The Geographical Conditions of the Canadian Dominion
Before we continue to follow the adventures of the pioneers of British
North America, I think--even if it seems wearisome and discursive--my
readers would better understand this story if I placed before them a
general description of what is now the Dominion of Canada, more
particularly as it was seen and discovered by the earliest European
explorers.
The most prominent feature on the east, and that which was nearest to
Europe, was the large island of NEWFOUNDLAND, 42,000 square miles in
extent, that is to say, nearly as large as England without Wales. It
seems to bar the way of the direct sea access by the Gulf of St.
Lawrence to the very heart of North America; and, until the Straits of
Belle Isle and of Cabot were discovered, did certainly arrest the
voyages of the earliest pioneers. Newfoundland, as you can see on the
map, has been cut into and carved by the forces of nature until it has
a most fantastic outline. Long peninsulas of hills alternate with
deep, narrow gulfs, and about the south-east and east coasts there are
innumerable islets, most of which in the days of the early discoverers
were the haunt of millions of sea birds who resorted there for
breeding purposes. The heart of Newfoundland, so to speak, is an
elevated country with hills and mountains rising to a little over 2000
feet. A great deal of the country is, or was, dense forests, chiefly
consisting of fir trees. As numerous almost as the sea birds were the
seals and walruses which frequented the Newfoundland coasts. Inland
there were very large numbers of reindeer, generally styled nowadays
by the French-Canadian name of _Caribou_[1]. Besides reindeer there
were wolves, apparently of a smaller size than those of the mainland.
There were also lynxes and foxes, besides polar bears, martens,
squirrels, &c. The human inhabitants of Newfoundland, whom I shall
describe in the next chapter, were known subsequently by the name of
Beothuk, or Beothik, a nickname of no particular meaning. They had
evidently been separated for many centuries from contact with the
Amerindians of the mainland, though they may have been visited
occasionally on the north by the Eskimo. They had in fact been so long
separated from the other Amerindians of North America that they were
strikingly different from them in their habits, customs, and language.
[Footnote 1: The first Frenchmen visiting North America, and seeing
the caribou without their horns, thought they were a kind of wild ass.
The reindeer of Newfoundland is a sub-species peculiar to this
island.]
The climate of Newfoundland is not nearly so cold as that of the
mainland, nor so hot in summer, but it is spoilt at times by fogs and
sea mists which conceal the landscape for days together. In the
wintertime, and quite late in the spring, quantities of ice hang about
the shores of the islands, and when the warm weather comes, these
accumulations of ice slip away into the Atlantic in the form of
icebergs and are most dangerous to shipping.
To the south-east of Newfoundland the sea is very shallow for hundreds
of miles, the remains no doubt of a great extension of North America
in the direction of Europe which had sunk below the surface ages ago.
In this shallow water--the "Banks" of Newfoundland--fish, especially
codfish, swarmed in millions, and still continue to swarm with little,
if any, diminution from the constant toll of the fishing fleets.
Another creature found in great abundance on these coasts is the true
lobster,[2] which filled as important a part in the diet of the
Beothuk natives, before the European occupation, as the salmon did in
the dietary of the British Columbian tribes.
[Footnote 2: _Homarus americanus_. The lobster of Newfoundland and the
coasts of North-east America is closely related to the common lobster
of British waters. These true lobsters resemble the freshwater
crayfish in having their foremost pair of legs modified into large,
unequal-sized claws. The European rock-lobster of the Mediterranean
and French coasts (the _langouste_ of the French) has no large claws.]
The next most striking feature in the geography of Eastern North
America is NOVA SCOTIA. AS you look at it on the map this province
seems to be a long peninsula connected with the mainland by the narrow
isthmus of Chignecto; but its northernmost portion--Cape
Breton--really consists of two big and two little islands, only
separated from Nova Scotia by a very narrow strait--the Gut of Canso.
On the north of Nova Scotia lies the large Prince Edward Island, and
north of this again the small group of the Magdalen Islands,
discovered by Cartier, the resort of herds of immense walruses at one
time. Due west of Nova Scotia the country, first flat (like Nova
Scotia itself) and at one time covered with magnificent forests, rises
into a very hilly region which culminates on the north in the Shikshok
Mountains of the Gaspé Peninsula (nearly 4000 feet in height) and the
White Mountains (over 6000 feet) and the Adirondak Mountains (over
5000 feet). The White, the Green, and the Adirondak Mountains lie just
within the limits of the United States.
North of the Gaspé Peninsula, in the great Gulf of St. Lawrence, is
Anticosti Island, which rises on the south in a series of terraces
until it reaches an altitude of about 2000 feet. This island, which is
well wooded, was said to have swarmed with reindeer at one time, and
perhaps other forms of deer also, and to have possessed grizzly bears
which fed on the deer, besides Polar bears visiting it in the winter.
[Illustration: MAP OF CANADA]
Newfoundland is separated from the mainland of LABRADOR on the north
by the Strait of Belle Isle, and from Cape Breton Island on the south
by Cabot Strait. Labrador is an immense region on the continent, where
the coast (except for the deep inlet of Melville Lake) soon rises into
an elevated plateau 2000 feet in height, which is strewn with almost
uncountable lakes, out of which rivers flow north, south, east, and
west. On the north-east corner of Labrador there are mountains from
3000 to 4000 feet, overlooking the sea. The whole of this vast
Labrador or Ungava Peninsula, which is bounded on the south by the
River and Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the north by Hudson's Bay and
Hudson's Straits, is an inhospitable land, at no time with much
population.
"The winter of Labrador is long and severe; one would need to have
blood like brandy, a skin of brass, and an eye of glass not to suffer
from the rigours of a Labrador winter. In the summer the frequent fogs
render the air damp, and the constant breezes from the immense fields
of ice floating in the gulf keep the land very cool, and make any
alteration in the winter dress almost unnecessary" (James M'Kenzie).
Labrador and the lands farther north on the continent of North America
are separated from Greenland on the east by the broad straits--a great
branch of the Atlantic--named after Davis and Baffin, who first
explored them. Passing up Davis Strait, along the coast of Labrador to
beyond 60° N. lat., the voyager comes to Hudson's Straits, which, if
followed up first to the northwards and then to the south-west, would
lead him into the great expanse of Hudson's Bay, one of the most
important features in the geography of North America.
HUDSON'S BAY, which is a great inland sea with an area of about
315,000 square miles, has a southern loop or extension called James
Bay, the shores of which are not at a very great distance either from
Lake Superior to the south-west, or from the source of the River
Saguenay on the south. The Saguenay flows into the Lower St. Lawrence
River. It is therefore not surprising that as soon as the French began
to settle in Lower Canada they heard of a vast northern inland sea of
salt water--Hudson's Bay. But the people who discovered and surveyed
Hudson's Bay during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth
centuries were always on the search for a passage out of its waters
into the Arctic Sea, which would enable them to get right round
America into the Pacific Ocean.
