Sir John Franklin (Journey, 1819-22) says that around Fort Providence the surface of the hills is generally naked, but in the valleys between them a few spruce, aspen and birch grow.
Sir Alexander MacKenzie (1789) also speaks of the country north of the Mackenzie after leaving Slave lake as follows: “He (an Indian) at the same time informed us that a river falls in from the north, which takes its rise in Horn mountain, now in sight, which is the country of the Beaver Indians, and that he and his relatives frequently meet on that river. He also added that there were very extensive plains on both sides of it, which abound in buffaloes and moose deer.”
Mr. R. G. McConnell (Geol. Survey Rep. 1887-88) says that from Fort Providence southwest along Beaver river to Lake Bis-tcho is a desolate looking plain scantily covered with spruce and tamarack. Lake Bis-tcho is surrounded by a flat country, wooded with spruce, birch and tamarack of fair size.
About Fort Simpson.
James Anderson of Winnipeg left Fort Simpson in 1852 when eleven years old (Senate Report 1888). He says: “Round Fort Simpson itself, I remember the timber was very large. It was fir, poplar and birch.” He calls the fir hemlock but no doubt means the spruce. Poplar and birch he says were the other varieties. He says that the fir was a very large kind. The men used to square the timber to about one foot square, for building their houses, and the fort itself was built of squared timber. He says the way he remembers the birch was that it was used so much in the making of snowshoes and other things.
Mr. Stewart (1906) says there is a small-sized sawmill at Fort Simpson, not now running, in which lumber twelve inches in width was cut and used in buildings at this post. “One cannot but be struck,” he says, “with the vast quantity of spruce along the route traversed (from Fort Providence to Fort Simpson), which is a little under size for lumber but would make excellent pulpwood.”
Mr. R. G. McConnell, in his evidence before the Senate committee of 1907, stated that the timber about Fort Simpson is confined to large spruce. White spruce is the main tree all through that country. Spruce from a few inches up to two feet through occurs all the way along the Mackenzie, on the flats, and on nearly all the tributary streams.
Reporting upon the Banksian pine Mr. Preble states:—“On the Mackenzie it is common north to about latitude 64 degrees. About Fort Simpson, in suitable localities, it forms groves of well-grown trees reaching a diameter of eighteen inches. A tree eleven inches in diameter near the base, examined at Fort Simpson, had one hundred and two annual rings. On the north slope of the Nahanni mountains, seventy-five miles below Fort Simpson, the species ascends to about one thousand feet and then becomes a dwarfed shrub and disappears. On the southern slopes of the same mountains it occurs as a fairly well-grown tree about two thousand feet near the summit.”
As to the balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera) Mr. Preble reports:—“The balsam poplar inhabits the entire length of Athabaska, Slave, and Mackenzie rivers, reaching its greatest perfection of habit on Athabaska, Slave, Peace, and Liard rivers. On the Mackenzie, at Fort Simpson, it is a stately tree, but below that point it rapidly decreases in size, and on the lower Mackenzie and Peel rivers occurs only as a small tree. Its wood is put to very little use except for fuel, and even for this purpose it is not well adapted.”
The Tamarack and its Uses.