Chapter XV: The Mackenzie River Region (3)

The select committee of the Senate of Canada which sat in 1907 devoted considerable attention to the agricultural possibilities of Mackenzie valley. Mr. R. G. McConnell of the Geological Survey was examined before the committee and said he did not happen to be in places where there was any farming going on, but was at Fort Providence in the autumn and wintered there one winter, and ate potatoes, turnips and other vegetables like that all winter that had been grown there. That is north of Great Slave lake. Going down the Mackenzie, Mr. McConnell explained, once you get away from the river flat you get into a rolling country partly with muskeg, with hard ridges between. The only possible part of that country suitable for agriculture, he thought, would be the large flats down Mackenzie river. It is a wide valley, but there is the same thing there: you never know exactly beforehand what is going to happen. Certainly it does not look like a favourable country for agriculture once you get away from the river.

The prairie on Liard river is a little north of the 60th degree of latitude. There is a lot of marsh hay growing around Great Slave lake. It would be good for feeding stock. Along Great Slave lake itself there is a large tract of flat country which may come in some time. Most of the grass Mr. McConnell saw there was a heavy marsh grass. It is not jointed, though there is some of that kind. He remembered seeing patches of it on Hay river.

Asked as to the extent of good agricultural land in the country, Mr. McConnell said it depended on what was called good agricultural country. He knew that at Fort Good Hope, right down on the circle, they can raise good potatoes, because he saw them, and there is no reason why they cannot raise vegetables all the way down the Mackenzie as far north as that. The land on both sides of the river suitable for agriculture does not extend far. There are flats two or three miles wide—bottom flats of the Mackenzie a mile to a mile and a half wide. Once you get up out of the valley the country is rolling and partly muskeg. There is a large tract of that sort of country extending as far north as Fort Good Hope. It is about a thousand miles altogether from Great Slave lake to the sea, and that flat would be six or eight hundred miles in length.

INTENSE SUMMER HEAT.

Mr. Elihu Stewart (See p. 136), describing his trip to the far north before the Senate committee of 1907, said that after leaving Lake Athabaska there is rock along the Athabaska, but there are plains, said to be good land, extending from Slave lake down to Peace river. Below Fort Smith there is a deposit of alluvial soil very similar in appearance and in character to that of the prairie, extending as far as Rocky mountains, below Fort Simpson, and even along the valley then all the way down as far as Mr. Stewart went. It was a surprise to him. Mr. Stewart was at Fort Providence on July 15, 1906. Fort Providence is near Slave lake, on Mackenzie river, in latitude 61·25°. This is nine hundred and seventeen miles by travelled route from Athabaska, but, as near as Mr. Stewart could calculate it, about five hundred and fifty miles farther north than Edmonton. He saw there on July 15 wheat in the milk, potatoes in flower, peas fit for use, tomatoes, turnips, rhubarb, beets, cabbage, onions, and other garden vegetables. The tomatoes were not fully formed, and Mr. Stewart did not think they ripened. They grew them under glass. The strawberries ripen at any time; in fact they had ripe strawberries before that, also raspberries, currants, gooseberries and saskatoons. The wheat that Mr. Stewart saw there was just in milk. He inquired when it was sown, and was told May 20. It seemed incredible, until it was remembered that there is scarcely any darkness during summer there. There were about twenty hours’ sun each day, and the heat was greater for several days than anything Mr. Stewart had ever experienced in Ottawa. Along the lower Athabaska and at Chipewyan, Mr. Stewart and his fellow travellers had it over one hundred in the shade for several days. There was a thermometer on the steamer in the shade. Perhaps the heat was greater on the boat than it would have been ashore. Certainly it was exceedingly hot weather, and continued all night. There was very little night at that time. The hot wave extended down to the Arctic sea as Mr. Stewart ascertained from Indians who had come from Rampart House, near the Alaskan boundary, to meet the steamer, the “Wrigley.” He returned with them instead of coming back with the boat, and they lost two of their dogs from the heat, and that in the Arctic circle. From his observations along the river, that portion of the Mackenzie he travelled through presented a better appearance than Athabaska basin. He did not see much hay around Slave lake. He was not travelling through the country there.

NINE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY MILES NORTH OF EDMONTON.

Fort Good Hope, in latitude 66·16°, is nine hundred and seventy miles farther north than Edmonton, yet Mr. Stewart saw cabbages, onions and other garden vegetables growing in the gardens there. Beyond Fort Good Hope the frost is so near the surface of the ground that it is pretty hard to raise anything. At Fort Macpherson, and in that neighbourhood where the portage is crossed, there is frozen soil. The vegetables at Fort Good Hope looked as good as any others. The soil there was very fertile. The fort which is nearest to the mouth of the Mackenzie is “Point Separation.” It is not on the Mackenzie, and was so named because it was there that Sir John Franklin and Doctor Richardson separated on Franklin’s memorable second trip. There were no evidences of vegetation along the river that far north that would lead the witness to conclude that agriculture could be carried on there. As far as Fort Good Hope, on this side of that place, and around Providence the country is a fine one. It is a wooded country.

