THE NEW HUDSON BAY ROUTE
In the preceding chapter I showed how a huge stretch of Western Canada
was opened up to civilisation and settlement by a railway. Another
momentous development within the Dominion is about to occur. I refer to
the project (now in hand) for constructing a railroad that will link
Winnipeg with Port Nelson, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, and so
give Central Canada a seaport—a seaport open seven months in the year.
The 397 miles of rails that remain to be laid will provide a shorter and
cheaper route between the prairie provinces and Europe. In mere
distance, the journey from the Manitoba capital to Liverpool will be
reduced by about 900 miles. But that fact indicates the least part of
the boon that is promised to commerce. The cost of carriage by land is
considerably higher than the cost of carriage by water; and along the
new route grain from Winnipeg will reach the steamship after a railway
journey of 582 miles, instead of, as at present, a railway journey of
either 1,422 or 1,904 miles.
Yet the new line is chiefly important for a reason apart from the
reduction in freight and the revolution in trade which it is likely to
effect. That line will unlock a new territorial treasury of natural
resources, and open to the settler a region (known now as Keewatin) much
larger than the Province of Manitoba. It will, moreover, be the first
stage in the development of Northern Canada—those wonderful realms of
long days which I am convinced are destined, by reason of their high
agricultural potentialities, to strike the imagination of the world with
the force of a great geographical revelation.
Here, then, and in certain subsequent chapters of this book, I
definitely pass from one phase of my subject to the other. Yet, since
forecasts are vain unless supported by facts, I shall make Canada of
“To-day” throw light on Canada of “To-morrow.”
Things heard and things seen—just a stray fact or two—awakened my
curiosity, and I went from end to end of the Dominion in a spirit of
inquiry. Calling on all the provincial governments in the West, I
pointed my finger to blank spaces on the map and asked: “What do you
know about them?” This led to some significant experiences.
In British Columbia came the astonished reply: “Well, of course, there
are people up in the Yukon—just here and there—mining. And gold, coal
and copper mines are scattered about this province. More than that we
know nothing, except that explorers have testified, concerning nearly
every region they have visited, that the country is rich in fine timber
and minerals. As for possessing any definite knowledge of central and
northern British Columbia—why, sir, we still have only the most
imperfect and superficial knowledge of this southern part. The other day
I was over in Vancouver, and I went on the inaugural trip along a new
railway running a few miles out of the city. Many of the leading
citizens of Vancouver were in the cars, and there they were exclaiming
in astonishment over a beautiful district that they had never dreamt was
so near their doors!”
At Edmonton, the minister I interviewed jumped from his seat when he
heard my inquiry, and, striding across his office, eagerly unrolled a
huge map of his province. “Look!” he cried, as his hand swept over the
bulk of the area. “That is all a sealed book to us. We know generally
that it has a splendid climate, and that millions upon millions of acres
are underlain with coal. But the whole of that country is unsurveyed,
and practically the whole of it is unprospected and unexplored. You want
to know about that land? Ah! and so do we. The Government wants very
much to know about it. No doubt a lot of valuable data is in existence,
if only it could be collected and collated. I mean the experiences of
isolated missionaries, pioneer settlers and so on. People talk about
Alberta as though it were a settled country! I have often seen Edmonton
referred to as being in Northern Alberta! So no wonder you are surprised
to find the Government with blank minds about half the territory under
their authority. Look! The settlement north of Edmonton is still below
the middle of the province. The whole of the northern part may be
described as a practically unknown country.”
It was the same in Saskatchewan and Manitoba—the governments were eager
to secure the very information I asked them to impart. But at the four
capitals I received hints as to quarters in which reliable knowledge
might be looked for. The result was that I interviewed several
explorers, besides discovering, at Ottawa, a veritable mine of
information about the great north lands. For the Federal Government and
its chief geographer (Mr. R. E. Young) had preceded me in this search
for obscure knowledge. A special committee, it seemed, had assembled,
interviewed and cross-examined the handful of men who could speak from
personal knowledge about the empty spaces on the map of Canada. Their
evidence was placed at my disposal; and to that source I am largely
indebted for the information in this chapter, and in those dealing with
“New Saskatchewan” and “Northern Alberta.”