In Arctic North America Nature really seems to have been preparing
during millions of years a grim joke with which to baffle exploring
humanity! It is easy enough to pass from Davis Straits into Hudson's
Bay, but to get out of Hudson's Bay in the direction of the Arctic
Ocean is like getting out of a very cleverly arranged maze. There are
innumerable false exits, which have disappointed one Arctic explorer
after another. When they had discovered that Hudson's Bay to the south
was only like a great bottle, and had no outlet, they explored its
northern waters; and when they found Chesterfield Inlet on the
north-west, which leads into Baker Lake, they thought perhaps here was
the passage through into the Arctic Sea. But no; that was no good. To
the north of Chesterfield Inlet was a broad channel called Roe's
Welcome, which led into Wager Bay and through frozen straits into
Fox's Channel, and this again into Ross Bay. Here only a very narrow
isthmus separates Hudson's Bay from the Arctic Sea; but still it is an
isthmus of solid land. Turning to the north-east and north there are
the broad waters of Fox's Channel leading into Fox's Basin; but the
north-west corner of this inland sea was so blocked with ice and
islands that it was not until the year 1822 that the _real_ northern
outlet of Hudson's Bay was discovered by Captain EDWARD PARRY to be
the narrow Fury and Hecla Straits (the discovery was not completed
until 1839 by the Hudson's Bay Company's explorers T. SIMPSON and W.
DEASE).
Here you have found the way out into the Gulf of Boothia, which
communicates in the north with Barrow Strait and Baffin's Bay. But
across the supposed peninsula of Boothia there were discovered, in
1847, by Dr. JOHN RAE (also an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company)
the narrow Bellot Straits, which lead into Franklin Straits and so
into M'Clintock Channel and the Arctic Ocean. After this you might
theoretically (if the ice permitted it) sail or steam your ship
through Victoria Straits and Coronation Gulf till you got into
Beaufort Sea (part of the open Arctic Ocean), or, by turning round
Prince Albert Land, pass through the Prince of Wales' Straits or
M'Clure Straits into the same Beaufort Sea.
The North-West Passage across the Arctic extremity of North America,
therefore, _did_ exist after all, and the directest route would be up
Davis Straits, through Hudson's Straits into Fox's Basin, then through
the Fury and Hecla Straits into the Gulf of Boothia, then through the
Bellot Straits and Franklin Straits (past Victorialand and Kemp
Peninsula) and out through the Dolphin and Union Straits into the
Arctic Ocean, and so on round the north coast of Alaska, past Bering's
Straits into Bering Sea and the Pacific. But of course the
accumulations of ice completely block continuous navigation.
The huge jagged island of BAFFIN'S LAND differs from much of Arctic
America in that it has high land rising into mountains. This is so
completely covered with ice that it is of little interest under
present circumstances to the world of civilization, though the large
herds of musk oxen which it once supported were of much use to Arctic
explorers as a food supply in winter. The coasts are inhabited by a
few thousand Eskimo, and Davis Straits and Baffin's Bay possess a
certain amount of commercial importance owing to the whale fisheries
which are carried on there by the British, the Danes, the Americans,
and the Eskimo. In fact the importance of these whale fisheries have
of late made the Americans of the United States a little inclined to
challenge the British possession of these great Arctic islands. North
Devon, North Somerset, Prince of Wales' Land, Melville Island, Banks
Land, Prince Albert Land, &c. &c, are names of other great Arctic
islands completely within the grip of the ice. The nature of their
interior is almost unknown. They are at present of use to no form of
man unless it be to a few wandering Eskimo, who come to their coasts
in the summer to kill seals.
The great NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES of the Canadian Dominion extend from
the American frontier of Alaska (which is the 141° of W. long.) to the
Ungava Peninsula, which abuts on Labrador. Where this vast region
slopes to the Arctic Ocean and Hudson's Bay it is rather low and flat,
except between Alaska and the Mackenzie River, and between the
Mackenzie and the watershed of Hudson's Bay. The principal river
system in the far North-West is that of the great Mackenzie River,
which flows into the Arctic Ocean (Beaufort Sea) through an immense
delta, and is one of the longest rivers in the world. The southernmost
sources of the Mackenzie (such as the Peace River and the Athabaska
River) rise in the Rocky Mountains to the east of British Columbia.
These waters are stored for a time in Lake Athabaska, and then under
the name of Slave River flow northwards into the Great Slave Lake, and
out of this, under the name of Mackenzie River, into Beaufort Sea,
through an immense delta. The Great Bear Lake is also a feeder of the
Mackenzie.
Two other Arctic rivers at one time thought to be of great importance
as means of communication with the Arctic Ocean, are the Great Fish
River, which flows into Elliot Bay, and the Coppermine River, which
enters Coronation Gulf. The other northward-flowing rivers (passing
through innumerable lakes and lakelets) enter Hudson's Bay.
West of the great Mackenzie River rises the northernmost extension of
the Rocky Mountains. All this easternmost part of Alaska, which is
under British control, is a region of great elevation, something like
parts of Central Asia. The streams which rise here unite in the great
Yukon River, and this has its outlet in Bering's Sea. Some points of
the great mountains within the limits of British territory in this
direction reach to nearly 20,000 feet (Mount Logan).
But the climate of the northern parts of the Canadian Dominion differs
very greatly in the west as compared to the east. For instance, the
northern parts of Labrador are cruelly Arctic, hopelessly frozen,
though they are in the same latitude as St. Petersburg (the capital of
European Russia) and as the splendidly forested northern parts of
British Columbia. Eastern Labrador is a region in which explorers have
frequently perished from cold and starvation. Although in the lofty
parts of the Yukon country (three hundred and fifty miles north of
treeless Labrador) the winter is intensely cold, and the ground is
frozen for a considerable depth downwards, all the year round, there
are still great forests; and a white and Amerindian population find it
possible to live there all the year round, while animal life is
extremely abundant. On the other hand, a good deal of the territory
between Mackenzie River and Hudson's Bay is almost uninhabitable,
except during the summertime, owing to the depth of the snow and the
bare rocky nature of the ground.
The treeless area north of Lake Athabaska (the "barren lands" of the
Canadian Dominion) seems to consist of nothing but slabs of rock and
loose stones. Yet this region is far from being without vegetation.
The rock is often covered with a thin or thick sod of lichen
("reindeer moss", in some districts three feet deep) intermixed with
the roots of the wishakapakka herb (_Ledum palustre_, from which
Labrador tea is made), of cranberries, gooseberries, heather (with
white bell flowers), and a dwarf birch. This last, in sheltered places
where a little vegetable soil has been formed, grows into a low
scrubby bush. As to the gooseberries--here and farther south--Hearne
describes them as "thriving best on the stony or rocky ground, open
and much exposed to the sun". They spread along the ground like vines.
