papers, 4th Ses. 6th Parlt.), made a special and most comprehensive
reference to the agricultural capabilities of the Mackenzie country. Mr.
Ogilvie’s reputation as an experienced and most accurate observer
justifies an extended quotation from this section of the
report.—“Everywhere, the Mackenzie basin”, he wrote (p. 82), “is quite
as capable, so far as quality of soil is concerned, of supporting an
agricultural population, as the greater part of the provinces of Ontario
and Quebec. The soil, as seen from the river, is generally good, and the
probability is that it continues so at least as far back from the stream
as the woods extend. This extent is said to vary from twenty to forty
miles on the east side, where no stream flows in, but where there are
streams the distance is much greater, as the timber follows the valleys.
Beyond the fringe of timber we come to the so-called barren lands, on
which nothing but mosses and lichens grow and which, except as the
pasturage of the musk-ox and a few other animals, are practically
useless, so far as known at present. On the west side of the river the
woods extend to the timber line on the mountains.
“Assuming the limits to be as above, the area of the fertile soil can
readily be found. Speaking only of that portion of Mackenzie basin
extending from Athabaska lake to Arctic ocean, we have a strip of land
nine hundred and forty miles long, and something over sixty wide. This
gives in round numbers sixty thousand square miles of land, the
agricultural capabilities of which we may reasonably discuss. I think
the above area is less than that actually wooded, but on the west side
much of the surface is probably at such an elevation, being near the
mountains, as to be outside the limits of our discussion. Theoretically,
the points involved are the prevalent temperatures during the growing
months, the period of vegetation and the duration of sunshine.
TEMPERATURE AND SUNLIGHT.
“I do not know of any regular record of temperature having been kept at
Fort McPherson, the most northerly point at which anyone is permanently
settled in the district. The only information which I have is my own
record for the last ten days of June while I was camped in the valley
near the fort. The lowest temperature during that period was 37.3° Fahr.
on June 20, and the mean minimum from June 20 to June 30 was 43.3° Fahr.
The highest observed temperature during the same period was 74° Fahr. at
1:30 p.m. on June 21, and the mean temperature at that hour for the ten
days was 62° Fahr. The lowest of these temperatures would not injure
vegetation. The mean minimum for the whole month would be below this,
probably two or three degrees, but even that would not arrest vegetable
growth. When, in connection with the temperature, we consider the number
of hours of sunshine in June and July, it seems evident that Fort
McPherson has all the essentials for the successful cultivation of most
cereals and vegetables. At this northern point refraction extends the
time during which the sun does not set, so that there are about
twenty-four hours of sunshine each day from June 1 to July 15. On May 1,
the sun is up for about seventeen and one-half hours, and during August
the hours of sunlight vary from nineteen on the 1st to fifteen on the
31st. The total hours of sun are seven hundred and six in May; seven
hundred and twenty in June; six hundred and eighty-four in July; and
five hundred and twenty-seven in August; in all two thousand six hundred
and thirty-seven hours of sun out of the total, day and night, of two
thousand, nine hundred and fifty-two hours in the four months. As
twilight continues while the sun is less than eighteen degrees below the
horizon there is actually no darkness during this period. When the
temperature is suitable, vegetation under these conditions thrives to an
almost incredible degree, as the following shows. When I arrived at Fort
McPherson on June 20, the new buds on the trees were just perceptible,
and on the evening of June 22, the trees were almost fully in leaf.
“The mean minimum temperature for the month of July was 45.4° Fahr. The
mean temperature for 1:30 p.m. was 64.7° Fahr., but on two occasions the
thermometer went to 78° in the shade, and ten times to 70°. These
temperatures were noted along the river, at different points of course,
although during the greater part of the month my latitude did not change
very much.
[Illustration: View on Peel river.]
“This combination of favorable temperature and long hours of sunlight
promises well for vegetable growth, but there are interfering causes.