“Yes,” said Mr. J. Burr Tyrrell, the well-known mining engineer, who was
in the Government Geological Service from 1883 to 1898, “I spent nine or
ten years in the country to the west and south-west of Hudson Bay.”
“And you think well of agricultural possibilities there?” I asked.
“Undoubtedly,” said Mr. Tyrrell. “You may take Canada as a whole, and
say that north of the present settled region there is a broad belt of
several hundred miles that will be good for farming. It carries immense
quantities of valuable timber. Beyond that belt is a great region which
will yield valuable minerals.”
And now let me reproduce Mr. Tyrrell’s specific testimony concerning the
region that will be opened up by the Hudson Bay Railway. He indicated a
line running north-west from Churchill, and pointed out that the country
north of that line is outside the farmer’s scope. South of the line
there is a belt of from one to two hundred miles in width, which is
sparsely wooded, having trees along the banks of streams and in
sheltered positions. In this belt there are areas that would support a
northern vegetation, but it is not, in his opinion, eminently suited for
agriculture, there being but little decomposed soil there except in the
valleys. South of that belt is a forest region, about two hundred miles
wide, lying west of the Nelson River and extending along the Churchill
River right away to the Mackenzie and Athabasca rivers. It is for the
most part excellent agricultural land—as fine as can be found in the
North-West.
“Everywhere,” said Mr. Tyrrell, “I found abundant evidence of rich
vegetation, and wherever agriculture or horticulture had been attempted
within the forest belt it had been eminently successful. I have seen
growing in that country potatoes—and most excellent ones they
were—carrots, turnips, cabbages, cauliflowers and all the ordinary
garden produce that grows in Ontario. Indeed, the land there is similar
to the Ontario land, and on it can be raised practically everything that
can be raised in that province, if we leave the Niagara peninsula out of
account. The summer is warm, and there is a good rainfall. The winter
does not count, because things do not grow in the winter. A small part
of the district is park country, half wooded. The belt is a continuation
northward of the settled Saskatchewan country.”
In the specified area (through which the greater part of the new railway
will pass) it appears that the Indians, when hunting in the spring,
plant little patches of potatoes here and there, and return in the
autumn to dig them for use in the winter. “On several occasions,” said
Mr. Tyrrell, “I have gone out and dug a pail of beautiful potatoes from
those little Indian gardens buried in the woods. They have received no
hoeing, or any other sort of cultivation, from the time of planting to
the time of digging.”
Mr. Tyrrell has no doubt that the country in question will support quite
a thick population; and he mentioned that, south of the forest belt, and
north of Lake Winnipeg (in other words, the region to be traversed by
southern sections of the Hudson Bay Railway), “there is another
magnificent area, from five to ten thousand square miles in extent, and
as fine a country as is to be found in Manitoba or anywhere else. That
area extends westward along the Churchill. These lands to the north of
Lake Winnipeg are an extension of the same basin as the Manitoba clays.”
Let me now call another witness—Mr. A. P. Low, Deputy-Minister of Mines
in the Federal Government, and, as an earlier chapter has borne witness,
formerly a prominent member of the Geological Survey. In that capacity
Mr. Low pursued some explorations in Keewatin, with the result that he
is able to make the following contributions to our knowledge of this
undeveloped region:
Between Norway House (which is north of Lake Winnipeg) and Hudson Bay
the country is not very elevated, the highest points being probably
about 1,000 feet above sea level. For about half the distance to the bay
the traveller passes over a rolling plain, the rocks being ancient
formations of the Laurentian and Huronian age, while farther on there is
a deposit of limestone and sandstone. On the first half of the journey
from Norway House to Churchill the country slopes very gently towards
the bay, the grade being not more than eight or ten feet to the mile, if
it be that. The north-eastern part of the country is practically a
plain.
Mr. Low pointed out that considerable areas of swampy land exist. The
rivers have thrown up banks, and there is only an occasional break in
those banks to serve for drainage. In many places the river banks are
from five to ten feet higher than the adjoining land, which consequently
is more or less drowned for a distance often extending back as far as
one can walk in a day.