The small red fruit is always most plentiful and fine on the under
side of the branches, probably owing to the reflected heat of the
stones. In the bleaker places a hard, black, crumply lichen--the
"Tripe de roche" of the French Canadians (_Gyrophoreus_) grows on the
rocks and stones, and is of great service to the Amerindians, as it
furnishes them with a temporary subsistence when no animal food can be
procured. This lichen, when boiled, turns to a gummy consistence
something like sago. Hearne describes it as being remarkably good when
used to thicken broth; but some other pioneers complained that it made
them and their Indians seriously ill. Another lichen, "reindeer moss"
(_Cladina_), is also eaten by men as well as deer. The _muskegs_, or
bogs and marshes, produce in the summertime a very rapid growth of
grass (as well as breeding swarms of mosquitoes!), and thus furnish
food for the geese and swans which throng them between June and
October.
In the summertime all these northern territories of Canada--from the
basin of Lake Winnipeg, with its white pelicans, to the Arctic
circle--swarm with birds, wild swans, geese, ducks, plovers, grouse,
cranes, eagles, owls of several kinds--especially the great snowy
eagle-owl--red-breasted thrushes, black and white snow-buntings,
scarlet grosbeaks (the female green and grey), crested jays, and
ravens "of a beautiful glossy black, richly tinged with purple", but
smaller in size than those of Europe.
This is also the country for bears. Some grizzlies still linger here.
Their range at one time extended to near the Arctic circle. In
Alaska (British as well as United States) there is an enormous
chocolate-coloured bear, the biggest in the world. The Polar bear,
usually creamy white along the seacoast, is stated to range inland
during the summer over the "barren grounds", and to develop either a
permanent local variety or a seasonal change of coat, which is
greyish-brown or blue-grey.
The black bear in northern Canada is said to give birth at times to
cubs which are cinnamon-brown in colour.
"In the early summer the black bears swim up and down the northern
rivers with their mouths open, swallowing the immense number of water
insects which have come into being at that season." Hearne goes on to
state that bears which have subsisted on this food for some days, when
cut open emit a stench that is intolerable, and which taints their
flesh to a sickening degree. The insects on which they feed are mostly
of two kinds: one a sort of grasshopper with a hard black skin, and
the other a soft, brown, sluggish fly. "This last is the most
numerous. In some of the lakes such quantities are forced into the
bays when the wind blows hard, that they are pressed together in dead
multitudes and remain a great nuisance. I have several times, in my
inland voyages from York Fort (Hudson's Bay), found it scarcely
possible to land in some of those bays for the intolerable stench of
those insects, which in some places were lying in putrid masses to the
depth of two or three feet." It is more than probable that the bears
occasionally feed on these dead insects. After the middle of July,
when they take to a diet of berries, they are excellent eating, and
continue to be so to the end of the winter.
The Arctic foxes of this region when young are sooty black all over,
and gradually change to a light ash-grey in colour, with a dark,
almost blue, tint on the head, legs, and back. In winter they usually
become white all over, with or without a black tip to the tail; but it
is recorded by some travellers that not all the foxes of the _Canis
lagopus_ species turn white; some keep their dark-grey colour all the
year round. The common fox (_C. vulpes fulvus_) in Northern Canada is
sometimes black, with white-tipped hairs. Wolves in these far northern
regions do not seem to have been so abundant as farther south.
The deer tribe are represented (north of the Athabaska region) by the
reindeer and the elk (called by the Canadians "Moose"). The wapiti or
red deer (for which the common Amerindian name in the north was
_Waskesiu_) seldom ranged farther north than the vicinity of Lake
Winnipeg. The reindeer of the "barren ground" sub-species extended to
the Arctic seacoast, and were at one time especially abundant in
Labrador. Here they were so tame, down to a hundred years ago, that
fishermen were often known to shoot many of them from the windows of
their huts near the seashore. This type (_Rangifer tarandus arcticus_)
might possibly be domesticated; not so the larger and much wilder
Caribou woodland reindeer of the more southern and western parts of
the Dominion, which dislikes the neighbourhood of man. The elk or
moose, east of the Rocky Mountains, was not found northward of about
50° to 55°; but west of that range extended over all British Columbia
and Alaska, in which latter country it grows to a giant size and
develops enormous antlers.
Hearne says of the elk in northern Canada: "In summer, when they
frequent the margins of rivers and lakes, they are often killed by the
Indians in the water while they are crossing rivers or swimming from
the mainland to islands, &c. When pursued in this manner, they are
the most inoffensive of all animals, never making any resistance; and
the young ones are so simple that I remember to have seen an Indian
paddle his canoe up to one of them and take it by the poll without the
least opposition; the poor, harmless animal seeming at the same time
as contented alongside the canoe as if swimming by the side of its
dam, and looking up in our faces with the same fearless innocence that
a house lamb would; making use of its fore foot almost every instant
to clear its eyes of mosquitoes, which at that time were remarkably
numerous.... The moose are also the easiest to tame and domesticate of
any of the deer kind. I have repeatedly seen them at Churchill as tame
as sheep, and even more so; for they would follow their keeper any
distance from home, and at his call return with him without the least
trouble, or ever offering to deviate from the path."
The most northern range of the elk would seem to be the region round
Lake Athabaska.
The musk ox (_Ovibos_) is perhaps the most remarkable beast of Arctic
Canada.[3] Samuel Hearne is my principal source for the following
notes as to its habits and appearance: The number of bulls is very few
in proportion to the cows, for it is rare to see more than two or
three full-grown bulls with the largest herd; and from the number of
the males that are found dead, the Indians are of opinion that they
kill each other in contending for the females. In the rutting season
they are so jealous of the cows that they run at either man or beast
who offers to approach them, and have been observed to run and bellow
even at ravens and other large birds which chanced to alight near
them. They delight in the most stony and mountainous parts of the
"barren ground", but are seldom found at any great distance from the
woods. Though they are a beast of great magnitude, and apparently of a
very unwieldy inactive structure, yet they climb the rocks with ease
and agility, and are nearly as surefooted as a goat. Like it, too,
they will feed on anything; and though they seem fondest of grass, yet
in winter, when grass cannot be had in sufficient quantity, they will
eat moss or any other herbage they can find, as also the tops of
willows and the tender branches of the pine tree.
[Footnote 3: The musk ox, which is not an ox, but a creature about
midway in structure and affinities between cattle on the one hand and
sheep and goats on the other, is a large beast comparatively, being
the size of a small ox, but appearing very much larger than it is on
account of the extremely thick coat of hair and wool. Both sexes have
horns, and the horns, after meeting in the middle and making more or
less of a boss over the forehead, droop down at the sides of the
cheeks and then turn up with sharp points. The musk ox once ranged
right across the northern world, from England and Scandinavia, through
Germany, Russia, and Siberia, to Alaska and North America. Many
thousands of years ago, during one of the Glacial periods, it
inhabited southern England. At the present day it is extinct
everywhere, excepting in the eastern parts of Arctic America, not
going west of the Mackenzie River nor south of Labrador. It is also
found in Greenland.]