In Mr. Stewart’s 1906 official report (p. 13) he writes:—“On July 15, the garden at Fort Providence (latitude 61·4°) contained peas fit for use, potatoes in flower, tomatoes, rhubarb, beets, cabbages, onions. Besides vegetables, there were cultivated flowers and fruits such as red currants, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries and saskatoons. But most surprising thing of all was a small field of wheat in the milk, the grain being fully formed.” This was stated to have been sown on May 20 and harvested before July 28, slightly over two months from sowing.

SIT OUT ALL NIGHT AND READ.

Mr. H. A. Conroy of the Indian Department (See p. 136) informed the Senate committee that he had been down at Fort Providence mission in 1902. The missionaries had a splendid farm about latitude 62·30°, and he saw beautiful crops of wheat, oats, barley and peas. He left there on July 28, and their barley was fit to cut, and they were cutting it. Their oats and wheat would be ready to cut in a day or two from the looks of it, and the priest later told him all their grain was cut without a bit of frost. They have lots of sunlight. One could sit out all night and read. The altitude is low, and you can see the reflection of the sunset and sunrise.

W. F. Bredin, M.L.A., (See p. 104) in his evidence before the committee, remarked that the southern shore of Great Slave lake seems to have good agricultural prospects. One notable place there is Hay river. There they raise barley and all the common vegetables. At the mouth of Great Slave river and at the mouths of all the rivers running in there, large quantities of hay grow. In fact there is a very rank growth of grass along all those streams as far north as one likes to go. Where the ground along the river is not covered with trees, grass grows. At Fort Providence, about forty miles down the Mackenzie from Great Slave lake, they raise barley and all the vegetables every year, and some years wheat and oats.

One hundred and seventy miles below, north of Fort Providence, is Fort Simpson, where Liard river comes in. The Hudson’s Bay Company for many years have raised barley and vegetables at that point. In some years they might raise wheat, but not every year. At all those Hudson’s Bay Company’s posts they always raise vegetables. They do not pretend to raise any other grain regularly but barley, because

THEY USE BARLEY FOR SOUPS.

They pound the hull of it in a hollow piece of wood and use the grain for soups. At Fort Simpson he saw cauliflowers, cabbages and cucumbers growing under exactly the same conditions as they would grow them in northern Alberta. The cucumbers were simply planted in a hotbed, and allowed to remain there protected in the early spring from the frost, and then allowed to grow in the hotbeds, with the sashes off, in the summer time.

One hundred and forty miles north of Fort Simpson is Fort Wrigley (north latitude 63°). That is where Mr. Bredin stated he once wintered. In the spring they put in a garden there. The Hudson’s Bay Company officials plant gardens every year at that point. The spring that Mr. Bredin was there they got their seed potatoes from Fort Good Hope, which is fourteen miles south of the Arctic circle. They went there for seed because they had none, having used up theirs during the winter. Mr. Bredin saw those potatoes. They were a played-out seed, a white-blue variety. They were not the improved potatoes but they were a fair size. They had the same class of potatoes at Hay river, but since that they got in new seed (the Early Rover) from outside, and they grow very much better crops. The season at Wrigley is quite long enough, because the sun shines there during all the growing season. That is the great secret of the growth in that country. There is not much fertile land at Wrigley. Down there Rocky mountains are on both sides of the river, and there is a great deal of muskeg. The garden at Fort Wrigley

WAS ORIGINALLY MUSKEG

and covered with moss. As soon as the timber is cut off a muskeg the moss dies, the frost comes out of the ground, and gardens can be cultivated. The trees throw out their leaves in Mackenzie basin about the middle of May, before the ice goes out of the river. The year Mr. Bredin was there the ice went out of the Mackenzie at Fort Wrigley on May 23, and the trees were all out in leaf before that time. On Mackenzie river the trees leaf out almost in a few hours. The quickness with which the leaves appear on the trees in the spring is simply marvellous.

Mr. Bredin was never up Liard valley, but heard a great deal about it at Fort Simpson, and he had seen the journals of the Hudson’s Bay Company that were kept at Fort Liard, two hundred miles up Liard river. From these sources he gathered that they raised all the cereals there, such as wheat, oats and barley, as well as all the vegetables of the commoner varieties.

Mr. Bredin informed the committee that the spring he was at Fort Wrigley the months of March and April were the finest he ever saw. He was there just one spring, and it was as pleasant weather as he ever saw in his native province of Ontario, for those two months, while the winters were no worse than he had seen them in Manitoba. Mackenzie river closed on November 19 that year and there was a little snow then—and it lasted until March. Practically all the snow went off the latter part of March.

Mr. Edward A. Preble of the United States Biological Survey (See p. 22), speaking of his trip down the Mackenzie in 1904, states that the country about Fort Providence is level and is mainly grown up to poplars (_Populus tremuloides_). Back from the river are many muskegs, with their characteristic tamarack and spruce forests. The Roman Catholic mission established is now one of the largest in the north. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s post was established there in 1868, and the post at Big island was abandoned. Both establishments cultivate large fields of potatoes and the various root crops.

Mr. Preble reports that on June 17, below Fort Norman, a small quantity of snow fell. On June 21, at Fort Good Hope, the leaves on most of the trees were about half grown. On the same date the sun was visible at midnight from a low hill near the post, and many birds were in full song at that hour. For the next three weeks, north of this point, the sun was continually above the horizon. Vegetation now advanced rather faster than Mr. Preble’s rate of travel northward, but was not at its height when he reached the delta of the Mackenzie on June 30.

