Canada To-day and To-morrow

by Arthur E. Copping

The Archdeacon leads off with this appetising fact: cranberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, and currants grow wild and abundant in the district. He reports that there are plenty of trees there, notably spruce and poplar, which are good for pulp-wood if not very important as timber. At Lac la Rouge he has seen good wheat raised for seven years in succession without any trouble being experienced from frost. Potatoes also grow there splendidly; indeed, as the reverend gentleman put it, the locality is “all right for raising anything that can be raised anywhere in Saskatchewan.” He explained that if the country were cleared of timber it would, in his opinion, be fair agricultural land. With regard to stock, he could merely say that he himself had kept, at the mission on the Churchill River, fifteen head of cattle and two horses.

Archdeacon McKay is also able to testify concerning the Ile à la Crosse country, which lies in much the same latitude as the area already alluded to, but some hundred and sixty miles farther west. This is his instructive summary: “Plenty of timber, and plenty of hay as a rule—some prairie hay and some swamp hay—and the soil is fairly good. It is better than at Lac la Rouge, and it gets better as you go west.” Questioned as to the wild grasses, he described them as “long,” and as “very much the same as the natural hay in Manitoba.”

Once more we hear of prairie fires; and it would seem that they have been particularly destructive in the rocky districts. Cross-examined with regard to timber possibilities, Archdeacon McKay recalled the interesting circumstance that he himself had erected a saw-mill, which was run by water-power, at Lac la Rouge. He added these significant details: “The logs average seventeen to the thousand feet, and are fourteen or fifteen feet long. The diameter would be about two feet across at the butt. They are large, clean logs, very much the same as those at Prince Albert. This good timber is scattered all over the country, sometimes for miles.” Pressed to give a more definite impression of the timber area, he said he believed it extended right away to the borders of the province. It appeared that he had travelled backwards and forwards a good deal, “visiting Indian camps and so on,” and he noted very much the same kind of trees everywhere. Of course there are muskeg in some places, and in others he saw “heavy timber.” Reindeer Lake was the most northerly point he had reached, and he saw plenty of trees up there.

It will now be of interest to learn what light the Archdeacon can throw on the fauna of unknown Saskatchewan. “In Lac la Rouge and the lakes generally,” he said, “fish are abundant. They are mostly white-fish and lake trout. The Indians do not sell them; they have no market. For some time there would be plenty of fish for commercial purposes. I saw a lot in Reindeer Lake.” With regard to fur-bearing animals, “sometimes they are on the increase, sometimes on the decrease, but on the whole there is a decrease, especially in beaver.”

Archdeacon McKay gave some interesting details with regard to climate. A peculiarity of the country round Lac la Rouge, it seems, is that “the frosts are very late.” On an island in the lake he has seen potatoes growing in October, with the tops untouched by frost. He imagines that the large body of water serves to equalise the temperature; and he recalled the interesting fact that when Mr. Chisholm, the Indian inspector, came out one year to make treaty payments to the natives towards the end of August, the potato plants were unaffected both on the mainland and on the islands, “and the inspector told me that crop was a good deal touched at Prince Albert before he left.”

The snowfall is not very heavy. Three feet on the level, it appears, would be considered deep snow. As a rule, the first frosts come in September. He had known potatoes to be “touched,” but not seriously, on the fifteenth of that month. As for the time of sowing, grain could go in, as a rule, by May 5th. That was the date on which the Archdeacon had been in the habit of sowing wheat. He plants potatoes about fifteen days later.

Asked to give his impressions of the winter and summer temperatures, once more he drew an analogy between unknown Saskatchewan and a district in settled Saskatchewan. “In winter,” he said, “judging from my own sensations, the lowest temperature is about the same as at Prince Albert. In the summer time the weather is as hot as at Prince Albert. But, of course, the country of which I am speaking is farther north, and therefore the days are longer.” Of the Lac la Rouge district he reports that, speaking generally, there is sufficient rainfall for crops. One summer there was quite a long spell of dry weather, and it affected the wild fruits; but that was an exceptional state of things. The rainy season is quite equal to Manitoba’s. Thunderstorms and hailstorms occur, but not more frequently than in the south.

“The only whites in the country,” said the Archdeacon, “are the Hudson Bay officials and traders. I built the saw-mill to provide lumber for our mission buildings and boarding school. The number of Indians who take treaty money in that district is over five hundred. They are Crees.”

In conclusion the Archdeacon pointed out that canoeing and pedestrianism represent the only means of reaching the desirable and productive region in which for so many years he has resided. Naturally he is anxious for a railway to connect settled Saskatchewan with Lac la Rouge. “It is all level country,” he said; “there would not be the slightest difficulty in constructing the railway.”

We will now turn to the evidence of scientific investigators. Acting for the Federal Government, Mr. J. Burr Tyrrell explored the vast tract of country between Athabasca Lake and Churchill River—the country, that is, lying north of the area with which we have hitherto mainly been concerned. With Mr. Tyrrell was associated that other distinguished and experienced geologist, Mr. D. B. Dowling.