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.