UNITED STATES OFFICIAL REPORT.

Mr. Preble in his published report (North American Fauna No. 27) presents a map of the Northland, showing the “life zone.” What he calls “the Canadian zone” extends from the southern margin of the map to an irregular line trending in a northwesterly direction from a point about 52·30° north latitude, just south of Hudson bay, to a point about 58·30° north latitude at Rocky mountains. The main irregularity in the course of the northern boundary of this zone is due to a wedge shaped projection into the zone to the north, due to the well known northern trend of the isothermal lines from a point in eastern Saskatchewan. The line from about longitude 150° runs direct across Lake Athabaska, cutting it in half practically, then to the mouth of Slave river on Great Slave lake, thence in a sweep to where the 65th parallel of north latitude strikes the Mackenzie. Thence the line runs back southeast to the Liard, following that stream to the western margin of the map.

North of the “Canadian” zone, the “Hudsonian” zone is represented, its northern limit being an irregular line running northwesterly from north latitude 55·11° on Hudson bay to the delta of the Mackenzie. This zone is represented as extending northward in wedge shaped projections for some distance down the valley of the Dubawnt, down that of the Coppermine, and into the lake country north of Great Bear lake. All of the country north of this is described by Mr. Preble as the “Arctic zone.”

Mr. Preble remarks in his report:—“The northern border of the Canadian zone in the Mackenzie region limits the successful cultivation of barley, potatoes, and the more hardy root crops, although with special care most of them are raised in certain favoured localities in the southern part of the Hudsonian. Even in the Canadian, however, an occasional failure occurs, in the case of the less hardy crops, because of the occurrence of unusually late spring or early autumn frosts. In most parts of Peace river valley, and even in lower Liard valley, wheat is a successful crop. Peas, potatoes, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, cabbages, lettuce and onions are raised with a considerable degree of success as far north as Fort Norman, near latitude 65°, near the northern extremity of the Canadian strip. Nearly all of these meet with a fair amount of success at Fort Rae and also at Fort Good Hope, in the lower Hudsonian, but at Fort Rae the situation is specially favourable as regards slope exposure, and the permanent frost, which remains near the surface in most parts of the Hudsonian, probably retreats to a much lower depth. At Fort Good Hope the almost continuous sunlight of summer probably compensates in part for its extreme northern position.”

The importance of these extracts from Mr. Preble’s report lies in the fact that this is an official report of a trained, scientific explorer who has lived in the north country for months, who has travelled extensively, and whose sole object as a responsible salaried official of a foreign country is to provide indisputable data for scientific study.

AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER’S TESTIMONY.

Mr. Alfred H. Harrison, the English traveller and explorer (See p. 22), in his volume “In Search of a Polar Continent” relates that just as he was leaving Fort Simpson in 1905 for the descent of the lower Mackenzie “Père Vacher appeared with a sack of potatoes which he had grown in his own garden, and which were as good as any we can get at home.”

When Mr. Harrison reached the post at the mouth of Arctic Red river on October 4, he found that that tributary had been frozen fast for three weeks, and it was reported that a few miles lower down the Mackenzie itself was ice-locked.

In his account of his return trip up the Mackenzie in 1907, Mr. Harrison writes (p. 268):—“On July 25 we arrived at Fort Good Hope, where I was glad once more, to meet Mr. Gaudet, who, it will be remembered, was in charge of this post. I was particularly impressed here by the gardens which I visited. They produced fine crops of nearly every kind of vegetable that we grow at home. I did not, indeed, see either pease or beans, but I noted how very fine the potatoes and cabbages were, as also the onions, beet root, lettuces, and turnips. We took some of these vegetables on board, and they tasted every whit as good as they looked”.

Mr. Harrison devotes several pages of his book to what he describes as the commercial geography of the country extending from Athabaska to the delta of the Mackenzie. He writes:—

AS TO ILLINOIS, IOWA AND MISSOURI.

“The natural resources of this country are very great. I remember once hearing my father say that the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri were commonly believed, when he was a young man, to be barren wastes, where agriculture was impossible, and where no white men could live, but that by the few who knew of the capabilities of that region great hopes were entertained of its future. To-day these very states are the most productive in the Union. In like manner one might be tempted to hazard a prophecy as to the importance and prosperity of that country, so vast, but so little known, which lies to the north of the new province of Alberta; and, accordingly, I will venture briefly to submit an estimate of the commercial prospects of what may well be a career of immense industrial expansion which seems to await the great region now known as Mackenzie river basin.

“Canada, be it remembered, has an area greater than that of the United States, and at the last census (that of 1901) the smaller country showed a population of eighty millions, as against the mere five millions at which the larger was registered. If, therefore, the resources of the larger of these two countries are relatively as great, the scantier population will admit of being increased fifteen times. The question of resources thereupon emerges, and before speaking of these in detail, it may be noted (1) that the soil here is as good as in other parts of the Dominion; and (2) that the winters are not more severe than those which are undergone in other portions of Canada. Six months, moreover, of open water may be reckoned upon—from the beginning of May to the beginning of November. The lakes and rivers abound with fish; there are inconnu, or Mackenzie salmon, whitefish, pike, and suckers, doré, trout, and herrings. The large inland sheets of water—such as Great and Lesser Slave lakes, Athabaska and Bear lakes—teem with fish, which forms to-day the staple food of the scanty inmates of these tracts. The fishing, indeed, would of itself be no slight asset were there any means of shipping the produce out of the country.