He considers that probably half the country due east from Norway
House—say for one hundred miles—would be fit for agriculture. There
are, of course, very few settlements in there at present, and the only
one Mr. Low visited was a Hudson Bay post at Trout Lake. There he found
peas, potatoes and other garden crops growing and looking well. That no
appreciable trouble occurred from summer frosts was shown by the
condition of the green peas. Apparently, indeed, the climate is quite
favourable for hardy crops. The soil areas fit for agriculture are
fairly large, rocky hills occurring only at intervals; and he has no
doubt that quite a large region will be available for future settlement.
With regard to the plain south-east of Nelson River, Mr. Low said it
appears to be muskeg and spruce land rather than a hay area. He does not
regard that low-lying country around Hudson Bay as of first-class
agricultural value in its present form; but it shows a fair amount of
vegetable growth, the subsoil is largely clay, and with some drainage,
he thinks, a great deal of it will be good for farming.
Another influential witness is Mr. D. B. Dowling, of the Geological
Survey. Speaking from personal knowledge of the region to be traversed
by the railroad, Mr. Dowling threw light on the strips of raised land
running beside the rivers. He said they represent a mile, or less than a
mile, of well-made country covered by fine forests. “The centre portion
between the streams,” he added, “is now exactly as it was when it first
came from the sea, except that it has some vegetation on it which it had
not at that time. All it needs is drainage. The soil and climate are
good.”
On this crucial matter of farming prospects in the country to be opened
up, the personal experience of two other members of the Geological
Survey is available. I refer to Mr. Owen O’Sullivan and Mr. William
McInnes. Mr. O’Sullivan, in 1904, was engaged in studying the west coast
of James Bay, and in the summer of 1906 he started from Split Lake, on
the Nelson, and went down the Little Churchill to the Big Churchill. The
land about Big Lake, he said, is a good loamy soil, but from Big Lake to
the Big Churchill the country is rocky and swampy, though with a good
deal of rich clay loam in places. Mr. O’Sullivan was able to testify
that very tasty potatoes are grown at Split Lake. In the month of June
he ate some that had been grown during the previous year. He saw
turnips, cabbage and lettuce growing, and they appeared to be very good.
The potatoes were taken up on August 23rd and 25th. Some left in the
ground had the tops touched pretty severely by frost in September. On
being asked about the land near the head of Lake Winnipeg, Mr.
O’Sullivan said he never tasted better potatoes than some that were
grown at Cross Lake. Concerning a point far to the north of the terminus
of the new line, this explorer had an interesting piece of information
to impart. He saw lettuce and turnips growing at Churchill, and he is of
opinion that potatoes, with proper attention, would mature there.
Special interest attaches to the experience of Mr. McInnes, because he
zig-zagged across the actual ground to be crossed by the first half of
the Hudson Bay Railway. The whole region from Split Lake to the
Saskatchewan is, he said, a clay-covered country. In traversing that
country he went by way of the Burntwood River and returned by way of the
Grassy River, making a number of excursions between those two
boundaries. After leaving Split Lake, he found the clay-covered country
absolutely free from boulders and gravel. Even on the shores of the
lakes, unless a height of about 800 feet were reached, no gravel bars
were met with. “There is absolutely nothing to interfere with the
cultivation of the soil,” testified Mr. McInnes. “The country has been
repeatedly burnt over, and it is covered by a very open forest. Grasses
grow fairly luxuriantly there, the blue joint grass and a wild rye being
the prevailing species. I understand that these are a good meadow growth
and make excellent fodder. While there in June, July and August I saw
grass growing to a height of from eighteen inches to two feet.” Asked to
indicate the extent of the country he was describing, Mr. McInnes
computed it at about 10,000 square miles, adding that he did not mean to
say the whole of that area was good agricultural land.
This explorer’s testimony will enable the reader, without consulting a
map, to have a definite idea of the nature of the land along the new
route. The Pas, on the Saskatchewan River, to the north-west of Lake
Winnipegosis, may be taken as the starting-point of the line, since a
railway to that place has for some time been constructed as part of the
Canadian Northern system. Setting out from the Pas, and proceeding
towards Nelson, Mr. McInnes passed through about 140 miles of country
underlain by the flat limestone of northern Manitoba. He walked for
miles over bare hills that carried hardly any soil. Then he entered the
clay belt previously mentioned. The railway, he explained, would
traverse about 170 miles of those clay lands before it reached Split
Lake.
