Chapter II: The Keewatin Area (3)

Mr. William Beech, for many years back, and still, a resident of Churchill, in a communication to the press in 1911, wrote:—“The opinion generally entertained concerning the country around the bay and at Churchill is that it is a barren waste, covered with ice and snow for the greater part of the year, and devoid of any vegetation whatever. The opinion is an erroneous one. At the head of the bay there is an area of from two thousand to three thousand acres where in the summer months good hay can be cut, and which Professor Macoun has pronounced as affording excellent forage. There are many other places also where the same condition exists, and where the country is covered with a rich thick growth of grass. It would surprise you, wouldn’t it, if I should tell you that there are at least half a dozen different species of wild fruit which flourish in great abundance in the rocks and among the mosses throughout the country round the bay. Wild black and red currants, gooseberries, cranberries, crowfoot berries, and baked apple berries may be gathered by the bushel in season, and make the very best of preserves, so that we don’t really have to depend on dried apples up there as many of you imagine. As for vegetables, I have seen radishes, lettuce, and turnips raised right at Churchill.

“Of course it is generally understood that the winter climate of the country round the bay is usually very severe. The lowest temperature I have experienced there, however, was 39° below zero on Nov. 29, 1906, with a strong wind blowing from the bay, which intensified the cold. It is exceedingly rare to have winds off the bay in the winter months. In winter the wind is generally from the west and northwest, while in summer it is generally from the east and northeast. I have always found the thermometer lower one hundred and fifty miles inland. It can never be called dark in the north, even in the depth of winter.”

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[14] It will be observed that part of this evidence treats of other districts than the one immediately under consideration; but it cannot conveniently be eliminated here without awkwardly dislocating Mr. Tyrrell’s evidence.—(E. J. C.).