Log jam on Limestone river.
This Timber Was The Best Seen
while exploring around that country.
Mr. Thibaudeau describes the country from Split lake and extending to The Pas, ten miles in width on each side of the proposed route of the Hudson bay railway, as “a pulpwood belt”. He says in his report:—“On this area, assuming one-sixth to be covered by pulp wood, the balance being river, lakes, ponds, swamps, etc., and assuming ten cords per acre of an average of six inches in diameter, there would be five million seven hundred and fifty-six thousand six hundred and sixty cords. This is a very low, but safe estimate.”
Mr. Thibaudeau makes the following reference to the water powers in the region explored by him:—“Deer river at its mouth has a minimum flow of seven thousand cubic feet per minute. A dam, eighteen feet high, can be built at reasonable cost and would generate one thousand six hundred horse-power. Two dams of the same height could be built within ten miles of the river mouth, which is twenty-five miles from Churchill. North river, which is three hundred and fifty feet wide during December, had a flow of not less than two hundred and fifty thousand cubic feet per minute. With a fifteen-foot dam, it would generate about five thousand horse-power. On Churchill river, within sixty to eighty miles from Churchill, large waterpower could be developed and transmitted to Churchill. Nelson river, Burntwood river and Grass river have a number of falls which could be utilized for the development of power for use in pulp mills or other industries.”
That portion of Mr. J. R. Dickson’s report (See p. [60]) referring to the timber of the district between
The Pas and Cross Lake
explored by him in 1910 is especially valuable. He states:—“In the region we traversed, only five species, namely,—spruce, poplar, tamarack, birch and jackpine have any possible commercial value, and of these, speaking generally, only one, spruce, is large enough for sawmill purposes or railway tie material. The poplar, birch and pine are invariably too short, spindly, limby and crooked for any use save fuel or pulpwood, and what mature tamarack there was is now standing dead from insect attack. We did not find over two hundred green tamarack above ten inches in diameter all summer. This remnant is on the northeast end of Bear island in Sipiwesk lake. Black spruce is easily the predominant species in all that region, and, except on very occasional well-drained tracts of spruce-flat type, where it reaches ten to fourteen inches in diameter at breast height, it is a small spindly tree, only four to eight inches diameter breast height at maturity, useless even for second class ties. This is the condition in which the jackpine also occurs. The white spruce, therefore, is the only species large enough to furnish construction timber, sawlogs, or even railway ties, and the supply is very limited. In the first place, this species occurs only on the best drained spots, such as river and lake margins or on the small islands; in the second, the fires of the past one hundred years have destroyed nearly all the old stand. To sum up then, only a mere fraction of one per cent. of the area we surveyed now carries merchantable timber—a fringe along lower Mitishto and upper Minago rivers, and on a few of the islands and peninsulas in the larger lakes—as shown on the map. There is probably enough timber available to build the rough construction work of the Hudson Bay Railway.
“From the mere size of the country and the density of the oncoming second growth stands, the possible supply of firewood is enormous. Because of its remoteness from settlement, however, it has no present commercial value. Owing to the killing by bark beetles of practically all the larger tamarack (or possibly killed by larch sawfly previous to beetle attack, though we found no trace of the sawfly), there is almost no green pile timber of any value in the whole region. Hence, unless by importation, the only choice left is between dead tamarack and the largest of the close-grained black spruce. The latter would remain sound in soil contact for about ten or twelve years, which would satisfactorily cover the first initial experimental stage in the operation of the new road.