Mr. Low (at the time Director of the Geological Survey), in his evidence before the Senate committee of 1907, as to the resources of the more southern sections of Keewatin which he had explored, namely, between Norway House and Hudson bay, stated that the forest, as in a great many other parts of Canada, had been largely destroyed by fire, but around some of the large lakes and on the islands and other places,
A Fair Growth of Timber
is found in that region, with white and black spruce, pine, aspen, poplar and white birch of eighteen inches diameter. The trees are fairly clean, and a great many of them would probably make two or three logs, so that what remains of the timber there is fairly decent and good, except on the low swampy land where the growth is confined to black spruce and tamarack of no great size. Throughout the more southern region described by Mr. Low, there is a good deal of wood that could be used in the manufacture of pulp.
All of the rivers in the region have waterpowers.
Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, in the report of his explorations in the southern part of this region in 1896 (See p. [20]), wrote:—“The surface is generally forested, though most of the valuable timber has been destroyed by fire. On Grass, Muhigan and Minago rivers, as well as on the shores and islands of some of the lakes, there are still some forests of excellent white spruce, but on the northern part of Burntwood river white spruce is rather scarce, and at Nelson House timber for house logs has to be collected from scattered groves and brought several miles up or down the brooks or across the lake. Black spruce and canoe birch grow on the more level and imperfectly drained tracts, and Banskian pine may be seen here and there on the drier hillsides. Canoe birch grows to a good size beside the lakes and streams, but aspen (Populus tremuloides) is the commonest deciduous tree, as it grows on the drier uplands everywhere,
Occasionally Forming Beautiful Forests,
but more often, and especially towards the north, partly covering the surface with scattered groves of small trees. Among the smaller trees or shrubs, the rowan tree (Pyrus Americana) may be mentioned as growing freely and having an abundant crop of berries along the face of the limestone escarpment, especially around Wekusko and Reed lakes, and the wild cherry (Prunus Virginiana) grows beside most of the lakes.
“The forests surrounding Reed lake are mostly of poplar, but there are some good groves of fine large spruce up to twenty-five inches in diameter.”
Mr. Tyrrell states that on the southeastern shore of Athapapuskow lake “considerable areas are covered with large white spruce.” Almost all the country surrounding Cranberry lakes has been swept by fire, but many of the islands are still wooded with white spruce of fair size. At Wintering lake, “the surrounding shores rise gently from the water, and are densely wooded with a close forest of white spruce, growing on the rich clay soil.”
Mr. Tyrrell describes finding the site of an old fur station near Setting lake “completely overgrown with large spruce trees, quite indistinguishable from those of the surrounding forest.” He adds:—“In many other instances the sites of the ancient fur-trading posts could be recognized as small, usually rectangular, poplar-covered areas, in the midst of or on the border of the adjoining forest.”