“This brings me to the subject of transport. Population will not merely increase with, but will itself enable the increase of,

THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION.

The two will advance, like a couple of boys playing at leap-frog, each by the aid of the other—and will advance, like those youngsters, ‘by leaps and bounds.’ As the settlers become more frequent the great waterways will be rendered navigable, and their banks, like the land abutting the railways that will make a trellis-work of the country, will be dotted with noble cities and with prosperous towns. There are at the present day three huge tracts that would quickly be inhabited were they invaded by the locomotive. A railroad from Edmonton to Athabaska river would give access to two hundred and ten miles of waterway, in one direction, up to Lesser Slave lake, and one hundred and sixty-five miles of stream running down to Grand rapids. A railroad from Edmonton to Peace river would open up six hundred miles of a river yet finer, and running through a finer country, than that approached by the first-named line. The third railway to be looked for would connect Athabaska river at McMurray with Prince Albert, hereby giving easy access to the name-sake lake from this fort.

“It might be objected that there are no markets in this country, but this objection we have already virtually forestalled. Given the spread of railways and the inflow of settlers, the establishment of markets will follow as a matter of course. Let me conclude my statement of the country’s capabilities by mentioning its lime and stone, its oil and gas, its asphaltum, coal, and salt.

“In cherishing these sanguine hopes as to its future, I do not think I am alone. They are shared by a few who have gone off the beaten tracks, and made themselves acquainted with the country. When the immensity of these northern lands is realized, one cannot wonder that few men should be familiar with them. In my travels there I have met with only one man who really knows the country from end to end, and if asked whether he did so, he would doubtless answer that he did not. I refer to Mr. Conroy (of the Indian Department) who has traversed its entire length year after year, has departed from the beaten tracks, and has in many places penetrated far into the interior. How, then, in the absence of railways, can men whose enterprise and qualifications are less eminent than his obtain in a lifetime an adequate knowledge of this outlying region?”

MOUNTED POLICE REPORTS.

We get some interesting information regarding unknown or little known sections of the Mackenzie country from recent reports of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police.

Inspector Jarvis, C.M.G., in the report of one of his patrols in 1907 into the wood buffalo country about Fort Smith and the Little Buffalo, wrote:—“We went westerly from Fort Smith through a level dry country, covered with jackpine and poplar for about nine miles, following nearly the course of Slave river to Gravel point, where we turned southwesterly through a region of swamps and muskegs for nine miles more. This brought us to Salt river where we camped for the night. The next day we went northwesterly along the banks of Salt river, in a region of extensive prairies, some of them wet, some dry, but all covered with a fine growth of grass and capable of supplying unlimited quantities of hay. After three miles we came to the crossing of Salt river, and went up the thickly wooded slope of Salt mountain, which is here, as farther south, a plateau of no great elevation. From there on the country was beautiful, the ground was slightly rolling with occasional lakes, the soil rich, and the timber, spruce, poplar, jackpine and tamarack. The pasture was of the richest description, so that the horses fared well in spite of the swarms of the mosquitoes and bulldogs (flies). We now left the mountain to cross this open stretch and at noon reached the east side of this prairie, where we camped. Thence forward we travelled through dry poplar woods of scattered large trees, under which the richest grass abounded. The whole of this region seemed ideal for stock. About 3 p.m. we once more reached Salt river, and followed its banks through the same dry poplar country to its junction with Slave river, which we reached at six o’clock. A boat was handy so we put all baggage in this, and swam the horses, camping for the night. On June 28 we broke camp at 8 a.m. and rode southerly for two miles through a dense growth of spruce, varied with a few stumps. This gave place to the open poplar woods with rich pasture which continued for seven miles, bringing us to Gravel point.

“There is a good deal of swamp in this region. There is, however, much land that is dry, rich, and eminently suited for ranching and mixed farming.”

The inspector relates how, northeast of Little Buffalo river, “we came to the top of the mountain and had a clear view of a great extent of country below us. To the north were some muskegs, but northeast were the open plains of Salt river stretching away for many miles.”

LIARD IN 1909.

Sergeant (at that date Corporal) A. H. L. Mellor, Royal Northwest Mounted Police, made a patrol from Smith Landing to Fort Liard in 1909. In his report he says:—“Fort Liard enjoys a much more temperate climate than this country (Fort Smith) and splendid gardens are raised there. The Roman Catholic mission has been growing wheat and barley there for a considerable time, always with success. I am sending herewith a sample of their last year’s wheat.”

Sergeant Mellor ascended Buffalo river from Great Slave lake in 1910 and made detours inland on foot at several points for the purpose of getting some idea of the nature of the country, and found the whole region to be of a swampy nature, with here and there a sandy stretch. Along the southern shore of Buffalo lake is a “dreary muskeg country, thicketed with dwarf spruce and riddled with innumerable streams of water, both sulphur and clear.”

HAY RIVER AND RESOLUTION.

