Canada To-day and To-morrow

by Arthur E. Copping

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.”