Unfortunately snow storms are apt to occur at any time during the year
at Fort McPherson. On July 2, five inches of snow fell and the
thermometer went down to 25° (7° below freezing point), yet, strange to
say, the frost did not appear to hurt anything. A northeast wind
continuing for a day or more, lowers the temperature in a few hours from
pleasant, summer heat to what reminds one of the approach of winter.
“As far as I could learn, no attempt at cultivating cereals or roots has
been made at Fort McPherson. But at Fort Good Hope some of the people
grow potatoes and other garden produce, and, as the difference of
latitude is not much over a degree, the same things ought to grow nearly
as well at Fort McPherson. The potatoes grown at Fort Good Hope are
small, averaging about the size of a large hen’s egg. Those which I
tasted were bad, as if they had been frozen, but they were of the
previous season’s growth, and it was then the middle of July. Even in
Ontario potatoes of that age are not very palatable. This tuber appears
to have always vitality enough to increase, as at Fort Good Hope they
have had
NO CHANGE OF SEED FOR SEVERAL YEARS.
This tends to show that the frosts are not very severe, during the time
potatoes are growing and ripening. When I passed, the onions, lettuce
and other things planted in the gardens were pretty well advanced, the
onion stalks being about as large as pencils. No cereals had been sown,
but I think barley would succeed fairly well. I am not aware of any
continuous record of temperature at Fort Good Hope, so I cannot say
whether the climate at that place is suitable for the growth of plants
during June, July, and August. While I was there the days were pleasant
and warm and the nights not unpleasantly cool. Nor, if we omit July 2,
when snow fell, did I anywhere note any temperature below freezing
during July and August.
“It may be said that my observations extended over too great a range of
latitude, to be of any value in indicating the temperature any period or
any place, as while they were being taken we were constantly moving
south. This is true, but it must be remembered that in moving south we
were leaving the area of constant sunlight and getting to where night
has a cooling effect, so that the objection has not the same weight it
would otherwise have.
“The statement given below of the duration of sunlight in the months of
May, June, July and August, serves to show that a difference in latitude
has not the same effect in changing the summer temperatures of places in
high latitudes as it has in more southerly localities. Unfortunately,
the records at posts in the district are too few and meagre to either
confirm or disprove this theory, and to use the records of such places
as Fort Franklin, on Great Bear lake, and Fort Rae, on Great Slave lake,
is hardly fair. These points are over three hundred miles apart in an
air line, and the temperature at either or both may be influenced by the
local conformation of the ground, or other unknown causes. However,
taking the records at these places, we have the following comparison:—
Mean temperature Fort Franklin, Fort Rae,
during lat. 65° 12′ lat. 62° 40′
May, 35.2° Fahr. 27.7° Fahr.
June, 51.4° 51.4°
July, 52° 61.2°
August, 50.6° 56.5°
“The Fort Franklin data are given in Professor Loomis’s Meteorology,
published in 1875. He gives as his authority Dove’s tables in the report
of the British Association for 1847. Who the observer was is not stated,
but it was probably Franklin. The Fort Rae statistics were furnished by
Mr. Carpmael to the Senate committee appointed to inquire into the
resources of Mackenzie basin, and cover the same months as those given
for Fort Franklin. These statistics, as far as they go, confirm the
theory, for the extremes at Fort Franklin differ 16.8°, while at Fort
Rae the difference is 33.5°, and the monthly differences at the former
place are much less than the latter.[18]
“I have computed the following table which shows comprehensively the
different durations of sunlight for the latitudes of Ottawa, Chipewyan,
and Forts Simpson, Good Hope and McPherson.
Ottawa. Chipewyan. Simpson. Good Hope. McPherson.