Sergeant R. Field, in charge of the Chipewyan sub-district, under date August, 1909, reported:—“The gardens at Hay river and Resolution look very promising, especially the potato crop. The Reverend Vale at Hay river informed me that he grew one thousand bushels of potatoes last year on three acres of land, and also splendid cabbages and cauliflowers, besides all other kinds of vegetables. The potato crop at Chipewyan is going to be very poor this year owing to the extremely hot weather and very little rain.”

In his annual report for 1910-11, Superintendent G. E. Sanders, D.S.O., commanding at Athabaska, gives this interesting reference:—“As regards weather conditions the winter of 1910-11 was one of the coldest known, the thermometer at different times in January and February registering 60° below zero at Athabaska, Lesser Slave lake and Fort Vermilion. In the far north the same months were cold, but the thermometer did not go as low, 58° being the severest at Fort McPherson and 40° at Herschell island. Forty below on the coast, however, would be much more trying than 60° below inland. It is interesting to note that Athabaska river and Mackenzie river, one thousand eight hundred miles farther north, froze over within four days of each other, the former on November 8 and the latter on November 4. The ice left the Athabaska on April 22, and the Mackenzie on May 13.”

TO THE EAST OF THE MACKENZIE.

It will no doubt be remarked that so far very little has been said with reference to arable land and agriculture in that section of the territory to which this chapter is devoted, east of the actual valley of Mackenzie river itself. This is easily explained.

In the first place, except at Fort Rae on the north arm of Great Slave lake, no attempts at practical agriculture have been made in the eastern division of the region being treated of, for there are no posts there. Fort Confidence and Fort Franklin on Great Bear lake, and Fort Enterprise near the head waters of the Coppermine, were never ordinary trading posts, being merely winter headquarters, deserted by their tenants as soon as travelling was practicable.

In the second place, the question of the country’s agricultural possibilities have not been considered by the few lightly equipped explorers who have hurried through sections of it intent upon some special mission or other. The only references we find in the journals of such travellers as have ventured through this region in summer, are such as we get in Mr. Preble’s account of his trip via the lake, river and portage route from Great Slave lake to Great Bear lake, when he states that on August 24 “Currants (_Ribes rubrum_ and _prostratum_) were abundant and ripe” along the route.

Doctor Richardson (See p. 13), commenting upon the observations made by himself and colleagues of the Franklin expedition at Fort Franklin at the southwest corner of Great Bear lake, gives the following notes regarding the progression of the seasons:—“The relative temperatures of December, January, and February differ considerably; any one of these months may be the coldest in different years. In some years snow exposed to the sun thaws very slightly during these months; in other winters there is no thaw whatever. The snow attains its greatest depth, about three feet, in March. By April 10, the snow begins to thaw decidedly in the sunshine. From May 1 to May 6, the earlier waterfowl arrive. The small streams break up about May 10 or 12. Between the middle and the end of May, most of the small birds arrive. At the end of May or early in June, the earlier shrubs and herbaceous plants flower and sprout their leaves. Frogs are heard at the same time. By the last week of May there is

BRIGHT LIGHT AT MIDNIGHT.

No snow, excepting the remains of deep drifts, is left. On June 8 (1826), the small lake was clear of ice, having been frozen for two hundred and forty days. By the middle of June the summer is fairly established. Great Bear lake begins to break up about June 20, and drift ice sometimes obstructs navigation until the first or second week in August. By July 25 blueberries (_vaccinium uliginosum_) are ripe. At the beginning of August or first of September snow falls. Several frosts set in by the last of September. In October, when the soil begins to freeze, the summer thaw has penetrated about twenty-one inches, beneath which the ground is perpetually frozen. The small lakes are frozen over by October 10 or 12, and the last of the waterfowl depart. The bays of Great Bear lake are filled with new ice by the end of October or early in November, but the centre of the lake does not freeze over until December. The ice attains a thickness of about eight feet.”

Bear river opens at its head early in May, the result (according to Richardson) of its being fed by warm water from the depths of the lake. Probably from the same cause the lake remains open at the outlet until very late in the autumn, or throughout the winter. At the rapid of Bear river the ice forms from the bottom and sides and finally completely blocks the stream. The resulting overflow continually adds to the volume of ice, which reaches an enormous thickness. The heat of an ordinary summer is insufficient to melt this mass entirely, and great quantities of it usually exist on the south or sheltered bank throughout the season. This vast accumulation of ice probably prevents the lower part of the river from opening as soon as the early disruption of its upper part would seem to justify. Richardson states that the lower part usually opens in June, while Petitot gives the usual time as the last of May. In 1904 it was already open when the Mackenzie broke up at Fort Norman on May 21.

Great Bear lake, according to the Geological Survey, has an area of approximately eleven thousand four hundred square miles and lies three hundred and ninety-one feet above the level of the sea. Its shores, with the exception of parts of MacTavish bay, are rather low.

The area between Great Bear lake and the Arctic coast is said to be fifty thousand square miles, or about equal to England in size. It is nearly all to the north of the Arctic circle, and it is doubtful if it has any agricultural value, unless Doctor Grenfell’s idea of introducing reindeer ranching as a commercial enterprise develops.

ANDERSON RIVER COUNTRY.