"The musk ox, when full grown, is as large as the generality of
English black cattle; but their legs, though thick, are not so long,
nor is their tail longer than that of a bear; and, like the tail of
that animal, it always bends downward and inward, so that it is
entirely hid by the long hair of the rump and hind quarters. The hunch
on their shoulders is not large, being little more in proportion than
that of a deer. Their hair is in some parts very long, particularly on
the belly, sides, and hind quarters; but the longest hair about them,
particularly the bulls, is under the throat, extending from the chin
to the lower part of the chest between the fore legs. It there hangs
down like a horse's mane inverted, and is fully as long, which gives
the animal a most formidable appearance. It is of the hair from this
part that the Eskimo make their mosquito wigs (face screens or masks).
In winter the musk oxen are provided with a thick fine wool or fur
that grows at the root of the long hair, and shields them from the
intense cold to which they are exposed during that season; but as the
summer advances this fur loosens from the skin, and by frequently
rolling themselves on the ground it works out to the end of the hair,
and in time drops off, leaving little for their summer clothing except
the long hair. This season is so short in these high latitudes, that
the new fleece begins to appear almost as soon as the old one drops
off, so that by the time the cold becomes severe they are again
provided with a winter dress."
According to Hearne, the flesh of the musk ox does not resemble that
of the bison, but is more like the meat of the moose or wapiti. The
fat is of a clear white, "slightly tinged with a light azure". The
calves and young heifers are good eating, but the flesh of the bulls
both smells and tastes so strongly of musk as to be very disagreeable;
"even the knife that cuts the flesh of an old bull will smell so
strongly of musk that nothing but scouring the blade quite bright can
remove it, and the handle will retain the scent for a long time".
Bisons of the "wood" variety are (or were) found far up the heights of
the Rocky Mountains and in the regions south-west of the Great Slave
Lake. These "wood buffaloes" delight in mountain valleys, and never
resort to the plains. And higher than anything, of course, range the
great white mountain goat-antelopes (_Oreamnus montanus_) from
northern Alaska to the Columbia River.
The north and the north-west were, of course, pre-eminently the great
fur-trading regions, though all parts of the vast Dominion have at one
time or another yielded furs for commerce with the white man. The
principal fur-bearing smaller mammals of the north and north-west were
wolves, foxes, lynxes, gluttons (wolverene), otters, martens (sables)
and black fishing martens, mink (a kind of polecat), ermine-stoats,
weasels, polar hares (_Lepus timidus_), beavers, musquash, lemming,
gopher or pouched ground-squirrels, and the common red squirrel of
North America. The grey squirrel and striped chipmunk are only found
in southern Canada.
The musquash (_Fiber zibethicus_) is such a characteristic animal of
northern Canada that it is worth while to give Hearne's description of
it (I would mention it is really a huge _vole_, and no relation of the
beaver):--
"The musk rat or musquash builds a dwelling near the banks of ponds or
swamps to shelter it from the bitter cold of the winter, but never on
land, always on the ice, as soon as it is firm enough, taking care to
keep a hole open to admit it to dive for its food, which chiefly
consists of the roots of grass or arums. It sometimes happens in very
cold winters that the holes communicating with their dwellings under
the water are so blocked by ice that they cannot break through them.
When this is the case, and they have no provisions left in the house,
they begin to eat one another. At last there may be only one rat left
out of a whole lodge. They occasionally eat fish, but in general feed
very cleanly, and when fat are good eating. They are easily tamed and
soon grow fond of their owner. They are very cleanly and playful, and
'smell exceedingly pleasant of musk', but their resemblance to the rat
is so great that few are partial to them, though of course they are
much larger in size, and have webbed hind feet and a flat scaly tail.
In Canadian regions farther south the musquash no longer builds on the
ice, but in swamps, where it raises heaps of mud like islands in the
surrounding water. On the top of these mounds they build their nests,
and on the top of the musquash nest, or 'lodge', wild geese frequently
lay their eggs and bring forth their young brood without any fear of
being molested by foxes."
The YUKON territories of the Dominion, and above all the State of
BRITISH COLUMBIA, constitute a very distinct region from the rest of
British North America, not only in their tribes of Amerindians but in
their fauna, flora, and climate. British Columbia is one of the most
beautiful and richly endowed countries in the world. Here, in spite
of northern latitudes, the warm airs coming up from the Pacific Ocean
act somewhat in the same way as the Gulf Stream on north-west Europe,
and favour the growth of magnificent forests.
All this north-western part of British Columbia is very mountainous,
and the rocks are rich in minerals, especially gold in the Fraser and
Columbia Rivers, far north in the upper valley of the Yukon, and
copper and coal in Vancouver Island.
The rainfall in British Columbia is considerable, and the
flora--trees, plants, ferns--richer than anywhere else in North
America, with many resemblances to the trees and plants of Japan and
northern China. In British Columbia more than in any other part of the
world are found the noblest developments of the pines, firs, and
junipers (_Coniferæ_).
The coast rivers swarm with salmon, and perhaps because of the
abundance of sea fish close in shore there have been developed in the
course of ages those remarkable aquatic mammals, the sea lions or fur
seals (_Otaria_), whose relationship to the true seals is a very
distant one. On the Alaskan coasts and islands is _Otaria ursina_, the
creature which provides the sealskin fur of commerce. There is also
the much larger sea lion (_Otaria stelleri_), on the coasts of British
Columbia and Vancouver Island. Alexander Henry, jun., gives some
interesting facts about this remarkable beast.
"The natives at Oak Point, during the time Mr. Keith was there, killed
five very large sea lions by spearing them at night. Two canoes being
lashed together, they approach very softly, and throw their spears,
which are fastened by a long, strong cord, with a barb so fixed in a
socket that, when it strikes the animal and pierces the flesh, it is
detached from the shaft of the spear, but remains fastened to the
cord. This is instantly made fast between the canoes; the animal
dives and swims down river, dragging the canoes with such velocity
that they may be in danger of filling, and require great skill in
steering. In this manner they are carried down some miles before the
animal becomes exhausted with loss of blood, makes for the shore, and
lies on the beach, where they dispatch it and cut it up. The price of
a sea lion among the natives is one slave and an assortment of other
articles. Mr. Keith bought the flesh of one of these animals, and we
had some roasted; it resembles bear's meat. The hair is like that of a
horse, in summer of a chestnut colour. The natives, and also the
Russians, are particularly fond of marine animals, such as whales,
&c.; they drink the oil like milk."
Another notable water beast of the British Columbia coast was the sea
otter (_Enhydris_), described on p. 305. Such an immense value was set
on its fur that it is now nearly extinct within British limits.
