Canada and Newfoundland

by Frank G. Carpenter

The Clay Belt is just north of the height of land of the North American continent, which divides the rivers flowing north from those that flow south. The streams on the southern side of the ridge flow into the Great Lakes, and some even to the Gulf of Mexico. On the north slope they flow into Hudson Bay, or by the Mackenzie and other rivers into the Arctic Ocean. The Clay Belt has seven good-sized rivers and is well watered throughout.

If there is a moose within sound of the hunter’s birch-bark horn, he will think it one of his brethren calling and be so foolish as to come near and be shot. These animals are still plentiful in Canadian forests.

The trout-filled streams of interior Ontario and Quebec are a Mecca for the fishermen of both the United States and Canada. In the tributaries of the St. Lawrence the fresh-water salmon also provide good sport.

In midsummer the Clay Belt is as hot as southern Canada or the northern part of the United States. As a matter of fact, Cochrane, its chief town, is fifty miles south of the latitude of Winnipeg. Everything grows faster than in the States, for owing to the high latitude the summer days are fifteen or sixteen hours long, the sun rising a little after three and setting between eight and nine. The clay loam is particularly fitted for growing wheat, and certain districts have yielded forty bushels an acre. Oats, barley, and hardy vegetables are raised successfully. The country looks prosperous, and there are well-filled barns and fine herds of livestock as evidences of its productivity.

When the first settlements were made, Northern Ontario had no railroads to market its produce. Four thousand miles of track have since been built, including two lines now a part of the Canadian National. One of these goes through the very centre of the Clay Belt and has settlements all along it. At almost every river crossing is a lumber mill, for Northern Ontario’s vast forest stretches and the water-power in its streams have made it an important producer of lumber and wood pulp. The trees of the Clay Belt are mostly of a small growth, therefore chiefly valuable for pulp and easier to handle in clearing the land.

Ontario has set aside thirteen million acres of forest reserves, nine tenths of which is in the northern part of the province. The Nipigon and Timagami reserves are each larger than Rhode Island and provide camping grounds unequalled in the Dominion. Lake Timagami is dotted with hundreds of islands and is a favourite haunt of canoeists. Farther west, near the Manitoba boundary, the beautiful Lake of the Woods is another famous camping and hunting district.

Immense herds of caribou roam through Northern Ontario. They are to be seen in droves of hundreds and sometimes of thousands. They have cut their trails across the country, and a hunter to whom I have been talking tells me that from his camp at night he can often hear the rushing noise they make as they move through the woods.

In the forests farther south moose are found in great numbers. These animals are browsers rather than grass eaters, their necks being so short that they have to get down on their knees when they eat grass. Deer and smaller animals also abound, wild ducks and geese are plentiful, and the streams are filled with fish. Indeed, it is little wonder that each year sees thousands of campers making their way to this “sportsman’s paradise.”