According to Mr. MacFarlane’s description of Anderson river region, north of Great Bear lake, the greater part of the ground is every season covered with short grasses, mosses, and small flowering plants, while patches of sedgy or peaty soil occur at longer or shorter distances. On these, as well as along the smaller rivulets and river and lake banks, Labrador tea, crow-berries, and a few other kinds of berries, dwarf birch, willows, etc., grow. Large flat spaces had the honeycombed appearance usually presented in early spring by land which has been turned over in the autumn. There were few signs of vegetation on these, while some sandy and many other spots were virtually sterile.

The area between Great Bear lake, the Mackenzie and the western part of Great Slave lake, represents some thirty-five thousand square miles. With respect to this region, the indefatigable missionary, Abbé Petitot, made numerous journeys through it, of which he subsequently published an account. They are, however, merely valuable on geographical and geological grounds. References to these reports will be found elsewhere.

Mr. Preble states in his report:—“To the westward of the northern arm, and north of the main body of Great Slave lake, lies a low, broad plateau, dotted with many lakes and muskegs. It contains no rivers of consequence and is mainly rather thinly wooded, though a number of large prairies occur in the western part, north of the outlet of Great Slave lake.”

RUSSIAN PROVINCES IN THE SAME LATITUDE.

Reference has already been made in this chapter to an interesting comparison made by Wm. Ogilvie, D.L.S., between the Mackenzie country and Finland and Scandinavia.

In his examination before the Senate committee of 1888, Doctor G. M. Dawson instituted a comparison between parts of northwestern Canada and a province of northern European Russia as follows:—“I have a few notes here worth considering while we are dealing with the question of this northern country. I looked up the circumstances of the northern provinces of Russia and I found that the province of Russia which seemed to compare most nearly with that shown on this map, both in its relation in Russia to the Atlantic, corresponding to the relation of this country to the Pacific, and also in its latitude, is the province of Vologda. That province has a total area of one hundred and fifty-five thousand, two hundred and sixty-five square miles, and it is chiefly drained to the north like the country shown here. It lies between latitudes 58° and 65°. It is about seven hundred and fifty miles in greatest length and three hundred miles greatest width. It is drained by the Dwina river chiefly. Its products are carried by this river to Archangel and exported thence in vessels by White sea in the same way that we hope this northern country of ours may be served by the Mackenzie and Arctic sea. The mouth of the Dwina is in latitude 65°, only a little south of the latitude of the mouth of the Mackenzie. The climate of the two countries is very similar. The winters are severe and the summers warm. There is no very heavy rainfall, such as we find near the western coasts bordering on the Atlantic and on the Pacific. The exports from that province of Vologda are oats, rye, barley, hemp, flax and pulse. The mineral products are salt, copper, iron and marble. Horses and cattle are reared, while the skins of various wild animals, as well as pitch and turpentine, are exported. This province supports a population of one million, one hundred and sixty-one thousand inhabitants.[19]

“That province is not in Siberia but in Russia proper. Now, we have areas to the north which may make several provinces like Vologda, and for the purpose of illustrating this point I have made a very rough calculation here, which as it is founded largely on suppositions, is perhaps scarcely worthy of being presented to the committee, but may serve to give an idea. With reference to the agricultural area of Peace river, I confine myself to a tract roughly marked on the map as to which I have some personal knowledge. Without going over what I have already written in reply to that question and which is largely embodied in a report published some years ago, I may say that the area which is included in the upper portion of Peace river country, is about thirty-one thousand five hundred square miles. The proportion which I estimated as arable land is twenty-three thousand, five hundred square miles. That would give ninety-four thousand quarter-sections if it were subdivided. Reckoning a family of five persons on each, that area would be capable of supporting a population of four hundred and seventy thousand, or in round figures say five hundred thousand. I do not think it would be at all beyond the mark (though I am speaking now from the report of others, because I have not been farther down Peace river myself) to assume that there is another area at least equally great of arable land in Mackenzie valley to the north of this. That will give another population of say five hundred thousand. Now, if we take the headwaters of the Mackenzie and the Yukon west of the mountains, I think we shall be well within the limits of probability if we say that we have there thirty thousand square miles of that region which may be cultivated with advantage. This, on the same basis as before, would support a population of six hundred thousand persons, or a total of say one million, five hundred thousand persons in Mackenzie valley, and adjacent tracts, to the north altogether of the Saskatchewan watershed, and on the west of the mountains, north of British Columbia. I think we might, without exaggeration, by including miners, fur traders, hunters, lumbermen and those engaged in transport or trade, besides those in outlying fertile sections not included in this—double the total just arrived at. This will give us a population of three million people in that part of the Dominion alone. As I am not personally familiar with lower Mackenzie region east of the mountains, I may have underestimated its value.

A SIBERIAN PROVINCE.

Along the same lines the late Robert E. Young, D.L.S., at that time Superintendent of Railway Lands and Chief Geographer, giving evidence before the select standing committee of the Canadian House of Commons on Agriculture and Colonization, March 11, 1908, instituted in a graphic manner a comparison between Mackenzie basin and the Siberian province of Tobolsk.

Mr. Young had prepared a map of the province of Tobolsk drawn to the same scale as a map of Canada hanging in the room, and attached the small map to the larger, overlying part of the valley of the Mackenzie, taking care that the lines of latitude corresponded exactly.

This demonstrated that rather more than half the province of Tobolsk is north of the 60th parallel, which is the southern limit of the country immediately under discussion, although the southern portion of the Russian province extends in a narrow point as far south as 52° 15′′, its general southern boundary is, in latitude, about ten miles north of Athabaska or one hundred miles north of Winnipeg.