Latitude 45° 26′ 58° 43′ 61° 52′ 66° 16′ 67° 26′
H. Sun. H. M. H. M. H. M. H. M. H. M.
May 1: 14 08 15 34 16 05 17 06 17 30
June 1: 15 16 17 36 18 39 21 04 24 00
June 21: 15 30 18 44 19 14 22 48 24 00
July 1: 15 24 18 36 19 02 22 04 24 00
Aug. 1: 14 32 16 16 16 56 18 16 19 24
Aug. 31: 13 08 13 52 14 08 14 36 14 44
H. Sun. H. H. H. H. H.
May: 456 514 538 592 706
June: 462 549 570 662 720
July: 464 530 558 625 684
Aug.: 423 467 481 519 527
—— —— —— —— ——
Totals. 1805 2060 2147 2398 2637
“The number of hours of sunlight in each month has been obtained from
the mean of the numbers at the beginning and ending of the month. This
does not give a strictly correct result, as the sun’s declination, on
which the length of the day depends, does not change uniformly, the
daily change in June, when the sun has attained its greatest
declination, being small as compared with that of September, when the
sun is near the equator. Were the light of each day separately computed,
the difference would be even more decidedly in favor of the north. In
computing the above table, refraction has not been taken into account
except in the case of Fort McPherson. Allowance for refraction would
increase the duration of sunlight at all the other places, but much more
in the north than in the south. As the table now stands it assigns to
Fort McPherson eight hundred and thirty-two hours, or thirty-four and
two-third days more sunlight than Ottawa, during a total period of two
thousand five hundred and fifty-two hours. A better mode of comparison
is to reduce the number of hours of sunlight at each place to days. It
stands thus:—Ottawa, seventy-five days, five hours; Chipewyan,
eighty-five days, twenty hours; Fort Simpson, eighty-nine days, eleven
hours; Fort Good Hope, ninety-nine days, twenty-two hours; Fort
McPherson, one hundred and nine days, twenty-one hours, and this out of
a total of one hundred and twenty-three days.
AGRICULTURE AT FORT NORMAN.
“At Fort Norman, the Hudson’s Bay Company had a garden planted with
turnips, potatoes and other garden produce. I was at that point during
the last days of July, at which time potato vines were from six to ten
inches long, and did not promise a good yield. The Roman Catholic
mission had two patches, together about an acre in extent, planted with
potatoes. The soil here was much better than in the first patch, being a
warm clay loam, while in the other it was nearly all decaying vegetable
matter, commonly called ‘muck’. The mission potatoes were much stronger
in the vines than the Hudson’s Bay Company’s, and, at the time, nearly
covered the ground. The Anglican mission had planted a small piece of
ground near the river on a sheltered bench below the top of the bank and
facing the south. Here the growth was much stronger than at either of
the two other places. Some barley had been sown in it, and was well
grown, the stalks averaging from two to two and a half feet high, and
the heads being long and just beginning to fill. The growth of grass on
this flat is luxuriant, and nettles grow as strong and large as any I
have seen elsewhere. Near the edge of the woods wild vetches grow as
long and vigorous as they do near Edmonton. Everyone complained of the
cold, wet weather which prevailed during the summer and much retarded
vegetation. The Roman Catholic missionary in charge of the mission here,
told me that in twenty years’ residence at the place he did not
recollect such a cool, damp, cloudy summer.
AT FORT WRIGLEY.
“At Fort Wrigley some slight attempts had been made at cultivation, but
I do not consider them a fair test of the capabilities of the place.
When I was there, on August 15, the people were gathering blueberries,
then fully ripe and as large and well-flavored as they are in Ontario.
Ripe strawberries were found on August 9 ninety miles below this, and a
few raspberries soon afterwards. Above Fort Wrigley wild gooseberries
and both red and black currants were found in abundance, some of the
small islands being literally covered with the bushes. The gooseberries
were large and well flavored, and the currants would compare favourably
with the same fruit as cultivated in the vicinity of Ottawa, the black
currants being especially large and mellow. This was the middle of
August, latitude 63°.
ONE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES FARTHER NORTH THAN OTTAWA.