The huge chocolate-coloured bear of the Yukon valley has already been
mentioned; also the very large, blackish-brown wild dog (_Canis
pambasileus_), which from one or two passages in the writings of
Canadian pioneers may also be found as far south as the British
Columbian Rocky Mountains. In the Yukon country the elk (which was
formerly very common in British Columbia) grows to gigantic
proportions with longer and larger antlers than elsewhere. In the
forested mountains of British Columbia (as well as farther north) are
the wood bison, the white mountain goat, grizzly bears, black bears,
two kinds of lynx, the wapiti red deer, and the large bighorn sheep.
These (_Ovis montana_) sheep are of a grey or leaden colour; the rump
and the inner side of the legs are white; the hoofs black, about one
inch long. "The hair is rather soft, and at the roots is mixed with
exceedingly fine white wool, which seems to grow only in certain
patches. The neck is relatively much thicker than that of other
animals of the same size; the legs and hoofs are also strongly built,
like the neck." The horns of the female are comparatively small,
flat, and have only a small bend backward; they are of a
dirty-yellowish white, marked with closely connected annulations to
the very tip. The legs are brown, as are also the ends of the hairs
about the neck; the hoofs are black. "A ewe will weigh about 100 lb.
when in full flesh, with only the entrails taken out. The head bears
every resemblance to that of our European sheep." The colour of the
males is nearly the same as that of the females, only rather browner;
they are much larger and more strongly built, with a pair of enormous
horns, which incline backward. As they grow they bend downward, and in
the course of time form a complete curve and project forward. At the
root the horns are nearly three inches square, the flat sides
opposite; they are marked with closely connected ridges and end in a
tapering flat point.
When the horns grow to a great length, forming a complete curve, the
tips project on both sides of the head so as to prevent the ram from
feeding. This, with their great weight, causes the sheep to dwindle to
a mere skeleton and die. The bighorn sheep feed much in the caverns of
the Rocky Mountains, eating a kind of moss and grass growing on the
floors of these caves, and also a peculiar soft, sweet-tasting "clay",
of which the natives also are fond.
The southern part of British Columbia contains the mule deer of
western North America (_Mazama macrotis_), and a very strange rodent,
the sewellel or mountain beaver (_Haplodon_), a creature distantly
allied to squirrels, marmots, and beavers, but restricted in its
distribution to a few parts of California, Oregon, and British
Columbia. Amongst the birds noteworthy in the landscape are the
white-headed sea eagles and Californian condors (_Pseudogryphus
californianus_). Humming-birds range through British Columbia and
Vancouver Island between mid-April and October.
In the regions about the upper Kootenay River (Eastern British
Columbia), before the railway was constructed, there were wild horses,
descended, no doubt, from those which had escaped from the Spaniards
in New Mexico and California. They went in large herds, and in the
winter when the snow was deep the natives would try to catch them by
running them down with relays of fresh horses, or driving them up the
mountains into the deepest snow or some narrow pass. A noose would
then be thrown about the exhausted animal, which would be instantly
mounted by an Indian and broken immediately to the saddle. Some of
these wild horses were exceedingly swift, well-proportioned, and
handsome in shape, but they seldom proved as docile as those born in
captivity. When in a wild condition they would snort so loudly through
the nostrils on descrying an enemy that they could be heard at a
distance of five hundred yards.
The provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba--the MIDDLE
WEST--represent mainly the great prairie region of the Canadian
Dominion. Nearly all the streams here flow from the eastern side of
the Rocky Mountains and direct their course to the basin of Lake
Winnipeg and to Hudson's Bay. A few turn south-west to the Missouri
and Mississippi. The landscapes here remind one more of the middle
part of the United States. The climate is severe in winter but very
warm and dry in summer. In the extreme south, within the basin of the
upper Missouri, the "prickly pear" (_Opuntia_) cactus grows in
sheltered places, and suggests affinities with distant Colorado and
California.
These great plains and river courses of the middle West were, until
about fifty years ago, one of the world's great natural parks or
zoological gardens. Large numbers of wapiti deer, of the smaller
Virginian deer,[4] and of the prongbuck "antelope"[5] thronged the
grassy flats, and elk browsed on the foliage of the thickets along the
river banks. Grizzly bears and black bears,[6] large grey wolves, the
small coyote wolf, the pretty little kit fox and large red fox preyed
on these herbivores, as did also pumas and lynxes. Marmots and prairie
hares (_Lepus campestris_)--often called rabbits by the pioneers, who
also named the marmots "wood-chucks"--frolicked in the herbage, and
formed the principal prey of the numerous rattlesnakes. By the shores
of streams and lakes stood rows of stately cranes: the whooping crane,
of large size, pure white, with black quill feathers, the crown of the
head crimson scarlet and the long legs black; and the purple-brown
crane, somewhat smaller in size. On hot, calm days in the region of
Lake Winnipeg the cranes soar to an amazing height, flying in circles,
till by degrees they are almost out of sight. Yet their loud note
sounds so distinct and near that the spectator might fancy they were
close to him.
[Footnote 4: _Mazama americana_, similar to, but quite distinct from,
the larger mule deer of British Columbia.]
[Footnote 5: The prongbuck (_Antilocapra americana_) is not a true
antelope, though in outward appearance it resembles a large gazelle.
It was called "cabri" by the French Canadians.]
[Footnote 6: "Bears make prodigious ravages in the brush and willows;
the plum trees, and every tree that bears fruit share the same fate.
The tops of the oaks are also very roughly handled, broken, and torn
down, to get the acorns. The havoc they commit is astonishing...."
--Alex. Henry, jun.]
The air at this season is full of great birds--eagles, buzzards,
hawks, and falcons--soaring in circles to look out for prey among the
flocks of wild swans, white geese, bernicle geese and brent geese,
duck and teal, which cover the backwaters and the marshes and shallow
lagoons. Turkey buzzards, coming up from the south, act as scavengers
during the summer months. Immense flocks of passenger pigeons,
buntings, grosbeaks, attack the ripening fruits and the wild rice of
the swamps. Grouse in uncountable numbers inhabit the drier tablelands
and open moors.[7]
[Footnote 7: Nowhere in the world are there so many kinds of grouse as
in North America. In the more northern regions are several species of
ptarmigan or snow partridges (_Lagopus_), which turn white in winter,
and the spruce partridges (_Canachites_); in the more genial climate
of the great plains of eastern Canada and in the Far West the ruffled
grouse and hazel grouse (_Bonasa_), the sage cocks (_Centrocercus_),
the prairie hens (_Tympanuchus_), and the blue or pine grouse
(_Dendrapagus_).
"To snare grouse requires no other process than making a few little
hedges across a creek, or a few short hedges projecting at right
angles from the side of an island of willows, which those birds are
found to frequent. Several openings must be left in each hedge, to
admit the birds to pass through, and in each of them a snare must be
set; so that when the grouse are hopping along the edge of the willows
to feed, which is their usual custom, some of them soon get into the
snares, where they are confined till they are taken out. I have caught
from three to ten grouse in a day by this simple contrivance, which
requires no further attendance than going round them night and
morning" (Hearne).]