Mr. Young proceeded to point out on the map of Tobolsk, the location of the chief cities of the Russian province:—Tobolsk, with a population of twenty thousand, four hundred and twenty-seven, situated at exactly the latitude of Fort Vermilion on Peace river; and Omsk, on the line of the great Siberian Railway, with a population of thirty-seven thousand, four hundred and seventy, situated at a spot corresponding with a point ten miles north of Athabaska, and about a hundred miles north of Edmonton. Mr. Young also pointed out the situation of the city of Tomsk, with fifty-two thousand and five population, a province adjoining Tobolsk, situated at about the same latitude as Chipewyan on Lake Athabaska, or a trifle farther north. Mr. Young went on to explain that in 1900 the population of the province of Tobolsk was one million five hundred thousand.[20]

A LARGE TOWN NORTH OF WRIGLEY’S LATITUDE.

Asked how far north the line of habitation extended, Mr. Young replied:—“I might say that two-thirds of the way up we find a road marked on the map which would indicate settlement, I suppose. I also have figures here of the population of some eight or ten towns in the province of Tobolsk. There is one of one thousand, another of three thousand, another of seven thousand, one of eight thousand, and so on. The farthest north is the town of Bere-zoff, with a population of one thousand two hundred and in latitude 63·50°” (some ten miles north of Fort Wrigley).

Mr. Young, being asked as to the number of convicts who had been sent into Tobolsk, replied:—“I do not know as to that. Whether they were convicts or not, in 1900 they raised six million, four hundred and eighty thousand bushels of wheat, three million odd bushels of rye, nine hundred and seventy-two thousand bushels of barley, and ten million, six hundred and seventeen thousand bushels of oats. These figures are contained in the Encyclopedia Britannica.” (In 1906 the figures were:—Wheat, eleven million, seven hundred and seventy-nine thousand bushels; rye, four million, three hundred and forty-four thousand bushels; barley, eight hundred and twenty-nine thousand bushels; oats, thirteen million, eight hundred and eighteen thousand bushels).[21]

Asked if it was not the southern portion of the province in which most of these crops were raised, Mr. Young replied:—“It certainly would be. I think there is no question that it would be in the most southerly portion. All the information I have would go to show that settlement would not extend to the most northerly regions. Still the fact that there were towns of one thousand people in the northern portion would go to show that there must be something being done there that would support a town of that size. I have tried to work out some parallel between the climatic conditions there and our own country, but I am not able to give it to you exactly. I think that the figures given by the Russian government would probably be the most favourable that they could furnish. The mean temperature for the period from September 1 to June 1, which would include the winter months—I think that is all it is necessary to discuss—would for the province of Tobolsk be practically the

SAME TEMPERATURE AS AT FORT SIMPSON.

It is a very striking thing that a million and a half of people live in that province, and that they raised six million, four hundred and eighty thousand bushels of wheat in 1900. Surely if our country is as good as we think it is, we ought to people it to as great and even a greater extent, and to complete the parallel between the two, I think I can say without any hesitation that we have something which they have not got, and that is the benefit of British institutions.”

Mr. Young, later on in his evidence, remarked that there are a great many other statistics about Siberia that are interesting. For instance, from a province adjoining Tobolsk they exported forty thousand pounds of honey in 1900.

SAMPLES OF NORTHERN GROWN WHEAT.

Mr. Young, during his examination upon the occasion here referred to, gave a great deal of information regarding agricultural development and possibilities in the Mackenzie country. He showed the committee a sample of Ladoga wheat grown at Fort Simpson, and in producing it said:—“I got it from Doctor Saunders, Director of Experimental Farms. Fort Simpson is the farthest north of these red points[22] just short of latitude 62° or just about it. I showed that wheat to a gentleman who is accounted an authority on the subject, and I think you could not get a better authority; I am referring to Senator Finlay Young. I said, ‘Mr. Young, would you please look at that wheat, but do not refer to the label on the bottle, and tell me what you think of it?’ Mr. Young examined the sample in the way that men who are experts on wheat often do. I think he saw nearly every grain of it; he took good care to do so. He said, ‘It is very nice wheat, I would call it good wheat. It has been slightly frosted, but I think that wheat would go about sixty-four pounds to the bushel.’ Well, the label on the sample says ‘Ladoga wheat, grown at Fort Simpson on Mackenzie river, sixty-two pounds to the bushel.’”

Producing another sample of grain, Mr. Young remarked:—“Now gentlemen, here is a sample of wheat from Fort Vermilion.” I showed that also to Senator Young and got his opinion on it. In both instances he expressed his opinion before he knew where either of the samples came from. He said, “That is pretty nice wheat. It is not so nice a wheat as the other, but I think it would make first rate flour; it is good wheat.”

BETTER RESULTS EXPECTED.

Mr. Young, in his evidence, drew attention to the fact that the posts in the far north at which grain had been grown had not been selected for wheat raising, but because they were convenient locations for the fur trade. He proceeded:—“I want to discuss that point a little further. I say there are three reasons why we can expect better results in wheat raising in our northern country than has been accomplished up to the present time.