Mr. McInnes pointed out that on the Nelson River wheat has been grown
successfully at Norway House and at Cross Lake. The Hudson Bay people do
not raise wheat at their posts nowadays, but formerly they grew it and
ground it in hand-mills. He saw potatoes that had been produced fifty
miles north of the Pas, and they were great showy specimens such as one
sees at exhibitions. On July 11th, when Mr. McInnes arrived at Nelson,
potatoes planted by the Indians had tops eleven inches high and almost
ready to flower. When he returned to the Pas, on September 6th, he found
the Indian corn there was very well headed out, with large, fine ears
quite ready for table use. He stayed at the Pas until September 29th, by
which time the locality had not been visited by frost. “With eighteen
hours of daylight, and no frost in the summer,” Mr. McInnes said,
“vegetation is rapid; and in a country where you can grow Indian corn,
you can grow practically anything.”
As the reader will probably have gathered, within the large territory to
be traversed by the line there are four old posts at which missionaries
and Hudson Bay people would be likely to have had instructive
agricultural experience. I refer to Norway House, which, as already
mentioned, lies to the north of Lake Winnipeg; Cross Lake post, which is
north of Norway House; Cumberland House, which is north-west of the Pas;
and Nelson House, which is east of the new line, at a point rather less
than midway between the Pas and Port Nelson. Sir John Richardson bore
witness in 1820 that wheat was successfully raised at Cumberland House.
Speaking of Nelson House, the Rev. J. Semmens has said: “In my
experience wheat is not a sure crop there. All depends upon the season.
Oats and barley will do well any time.” The evidence of the Rev. Dr.
John McDougall is also available. He said: “The district in which are
situated Norway House, Cross Lake, Oxford House, Island Lake, Nelson
House and Split Lake covers a wide area, and at each of these places
garden vegetables and grain for personal requirements have been
successfully grown for a number of years. Summer frosts are practically
unknown, and the germination of vegetation, owing to the long hours of
sunshine, is exceedingly rapid.”
That must conclude my summary of evidence tending to show that farming
will flourish in the new region to be opened up. On other vital points I
shall put some of the foregoing authorities again into the witness-box.
There is general agreement that the country possesses considerable
timber wealth. Speaking of the region between Norway House and Hudson
Bay, Mr. Low said the forests, as in so many parts of Canada, have been
largely destroyed by fire, but around some of the large lakes, on their
islands, and in other places a fine growth of timber is found, with
white and black spruce pine, aspen poplar, and white birch running to
eighteen inches in diameter. This is what Mr. Dowling said: “There is a
strip all along the front of the bay which has no trees. Back in the
interior there is timber. Along the river valleys the trees are always
well grown.” Mr. O’Sullivan explained that the spruce and poplars in the
valleys are sometimes twenty inches in diameter, and that the cottonwood
grows to about fourteen inches in diameter. Speaking of the country
generally, Mr. McInnes said there is a great deal of timber that would
be fit for wood-pulp.
As to the country’s wealth of fish and game, the testimony is less
qualified. Mr. Low mentioned that the inland waters of Keewatin would
yield a tolerable abundance of whitefish, lake trout and other species,
and he said that in Hudson Bay the Indians net a number of whitefish and
ordinary river trout which have developed sea-going habits. From the
same source we learn that along the east and north-west shores of Hudson
Bay the excellent and beautifully coloured Arctic salmon is found. Mr.
Low mentioned that black, silver and grey foxes are taken in the
northern part of Keewatin, and they, with the beaver, the otter and the
marten represent the principal furs of the country.
From Mr. Dowling we hear that the rivers of Keewatin abound with perch,
dory and jackfish, while some of the larger streams contain sturgeon. He
saw five bears, and testified that it is a great country for foxes,
“which seem to be able to live on the sea-birds and mice.” Mr.
O’Sullivan, after mentioning that sturgeon occur all through the Little
Churchill River, and that some of them weigh forty pounds, added: “At
Churchill you get the porpoise, which is quite an item when you have to
keep dogs for the winter.”