[Illustration: INDIANS LYING IN WAIT FOR MOOSE]
But--a hundred years ago and more--the dominant features in the
fauna of the Middle West was the bison. Between the Athabaska and
Saskatchewan Rivers on the north, the Rocky Mountains on the west, and
Lake Superior on the east the bison passed backwards and forwards over
the great plains and prairies in millions, when white explorers first
penetrated these lands. They moved in herds which concealed the ground
from sight for miles. Here are some word pictures selected from the
writings of the pioneers between 1770 and 1810:
"The buffaloes chiefly delight in wide open plains, which in those
parts produce very long coarse grass, or rather a kind of small flags
and rushes, upon which they feed; but when pursued they always take to
the woods. They are of such an amazing strength, that when they fly
through the woods from a pursuer, they frequently brush down trees as
thick as a man's arm; and be the snow ever so deep, such is their
strength and agility, that they are enabled to plunge through it
faster than the swiftest Indian can run in snowshoes. To this I have
been an eyewitness many times, and once had the vanity to think that I
could have kept pace with them; but though I was at that time
celebrated for being particularly fleet of foot in snowshoes, I soon
found that I was no match for the buffaloes, notwithstanding they were
then plunging through such deep snow, that their bellies made a
trench in it as large as if many sacks had been hauled through it. Of
all the large beasts in those parts the buffalo is easiest to kill,
and the moose are the most difficult; neither are the (red) deer very
easy to come at, except in windy weather: indeed it requires much
practice and a great deal of patience to slay any of them, as they
will by no means suffer a direct approach, unless the hunter be
entirely sheltered by woods or willows.
"The flesh of the buffalo is exceedingly good eating, and so entirely
free from any disagreeable smell or taste, that it resembles beef as
nearly as possible."
"The spots of wood along the Park River are ravaged by buffaloes
(bison); none but the large trees are standing, the bark of which is
rubbed perfectly smooth, and heaps of hair and wool lie at the bottom
of the trees ... and even the grass is not permitted to grow.... The
ground is trampled more by these cattle than about the gate of a
farmyard."
"The Kris informed me they had seen a calf as white as snow in a herd
of buffalo. White buffalo are very scarce. They are of inestimable
value among the nations of the Missouri.... There were also some of a
dirty-grey colour, but these are very rare."
"I brought home two buffalo calves alive; they no sooner lost sight of
the herd than they followed my horse like dogs, directly into the
fort. On chasing a herd at this season the calves follow it until they
are fatigued, when they throw themselves down in high grass and lie
still, hiding their heads if possible. But seeing only a man and his
horse they remain quiet and allow themselves to be taken. Having been
a little handled, they follow like dogs."
In the spring, when the ice melted, innumerable buffaloes were killed
through attempting to cross the rivers on the melting ice. They would
drift by an observer (such as Alexander Henry, jun.) in entire herds
of drowned corpses. Vast numbers perished. They formed one continuous
line on the current for two days and two nights.
"By this time the river was crowded with them, swimming across,
bellowing and grunting terribly. The bulls really looked fierce; all
had their tails up, and each appeared eager to land first. The scene
would have struck terror to one unaccustomed to such innumerable
herds. From out in the plains, as far as the eye could reach, to the
middle of the river, they were rushing toward us, and soon began to
land about ten yards off. I shot one dead on the spot, my ball having
broken his neck; my hunter and guide only wounded theirs. This
discharge suddenly halted those on the south side, and turned those
that were still in the water."
In the autumn:--"Plains burned in every direction and blind buffalo
seen every moment wandering about. The poor beasts have all the hair
singed off; even the skin in many places is shrivelled up and terribly
burned, and their eyes are swollen and closed fast. It was really
pitiful to see them staggering about, sometimes running afoul of a
large stone, at other times tumbling down hill and falling into creeks
not yet frozen over. In one spot we found a whole herd lying dead."
Throughout British North America, from the Yukon to Newfoundland, and
from Labrador to Vancouver's Island, the rivers and freshwater lakes
swarm with fish, and fish that in most cases is exceedingly good to
eat. Salmon are most strikingly abundant in the rivers of British
Columbia and Newfoundland, but they also ascend most of the rivers
flowing into the Atlantic and Hudson's Bay. In the great lakes of
Canada and of the middle west there are trout and white fish
(_Coregonus_), pike, bass, chub, barbel, and five species of sturgeon.
In the rivers and lakes of the far north-west is found the blackfish
(_Dallia_).
Hearne writes of Lake Athabasca that it swarms with fish, such as
pike, trout, perch, barbel, and other kinds not easily identified.
Apparently there is also a form of gar-pike found here (see p. 74);
this is described as having scales of a very large and stiff kind, and
being a beautiful bright silver in colour. The size of these gar-pike
range from two feet to four feet in length. Their flesh was delicately
white and soft, but so foul and rank in taste that even the Indians
would not eat it. The trout in Lake Athabaska seem to have been
enormous, weighing from 35 to 40 pounds, while pike were of about the
same weight.
The Amerindian tribes and the early European explorers lived mainly on
fish, which was a palatable and easily obtained food. Yet it must be
admitted that they had a splendid array of large and small game from
which to take their toll.
Nor was the whole Dominion, from west to east and up to the Arctic
zone, wanting in wild vegetable produce fit for man's consumption. The
sugar maple (_Acer saccharinum_) and its ally the _Negundo_ maple
provided a delicious syrup; the bark of certain poplars and the bast
of the sugar pine were chewed for their well-flavoured sweetness; the
wild rice of the marshes will be further described in the next
chapter. The wild fruits included delicious strawberries, cherries,
gooseberries, currants, black currants, grapes (in the south only),
blackberries of many kinds, whortleberries, cranberries, pears of the
service tree (_Pyrus canadensis_[8]), and raspberries of various
types--red, yellow, and black. Southern Canada and Nova Scotia
contained various nut trees of the walnut order (hickories,
butter-nuts, &c.), and hazel nuts were found everywhere except in the
north.
[Footnote 8: Sometimes called _Amelanchier canadensis_.]
We have left undescribed what is still politically the most important
part of the whole of British North America--UPPER and LOWER CANADA.
These regions lie within the basin of the great St. Lawrence River,
beyond all doubt the most important waterway of North America, more
important even than the Mississippi. The main origin of the St.
