poplar. He selected the average sized balsam poplar at Fort Nelson, cut it down and made the following measurements of it:—Diameter at stump, exclusive of bark, twenty-nine inches; at first limb, exclusive of bark, seventeen and one-half inches; stump to first limb, ninety feet; number of growing rings, one hundred and forty-five. The bark would add at least four inches to the diameter.
Large Trees of Liard Valley.
Entering the valley of the Liard, from the Mackenzie, Mr. Elihu Stewart says, there is a good deal of fine large spruce, which would make better lumber than most of the spruce used in the settled part of the territories, but as it is on the Arctic water system it is practically out of reach. The balsam poplar, or as it is called here, cottonwood, is very plentiful and very large, trees nearly four feet in diameter being often seen, though between two or three feet is the average diameter of the trees. These two trees constitute the great mass of the forest. A few small white birches are occasionally seen and more frequently the aspen or poplar. There are also, sometimes, a few balsam pines on the top of sandy knolls.
A man who had explored the Liard told Mr. Stewart that he had never seen finer saw-log timber anywhere. He also said that good birch, which is highly prized by the Indians for bark for their canoes, was found there.