“At Fort Simpson the Hudson’s Bay Company has a large plot of ground
planted with turnips, potatoes, onions, and other garden produce such as
is generally grown without artificial means in Ontario. On August 24,
when I visited this place, the growing vegetables looked almost as good
as the same kinds seen at the Ottawa market at the same date. Lettuce
particularly was very large and fine. There was also a large area of
barley, which looked well and promised an abundant return if allowed to
ripen. The grain was then full and plump and just beginning to harden,
but fears were entertained that a frost might come and spoil it. The
people there claimed that the prevailing cool, cloudy weather had
retarded its growth, as otherwise it would then be out of danger from
frost. This cereal has been grown with success at Fort Simpson for many
years. I understood that wheat had been tried, but with indifferent
success. The garden altogether presented an appearance hardly to be
expected at a point eleven hundred and fifty miles farther north than
Ottawa. It is situated on an island in the river, and the presence of
the large body of water may moderate the climate and account for the
fine appearance of the garden. Whether the same fine result can be
attained a mile or more away from the river can only be decided by
trial. I am strongly of the opinion that it cannot.
“On the high river bank below Fort Providence wild gooseberries and
currants were very plentiful, though on the eighth of September they
were somewhat over-ripe.
“At Fort Providence the usual garden produce is grown every year and
generally turns out well. Barley is also grown with success, but in 1888
it was, as everywhere else in the valley, much retarded by cool weather.
Up to my departure from the post, the lowest temperature, exclusive of
July 2, was 31.8° on August 29. The mean minimum for the month of August
was 43°. When I was at Fort Providence the barley was beginning to
change color, and, unless a very severe frost came soon after, would
ripen. Wheat has been grown here for many years by the Hudson’s Bay
Company, generally being fairly ripe before it is touched by frost and
sometimes escaping altogether. The wheat is ground in a small hand mill,
and the flour used in the ordinary way by the people of the fort. While
there I ground a few pounds of the crop of 1887, and had the flour made
into a cake, which, though not quite so good as that made from ‘XXXX’
flour, was palatable, and would probably sustain life as effectually as
any other, those using it appearing as well and strong as could be
desired. I brought home a sample of this wheat for inspection.
PEA VINES STILL GREEN IN SEPTEMBER.
“At Fort Resolution the Hudson’s Bay Company were growing potatoes,
turnips and barley. The first were of good quality and size, but there
would be no yield of the last. The Anglican missionary also had a garden
in which were potatoes, cabbage, cauliflowers, turnips, onions and peas,
the latter still green on September 21. The potatoes and cauliflowers
were both good in size and flavor. I was informed that small potatoes
were grown in a garden at Fort Rae, situated on a long arm of Great
Slave lake, but, according to report, there is not much land around the
lake available for farming, even were the climate suitable, as it is
nearly all rock. At Fort Smith nothing of importance from an
agricultural point of view had been done, and the autumn frosts were
very severe.
“In conclusion, I may say that I do not wish to be understood as
representing this country as suitable for agricultural operations, as I
do not think it is. I have merely presented the results of the attempts
which have been made. These results are doubtless much more favorable
than might be expected, but how far they would hold good elsewhere than
in the immediate vicinity of the river is not known. It is probable that
the presence of such a large body of water, with a temperature of about
55°, has a beneficial influence on vegetation.
“Before that part of our territory will be required for settlement,
there will be ample time to determine by experiment exactly what it is
worth for agriculture.
EUROPEAN COMPARISONS.
“In looking over the world for countries lying in the same latitude to
compare with it, we find Norway extending from latitude 58° to 70° 30′,
with an area of one hundred and twenty-three thousand two hundred and
six square miles, and a population of one million eight hundred and six
thousand nine hundred. Of her territory only about one-thirtieth is
under cultivation, one-fourth being covered with forest, and the rest
barren mountain land. But as Norway is exposed throughout its whole
length to Atlantic ocean, the comparison is hardly apposite. Better
suited for comparison is that division of Russia known as Finland, lying
between 60° and 70° north latitude, with an area of one hundred and
forty-four thousand two hundred and fifty-four square miles, and a
population of two million one hundred and forty-two thousand and
ninety-three.