Lawrence in the west is Lake Superior, the largest sea of fresh water
in the world, which is connected with Lake Nipigon on the north. The
waters of Lake Superior are carried over the Sault Ste. Marie rapids
into Lake Huron and find a huge backwater in Lake Michigan.[9] Out of
Lake Huron again they flow past Detroit into Lake Erie. From Duluth,
at the westernmost extremity of Lake Superior, to Buffalo, on the
easternmost point of Lake Erie, including all Lake Michigan and Lake
Huron, with its bays and channels, a steamer can pass with just the
one difficulty (easily surmounted) of the rapids at Sault Ste. Marie
between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. But after you have left Lake
Erie on the east you find yourself in the Niagara River, which at the
Niagara Falls plunges several hundred feet downwards into Lake
Ontario. From Lake Ontario to the sea along the St. Lawrence there is
uninterrupted navigation, though there are rapids that require careful
steering both with steamers and boats. Quebec marks the place where
the St. Lawrence River suddenly broadens from a river into a tidal
gulf of brackish or salt water. Ocean steamers from all over the world
can come (except during the height of the winter, when the water
freezes) to Quebec. But for the ice in wintertime Quebec would be
_the_ great sea-port of eastern Canada.
[Footnote 9: The south shore of Lake Superior, the whole of Lake
Michigan, the west shore of Lake Huron, and the south coasts of Lake
Erie and Lake Ontario are within the territories of the United
States.]
"If pitiless rock is commonly understood by an 'iron-bound shore',
then the coasts of the River St. Lawrence along the northern side of
the Gulf may truly be so styled, as nothing scarcely is to be seen
for hundreds of leagues but bare rocky mountains, capes and cliffs in
various shapes and figures, some of which are dotted with a few spruce
firs, while others present their bald pates deprived of covering by
the unmerciful hand of time." (James M'Kenzie).
The winters of the Quebec province are extremely cold, but the summer
and autumn are warm and sunny. The best winter climate, possibly, in
all Canada (though not as good as that of Vancouver Island, British
Columbia) is to be found in the small peninsula region, on the shores
of Lakes Erie and Huron, between Toronto and Detroit. This is the
district which the Jesuit missionaries described as "an earthly
paradise" even during the winter-time.
The following extracts, mostly from the journals of Alex. Henry, jun.,
give a good idea of the difference in climate and temperature between
the western and the central parts of the Canadian Dominion.
The late spring of northern Canada (Lake Nipigon, 50° N. lat.):--About
May 15, the tops of the poplars begin to appear green, with fresh
buds; the hills are changing their hue from a dry straw colour to a
delightful verdure, and fragrant odours greet us.
"Early in March, 1800, in the Assiniboin country (Manitoba, about 29°
N. lat.) the snow was entirely gone, for this winter had been an
abnormally mild one for central Canada. The birds soon realized the
openness of the season, for, on the 7th of March, turkey-buzzards
began to arrive from the south, and cormorants, ducks, swans, and
other spring birds; indeed, by the 24th of March not only had the snow
quite melted, but the meadows had grown so dry with the hot sun that
some accidents set them on fire. By April the 11th the weather had
become excessively hot, and immense flocks of the traveller-pigeon
(_Ectopistes_) flew northwards over the country."
In somewhat similar latitudes (50°) the spring bursts on the Pacific
coast region of British Columbia towards the end of February. "The
tall raspberry bushes were in blossom with a beautiful red flower,
which appeared more forward than the leaf (_Rubus spectabilis_). The
elder had sprouts an inch long, the alder was also beginning to
sprout, and willows were budding."
Although nowhere in Upper and Lower Canada (or in the maritime
provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) are the forests so
splendid as in parts of British Columbia, yet nevertheless when this
region was first discovered the magnificence of its woodlands greatly
impressed even the explorers of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, who were not as much given to praise of landscape beauty as
are we of later times. These Canadian forests include oaks, elms,
pines and firs, chestnuts and beeches, birch trees and sycamores,
maples and poplars, willows, alders, and hazelnuts (these last
sometimes growing into tall trees with thick trunks). The trees and
low-growing plants are partly like those of the north-eastern United
States, and partly resemble those of northern and central Europe.
Nowadays, owing to two centuries of incessant killing, the beasts and
birds of Upper and Lower Canada are not nearly so abundant as they
were a hundred years ago. When Canada proper was first discovered, the
wapiti red deer was still found in the basin of the St. Lawrence; it
has long since been extinct. There are, however, still lingering,
reindeer in the north, and elk in the forests of the east. There are
also Virginian deer (_Mazama_), but there is no bison (and, so far as
we know, never has been). There is no prongbuck, and many other
creatures characteristic of the United States and British Columbia are
not found in Upper and Lower Canada or in the maritime provinces. The
tree porcupine (_Erethizon dorsatus_), which the Canadians call
"Urson", or "Little Bear" is found still in the well-wooded regions
of eastern and southern Canada, as well as in British Columbia and
Alaska. In southern Canada there is the wood hare (_Lepus
sylvaticus_), and in the east and north the varying hare (_L.
americanus_) which turns white in winter.
Perhaps the most characteristic animal of this region was and is still
the beaver, though the beaver is found all over British North America
as far north as the Saskatchewan province and westwards into British
Columbia.
It is curious that the Indians of central Canada had a belief
(recorded by French and English pioneers) that occasionally in the
dusk, or at night, they have seen an enormously large beaver in the
water, so large that at first sight they have taken it for a moose.
Travellers who have related this have surmised that the Indian perhaps
saw a bear swimming, or a female moose, and in the dim light mistook
it for a giant beaver. But as we know that there were once giant
beavers (_Trogontherium_) as large as a bear, existing in England, it
is just possible there may have been a gigantic type of beaver
lingering in Canada before the opening up of the country by Europeans.
The beaver of North America is a very similar animal to the beaver
which used to exist wild in Wales, England, France, Germany, and
central Europe, and which still lingers in some parts of the Rhine
valley, Poland, Russia, and Siberia; but the American form is
classified as a separate species--_Castor canadensis_.
Beavers were sometimes exterminated or diminished in numbers by an
epidemic disease, which, according to JAMES TANNER[10], destroyed vast
quantities of them.
[Footnote 10: A remarkable eighteenth-century pioneer who joined the
Indians when a boy and lived as one of them.]
"I found them dead or dying in the water, on the ice, and on the land;
sometimes I found one that, having cut a tree half down, had died at
its roots; sometimes one who had drawn a stick of timber halfway to
his lodge was lying dead by his burthen. Many of them which I opened
were red and bloody about the heart. Those in large rivers and running
water suffered less; almost all of those that lived in ponds and
stagnant water, died. Since that year the beaver have never been so
plentiful in the country of Red River and Hudson's Bay as they used
formerly to be."