“(1) I will quote what Professor Macoun has stated in a pamphlet relating to the Yukon:—‘When grain ripens in the country and is again sown there, it will take on the conditions of its environment and mature earlier, and early frosts like those attributed to Manitoba will have no effect, as the crop will mature before they come. I may remark here that the wheat in the northwest ripens earlier now than it did twenty years ago, and many people believe that it is the climate that has changed, whereas it is only that the wheat has adapted itself to its environment.’ I think that any gentleman who has been following the trend of affairs in the northwest will agree with me that the conditions are better with respect to possible injury by summer frosts than they were twenty years ago. I think that cannot be questioned. That is one reason that is given.

“(2) Now, a few days ago, I asked a gentleman who is better able to express an opinion on the point than I am, what he thought of that statement of Professor Macoun’s. He said:—‘I don’t altogether agree with that statement. I do not hesitate at all in saying that the improvement is marked, but I will account for it in another way. If you raise wheat on virgin soil on the prairie it will grow to perhaps about the height of a man’s shoulder the first year. The next year it will not be quite so high. The third year it will be perhaps not so high as the second year, but it will mature earlier. Devote that land to some other use for a year or two and then go back to the cultivation of wheat again, and you will get the wheat growing to the height of about the second or third year, but it will mature earlier. The soil is sharpened.’ He explained to me that in Red river valley, where the land is heavier, it would take very many years to bring about that result, and it would not be of so much value to this generation, but in the lighter soil, farther west, it has a marked effect, and, as he argued, there is no question about it.

“(3) The third reason why we can expect better results in that north country is because the staff at the Experimental Farm have been steadily carrying on experiments with a view to obtaining a variety of wheat that will ripen a few days earlier, and if they can shorten the term for the ripening of wheat by four or five days or a week, it will bring into the certain line, as to wheat growing, an enormous area of land. There is no question about it. They have accomplished some good things already, and they expect to accomplish a great deal more.”

Mr. Young stated before the committee on this occasion that “there is no question about it that in the north country there are grasses of the greatest possible value to cattle raising, finer grasses than there are in other parts of the northwest.”

PROFESSOR MACOUN’S ESTIMATE STILL HOLDS.

Speaking in his evidence generally about the suitability of the far northwestern country for agricultural pursuits, and specially discussing the climatic condition, Mr. Young remarked:—“About three weeks ago I wrote to Professor Macoun and gave him a list of questions about that country to which I asked him to give me answers. I think it is a very remarkable thing that in his reply he says: ‘In my report to Mr. Alexander Mackenzie in 1877, just when I was fresh in the northwest, I gave details about certain districts of the northland which I could not give in a letter, but I would suggest that extracts from this report may be taken and placed upon file with this letter, as my statements and conclusions as printed thirty years ago still remain without impeachment at the present time.’ I think it is a remarkable thing that with respect to the country through which Professor Macoun went in 1872 and 1873, and which excited his enthusiasm—this is the country that I am trying to tell you about—he now says of it: ‘My statements remain without impeachment at the present time.’ Now, he speaks in this letter of two facts that I think are very striking. He says, ‘In conclusion, I may say that the climate of the whole northland is a stable one, and as local conditions change it will improve, and where small spots are now called good land, whole areas will take that term. The low altitude and the long day are fixed conditions and will always be the same. The forest will be cleared and the muskegs drained, and as the land becomes drier the frosty conditions will pass away and a good country will result.’”

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[18] Franklin (“Narrative of a Journey, etc.”) relates that the thermometer during the month of October, 1820, at Fort Enterprise (headwaters of the Coppermine) never rose above 37° but never fell below 5°. The mean temperature for the month was 23°. The highest temperature at the same place in the following April was 40° above zero, the lowest 32° below. The mean was 4° above zero. May 9, the snow had disappeared from the ground. The first robin appeared May 14. The average temperature for May was nearly 32° above zero; the greatest heat 68° and the lowest 8°. At the end of the month there was constant daylight.

When the Franklin expedition was at Fort Franklin (west side of Great Bear lake) in 1826, the first flower was gathered on May 27. (“Narrative of a Second Expedition, etc.”)

[19] The population of Vologda, in 1910, the latest available, was one million, five hundred and ninety-seven thousand, five hundred, or ten per square mile. (E. J. C.)

[20] The figures for 1906 were:—city of Tobolsk, twenty thousand, eight hundred; Omsk, forty-three thousand, four hundred; province of Tobolsk, one million, six hundred and fifty-six thousand, seven hundred. In 1910, the total population of the province of Tobolsk was given as one million, seven hundred and sixty-nine thousand, eight hundred. According to latest statistics available the population of the four million, eight hundred and seventeen thousand, six hundred and eighty-seven square miles comprising Siberia is eight million, two hundred and twenty thousand, one hundred. Siberia in 1910 raised one hundred and seventy million poods of cereals. A pood equals thirty-six pounds. E. J. C.

[21] According to a blue book issued by the Board of Trade of Great Britain in 1905, the province of Tobolsk in 1901 contained three million, eight hundred and four thousand, eight hundred and forty-seven head of life stock, and from one district alone, viz: Kurgan (about the latitude of Peace river) there was exported in 1902, nineteen million, seven hundred and eleven thousand, four hundred and forty-six pounds of butter, which was largely marketed in Great Britain. E. J. C.