“This shows us that we must not regard the district as altogether
useless nor despair of its ultimate occupation to at least the same
extent as the countries named. When we take into consideration also the
adaptability to settlement of Athabaska and Peace river valleys, which
are parts of the same great drainage basin, we may look forward with
confidence to its ultimate occupation by several millions of
inhabitants.”
In the report of his trip in 1891, Mr. Ogilvie gives the following notes
on agriculture in Mackenzie valley:—
“Fort Providence was infested with grasshoppers to such an extent that
every bit of grain sown there was cut to the ground, nothing but the
stubs of the stalks being visible. Wheat has been grown there with
varying success for many years, and the fact that in latitude 61° 20′
38′′ it has been completely devoured by grasshoppers is itself worthy of
record.
“At Simpson the garden stuff, although very nice in appearance, was not
up to what I saw there in 1888, just at the same time of the year too,
though it would compare very favourably with the appearance of those in
places ten and fifteen degrees farther south. At that date (August 25 to
28), garden stuff was well advanced, green peas were in use, as were
cabbage, potatoes, carrots and other vegetables, all large and well
flavoured. The barley sown was short and stunted looking from drought,
but of fair quality.
“In 1888 the Company’s officer in charge planted ash-leaved maples sent
in from Manitoba to see how they would stand the climate, eleven degrees
farther north than their native home. Last year they were quite large
and seemed to flourish as well as they would have done in their native
soil. Many head of cattle were kept here, which seem to thrive as well
as they would anywhere else in our country. The hay for their winter
subsistence is cut on the hills south of the fort.
AT LIARD IN 1891.
“At Fort Liard the same drought seems to have prevailed, and prevented
the usual development of what was planted. At the date (September 4) of
my arrival, the barley had been harvested some days, and though the
straw was short the grain was plump and hard and of fair yield. Potatoes
were of good size and of fair quality. Wheat had often been grown here
successfully, but as it can only be used whole, it is considered better
to grow barley, which can be, and is, used as cattle food. Cattle are
kept here, and seem to thrive as well as they do in other places of the
country. At this post the soil is a rich, black loamy clay, and the
surface is thickly wooded all around. As seen from the high ground on
the opposite side of the river, the country to the south and east
appears undulating, rising into extensive ridges all heavily wooded.
This condition is said to continue through to Hay river. In the valley
are many lakes, some of considerable extent, and many large swamps. I
could not learn anything of the character of the soil, but it is fair to
assume from the general character of the woods, that it is of fair
quality.
“While at this fort I examined the daily journal of events kept at every
post, for the purpose of getting some information as to the times of the
general run of farming events, opening or closing of the river, or any
other fact of agricultural, meteorological, or general interest. I will
here make a few explanatory remarks with regard to these journals. It is
a standing rule in the Company’s service that a journal of daily events
be kept at every post, but each officer seems to have a different idea
of what a daily journal even is, and there seems to be a want of
continuity, so to speak, in the records when there is a change of
writers or officers, some officers aiming at making it what it was
intended or ought to be, a chronicle which could at any time hereafter
be consulted with confidence regarding historical, meteorological and
agricultural events in particular, and information generally.
Unfortunately, many seem to have considered it an unpleasant duty, and
put it off from day to day, until a long interval had elapsed, then went
at it in desperation and made the best record they could from memory, of
course often omitting many items of interest and general importance. In
many of the journals I have seen there are great gaps, the officer at
the place being absent on a journey, or sick or otherwise unable to
write the journal at the post.
NOTES FROM LIARD JOURNALS.
The journals at Liard gave me the following dates and facts:—
1878. Planted seed May 9; reaped barley, omitted; first ice
drifting in the river, October 18; ice set in river, October 29.
1879. Planted seed April 22; reaped barley August 14; first ice
in river October 15; ice set fast November 7.
1880. Planted seed May 7; reaped barley August 14; first ice in
river October 25; ice set fast November 9.