The great attraction which Canada offered to France and England as a
field of adventure lay in its wonderful supply of furs. The beaver
skins were perhaps the commonest article of export, and were generally
regarded as a unit of value, such as a shilling might be. Other skins
were valued at "so many beavers," or the smaller ones at half or a
quarter of a beaver each. Besides beaver skins, which were used for
making hats, as well as capes and coats, the following furs and skins
were formerly, or are still, exported from Canada. "Buffalo"
robes--the carefully rubbed-down hides of the bison, rendered, by
shaving and rubbing, so thin and supple that they could be easily
folded; reindeer and musk-ox skins treated in the same way; marten or
sable skins; mink (a kind of polecat); ermine (the white winter dress
of the stoat); the fishing marten, or pekan; otter skins; black bear
and white polar bear skins; raccoon, muskwash, squirrel, suslik, and
marmot skins, and the soft white fur of the polar hare; the white
skins of the Arctic fox, the skins of the blue fox, black fox, and red
fox;[11] wolf skins, and the furs of the wolverene or glutton, and of
the skunk--a handsome black-and-white creature of the weasel family,
which emits a most disgusting smell from a gland in its body. (The
skunk only comes from the south-central parts of the Canadian
Dominion). At one time a good many swans' skins were exported for the
sake of the down between the feathers, also the skins of grebes.
[Footnote 11: The blue fox is the Arctic fox (_Canis lagopus_) in its
summer dress; the black fox is a beautiful variety or sub-species of
the common fox (_C. vulpes_); so also is the red or "cross" fox. There
is also common throughout the Canadian Dominion the pretty little kit
fox (_Canis velox_).]
* * * * *
A general fact that must not be forgotten in studying the adventures
of the pioneers of Canada was the means which Nature and savage man
had provided or invented for quickly traversing in all directions this
enormous area of nearly half North America. These means consisted (1)
of the distribution of salt and fresh water in such a way that by
means of ocean-sailing ships explorers coming from the east could
enter through straits and bays of the sea into the heart of Canada;
and (2) the facility, on quitting the seashore, of passing up
navigable rivers in boats or canoes into big lakes, and from these
lakes into other rivers leading to other lakes. Moreover, the
different river systems approached so closely to one another that even
the Amerindians and the Eskimo, long before the white man, had
realized that they had only to pick up their light canoes and carry
them a few miles, to launch them on fresh waters which might provide
hundreds or even thousands of miles of continuous travel. These are
the celebrated "portages" of Canadian history, from the French word
_porter_, to carry, transport. Sometimes the portages were made still
easier for loaded canoes by a road being cleared through the scrub and
over the rocks, and wooden rollers placed across it. Strong men could
then easily haul a loaded canoe over these wooden rollers until it
could be launched again in the water. Often these portages were made
to circumvent dangerous rapids or waterfalls. The Indians and the
French Canadians soon learnt how to steer canoes down rushes of
water--rapids--which we should think very dangerous on an English
river; but of course many of the rivers were obstructed at intervals
by descents of water which no canoe could traverse up or down, and in
these cases a path was cut from one smooth part of the river to
another, and the canoe carried or hauled overland.
In this way the great French and British explorers found it possible
to travel by water from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean across a
width of land of something like 2500 miles. The only serious walking
that had to be done was the crossing somewhere or other of the Rocky
Mountains, where the streams, of course, were far too precipitate in
descent to be navigable. In the hot, dusty plains of Assiniboia and
the upper Missouri region the Amerindians had introduced horses,
obtained indirectly from Spanish Mexico, and these were of great
service to the white pioneers, especially in their pursuit of the
bison.
So much for the summer season, when the rivers were full and
overflowing, and the ground consisted of bare rock, sand, or soil
covered with vegetation; the abundance of navigable streams and the
suitability of the country to horses rendered very little walking
necessary for those who wished to traverse the Canadian Dominion from
end to end.
But the winter changed these conditions, the rivers became coated with
thick ice, and the ground was covered, except in steep places, with an
unvarying mantle of snow. Yet transport became just as easy as in the
summertime, though perhaps a trifle more fatiguing. Men and women put
on snowshoes shaped like tennis rackets, and flew over the hard snow
quicker than a canoe could travel, dragging after them small sledges
on which their luggage was packed; or, if they had not much luggage,
carrying it slung round the shoulders and scurrying away on their
snowshoes even swifter for the weight they carried; or they travelled
over the smooth ice of the rivers and lakes.
Winter travellers, however, were sometimes troubled with a disorder
known as the snowshoe evil. This arose from the placing of an unusual
strain on the tendons of the leg, occasioned by the weight of the
snowshoe. It often resulted in severe inflammation of the lower leg.
The local remedy was a drastic one: it was to place a piece of lighted
touchwood on the most inflamed part, and to leave it there till the
flesh was burnt to the nerve!
In the north and the regions round Hudson's Bay, and also in the far
west--British Columbia and Alaska--there were dogs, more or less of
the Eskimo breed, trained by Eskimo or by Amerindians to drag the
sledges. In the months of December and January it is true that the
daylight in Arctic Canada (north of Lake Athapaska) became so short
that the sun at its greatest altitude only appeared for two or three
hours a short distance above the horizon. But there were
compensations. The brilliancy of the Aurora Borealis, even without the
assistance of the moon and the stars, made some amends for that
deficiency, for it was frequently so light all night that travellers
could see to read a very small print (Samuel Hearne). The importance
of these "Northern lights" must not be overlooked in forming an
opinion on the habitability of the far north in the "dark" winter
months. The display was frequent and brilliant.
The Athapaskan Indians called this phenomenon _Edthin_, that is to
say, "reindeer". When the Aurora Borealis was particularly bright in
the sky they would say that deer were plentiful in that part of the
heavens. Their fancy in this respect was not quite so silly as one
might think. They had learnt from experience that the Aurora Borealis
was in some way connected with electricity, and experience had equally
shown them that the skin of the reindeer, if briskly stroked by the
hand on a dark night, would emit as many electric sparks as the back
of a cat. On the other hand, the Amerindians in the southern and more
temperate regions thought the Aurora Borealis was a vast concourse of
"spirits of the happy day" dancing in the clouds.
Thus there were no climatic reasons why, both in summer and in winter,
immense distances should not be quickly covered in Canada between the
Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. This is how a mere hundred of
white pioneers opened up Canada to the knowledge of the civilized
world far quicker than the same area could have been discovered in
Africa or Asia. Sometimes, for about a month, between the melting of
the snow and ice and the steady flowing of the rivers in the late
spring, or between the uncertain autumn of November and the confirmed
winter of December, there might be an interval of a few weeks in which
journeys had to be made on foot under conditions of great hardship,
through mud, swamp, and over sharp stones or slippery rocks.
"The plains are covered with water from the melting of the snow so
suddenly, and our men suffer much, as they are continually on the
march, looking after Indians in every creek and little river. The
water is commonly knee deep, in some places up to the middle, and in
the morning is usually covered with ice, which makes it tedious and
even dangerous travelling. Some of our men lose the use of their legs
while still in the prime of life", wrote one eighteenth-century
pioneer, in the Canadian spring.
Severe as were the winter conditions of climate, the explorers were
just as willing to travel through the winter as the summer, because in
the winter they were spared the awful plague of mosquitoes and midges
which still renders summer and early-autumn travel throughout the
whole of Canada, from the United States borders on the south to the
Arctic Ocean on the north, a severe trial, and even an unbearable
degree of physical suffering.