The Unexploited West / A Compilation of all of the authentic information available at the present time as to the Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions of Northern Canada

by Ernest J. Chambers

Recent Parliamentary Inquiries

resulted in the placing upon record of some of the most instructive of this class of information.

Much data of a most valuable character was obtained by two select committees of the Senate which sat during the sessions of 1887 and 1888, under the presidency of the late Honourable Senator Schultz, who was mainly instrumental in having the said committees appointed. The reports of these committees, with the evidence taken, were printed as appendices to the Journals of the Senate (1st Session, 6th Parlt., 50 Victoria, and 2nd Session, 6th Parlt., 51 Victoria).

During the parliamentary session of 1906-7, the Hon. Senator T. O. Davis, of Prince Albert, was instrumental in having a select committee of the Senate appointed to enquire as to the value of that portion of the Dominion lying north of the Saskatchewan watershed and east of Rocky mountains, comprising the northern parts of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan and Mackenzie territory, and the extent of navigable waters, rivers, lakes, and sea-coast contained therein; also similarly to enquire and report from time to time as to the value of the portions of the Dominion on both sides of Hudson bay, including the territories of Keewatin and Ungava, and the extent of navigable waters, rivers, lakes and sea-coast contained therein. The committee, in accordance with the authority delegated to it, sent for persons, papers and records bearing upon the subjects submitted for its consideration, and examined a number of gentlemen possessing special knowledge, through personal experience or otherwise, of the regions named as the special subject of enquiry. The evidence thus obtained was, under instructions from the Senate, edited, condensed and arranged by the compiler of the present volume, and published, first in the journals of the Senate (3rd Session, 10th Parliament), and subsequently in the book published under the direction of the Department of the Interior, entitled “Canada’s Fertile Northland.” It aroused much interest in the subject, not only in Canada, but throughout the civilized world.

Taking advantage of this, the Minister of the Interior gave instructions for the preparation of a summary or digest of the Schultz committee reports of 1887 and 1888, at that time out of print, the work being entrusted to the same compiler, under the direction of the late Mr. R. E. Young, Superintendent of Railway Lands and Chief Geographer. The result was the volume “The Great Mackenzie Basin”, the first edition of which was published in 1908.

Altogether, from one source or another, during the three centuries which have elapsed since the British flag first appeared in Hudson bay, a vast amount of reliable information, covering many widely-separated districts of the territory under review, has been obtained; but hitherto much of the practical value of this useful data scattered through the pages of publications of various descriptions has been lost for

Lack of Systematic Compilation.

In bringing all this information together and compressing it within the limits of one volume, a difficulty presents itself in the tremendous extent of country concerned.

In arranging the matter of this volume, with a view to enabling the reader to follow more readily, the whole area under review has been divided into certain arbitrary geographical sub-divisions. In a region so vast, the differences of climate, soil and general physical character of the country in the various districts are very considerable, and emphasize the necessity of treating certain geographical sub-divisions separately.

A glance at the map is necessary to enable the reader to understand the divisions of the country which it has been deemed advisable to make in projecting this volume, to permit of the intelligent treatment of the subject.