Mr. McInnes found two companies turning to commercial account the fish
of the lakes occurring within a convenient distance from the
Saskatchewan. “Going out,” he said, “our party was short of pork and
stopped to get supplies. In one night’s fishing the Indians caught so
many sturgeon that we had enough to carry us for 150 miles, to the
Hudson Bay post. One of the sturgeon was three feet long.” Ducks, he
said, were fairly plentiful, and so were wild geese, “which live on all
sorts of little shell-fish, water-beetles and crabs, besides the seeds
of many water plants other than wild rice. I shot mallards in that
country,” he went on to say, “and their crops were full of little
bivalve shells about the size of my nail.” This was Mr. Tyrrell’s
impressive testimony: “Some of the small, shallower lakes contain
whitefish in enormous numbers. While paddling along in a canoe I have
seen the fins of thousands sticking up out of the water. . . . There are
all the fish the lakes will hold—they are as full as the water can
supply food for them.” Mr. Tyrrell came across great herds of cariboo in
the far north.
And now, through the eyes of those who have been there, we will glance
at the mineral possibilities of the new country. Mr. Low pointed out
that between Chesterfield and Fullerton there are several fairly good
deposits of iron pyrites, and that some of these contain small deposits
of gold, which, he mentioned, was also found by Dr. Wright somewhere in
Whitcher Inlet. On the same authority we learn that “the general
character of the southern part of Keewatin as regards mineral resources
is good.” Mr. Dowling, however, inclined to the opinion that the country
is not rich in minerals. But incidentally he observed: “There is iron
ore, and the possibility of gold and silver ore, and also copper ores in
the Grass River district. There is no asbestos. With reference to mica,
it can be found all over the country, but in small pieces.” Mr. McInnes
explained that, north of the Saskatchewan, he crossed forty miles of
limestone that would be excellent for building purposes. On the Upper
Winisk River he discovered a large area of so-called norite rock. That
is the rock in which the nickel of Sudbury occurs. He examined samples
under the microscope, and said the Keewatin formation is not to be
distinguished from the Ontario formation. Mr. McInnes also found—this
time at Cross Lake—an “area of Keewatin rocks, cut by intrusive
granite, of the same character as the photogene of Western Ontario,
which is almost always gold-bearing.” Mr. Tyrrell recognises great
possibilities in the rocks of Keewatin, and he looks for “a large
development at some time” in the copper industry between Chesterfield
Inlet and the Copper Mine River. He said that “the Eskimos pick up
native copper and make their implements from it.”
That, one would think, is a very valuable clue. Mr. Tyrrell showed me a
large specimen of native copper that he had obtained from an Eskimo
hunter. This eminent geologist saw gold and copper in rocks near
Chesterfield Inlet, and he has “every confidence” that those rocks will
produce workable ores.
And now I will finally recall the foregoing witnesses, in order that
they may say what opinions they formed with reference to the climate of
Keewatin. Mr. Low considered “the summer as equal to that of
Saskatchewan.” “At Churchill,” said Mr. Dowling, “we had winds from the
south-west practically all through the summer, and that made it very
warm; but there were two days when the wind came from the north, and
people wanted their overcoats at once.” From Mr. McInnes came the
statement that “the country averages from four to five degrees in the
summer months higher temperature than is found at the same latitude
farther west.”
Speaking of the arable belt that is two hundred miles wide, Mr. Tyrrell
said there is little or no summer frost there. At Nelson, gardening
commences, he understood, at the end of May, and frost does not appear
until about September 20th. He went on to make the following useful
statement: “People must not suppose that vegetation is affected by the
isothermal line, which merely connects points that have the same annual
mean temperature. As things do not grow in the winter, the winter
temperature has nothing to do with farming possibilities. The summer
temperature is the only temperature that counts for growth in the
northern country. As between two places in different latitudes, you have
to take into consideration the length of the day and the amount of
sunlight. Where the days have eighteen hours’ sun a plant will grow
faster than where the days have only fourteen hours’ sun.” And again:
“The large body of water in Hudson Bay and James Bay has an equalising
effect on the winter temperature of the surrounding country, tending to
make the summers cooler and the winters milder.”
And so, I think, the evidence is abundant that, when trains run between
Winnipeg and Hudson Bay, one section of the Great North Lands, emerging
from the mists of obscurity and misapprehension, will take its place
among the most productive and habitable regions of the British Empire.