1881. Planted seed May 5; reaped barley August 12; first ice in
river October 10; ice set fast November 13.
1882. Planted seed May 9; reaped barley August 22; first ice in
river October 16; ice set fast November 7.
1883. Planted seed May 3; reaped barley August 10; first ice in
river October 29; ice set fast November 9.
1884. Planted seed May 1; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in
river October 10; ice set fast October 29.
1885. Planted seed May 22; reaped barley August 11; first ice in
river October 23; ice set fast, omitted.
1886. Planted seed May 7; reaped barley August 19; first ice in
river November 9; ice set fast November 20.
1887. Planted seed May 3; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in
river October 22; ice set fast November 9.
1888. Planted seed May 9; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in
river October 20; ice set fast November 5.
1889. Planted seed April 16; reaped barley, omitted; first ice
in river October 28; ice set fast November 14.
1890. Planted seed April 30; reaped barley, omitted; first ice
in river October 15; ice set fast November 14.
Potatoes are generally harvested about September 20. The ice
generally breaks up in the river about May 1.
BETWEEN THE LIARD AND THE PEACE.
“On the west side of Liard and East Branch rivers it is not very far to
the mountains, consequently the area of land which might be utilized
agriculturally is not very extensive on that side. On the east the same
character of surface holds I believe from the Liard southward to the
Peace watershed, high dry ridges with many intervening swamps and lakes,
many of the swamps being very extensive. This is as the Indians and one
or two white men who have made journeys into it have said of it. The
soil is generally of fair quality, some of it good. On my return from
Sikanni Chief river to Peace river I found the same general
characteristics, ridges with swamps between. I am afraid the elevation
above the sea level along this route (the average reading of the
barometer being about 27.00 inches while I was on it) is too high to
allow farming in the sense in which we understand it. On the streams
flowing into the Peace, there is much prairie, but it is confined mainly
to the immediate valleys of the streams; much of it is springy and wet,
evidently the water from the adjacent swamps percolating through. The
soil is all good, and if the climatic conditions were suitable, a very
large percentage of good country would be found in this section. Many of
the swamps could be drained as the natural facilities for drainage are
good. Although it was in October I passed over it I witnessed no severe
frosts, very little ice being visible anywhere, and the flora giving no
evidence of having been much injured by the frosts. In the prairies
along the creeks, the grasses and plants are generally of as luxuriant
growth as in places much farther south and east. The grass was generally
long and meadow-like, but as we approached Peace river it became more
like true prairie grass, until extensive areas of true prairie were
passed over along the tributaries of Peace river.
“The weather for some days previous to my arrival at Nelson (September
15) had been showery and unsettled; this culminated on September 16 in a
very heavy rainfall which changed to snow on September 17 and 18. This
was damp and stuck to and loaded the trees in the forest to such an
extent that the weight broke thousands of them. The snowstorm appears to
have been local, as I afterwards learned that it had not extended to
Peace river nor more than one hundred miles south from Nelson. The
weather cleared on September 19.”
In a communication to the press in 1910, Mr. Ogilvie wrote:—“From Fort
Vermilion to Fort Liard on Liard river, where wheat has been
successfully grown for more years than many people would credit, is
three hundred and ten miles; by trail, say three hundred and fifty. On
this stretch just across Peace river Hay river prairies are highly
spoken of, and certainly look well from the river. A railway line would
probably follow down Black river valley to Liard, and extensive meadows
in this valley were reported by natives when I was there in 1891.”
EVIDENCE BEFORE THE LATE SENATE COMMITTEE.
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.
[Illustration: Eskimos in Kyaks on Arctic Red river.]
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.
[Illustration: Staff and pupils, Church of England Mission, Hay river.]
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.’”
-----
[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.
[22] Referring to the map produced by Mr. Young before the committee, on
which he had shown the position of places where wheat had been grown in
northwestern Canada by a scheme of red discs appearing on the map.