“The Fertile Belt.”—Influence of a Catchy Expression.—Northern Canada still a Terra Incognita.—The Hudson’s Bay Company.—Early Explorations.—Kelsey, Hearne, Mackenzie, Franklin, Back, Simpson and Dease.—The More Recent Explorers, Official and Unofficial.—Parliamentary Investigations. When in 1867 the four principal British provinces in the eastern portion of North America were confederated under the British North America Act and became the original Dominion of Canada, the vast regions of the west vaguely known under several designations such as the “Hudson’s Bay Territory,” the “Northwest Territory” and “Rupert’s Land,” and extending from the United States boundary to Arctic sea, and from the western frontier of Ontario, James bay and Hudson bay to Rocky mountains, remained under the rule of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The Fathers of Confederation had in view, however, a union of all the British possessions on the continent, and one of the measures passed at the first session of the first parliament of the new Dominion provided for the opening of negotiations for the union of the Hudson bay territory with the confederated provinces. Thanks largely to the diplomatic offices of the British government, the rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company were eventually bought out by Canada, and this vast territory, estimated at upwards of two million three hundred thousand square miles, was transferred to the Dominion of Canada in the year 1867. The cash consideration obtained by the company from the Dominion for the relinquishment of its rights and titles was the sum of three hundred thousand pounds sterling; but there was also a provision for the retention by the Company of blocks of land adjoining each of its stations; and the right was allowed the company for fifty years, from 1870, to “claim in any township or district within the fertile belt in which land is set out for settlement, grants of land not exceeding one-twentieth part of the land so set out.” For the purpose of the agreement the “Fertile Belt” was described therein as being bounded as follows:—“On the south by the United States boundary; on the west by Rocky mountains; on the north by the northern branch of the Saskatchewan; on the east by Lake Winnipeg, Lake of the Woods, and the waters connecting them.” The Term “Fertile Belt.” There is some uncertainty as to the origin of the term “Fertile Belt”, thus arbitrarily defined in the historical agreement with the Hudson’s Bay Company; but this much is certain:—the term came into general use after the publication of the reports of the official exploratory expeditions of Captain John Palliser of the In the preface to his report, published in 1860, Professor Hind wrote:—“The establishment of a new colony in the basin of Lake Winnipeg, and the discovery of a Fertile Belt of country extending from the Lake of the Woods to Rocky mountains, give to this part of British America a more than passing interest.” In another place Professor Hind wrote:—“North of the great American desert there is a broad slip of Fertile Country, rich in water, wood, and pasturage, drained by the North Saskatchewan, and a continuation of the fertile prairies of Red and Assiniboine rivers. It is a physical reality of the highest importance to the Wheat field at Stanley, Churchill river. The terms “Fertile Belt,” “Fertile Strip” and “Fertile Land” appear many times in Captain Palliser’s report, published in 1863, the first of these expressions being used no less than three times in one paragraph of the report. The influence of a “catchy expression” in attracting the world’s attention is wonderful. Whatever the origin of the term “Fertile Belt” in this connection, its emphatic application by these independent official reports to the particular strip of territory between the United States boundary line and Saskatchewan river had immediate and lasting effects. It arrested public attention in England and in Canada. That which had often been asserted by independent travellers, and more often stoutly denied by those whose sole interests were centred in the fur trade The Older Influences. The Right Honourable Edward Ellice, one of the oldest governors of Hudson’s Bay Company, asked, Sir George Simpson, who was for forty years governor of the Hudson Bay territories and had visited every portion of them, was examined before the select committee of the British House of Commons appointed in 1857 at the instance of Mr. Labouchere, on the eve of the expiration of the license for exclusive Indian trade issued to the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1838, to investigate the state of the British possessions administered by the Company. Sir George, being asked his opinion as to the general fitness of Rupert’s Land for colonization, replied:—“I do not think that any part of the Hudson Bay territories is well adapted for settlement; the crops are very uncertain.” By officially establishing the existence of this rich, arable area in the southern part of the territories governed by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and by associating it with such an apt designation, the Palliser and Hind expeditions brought strong popular support to those who in Britain and Canada were at that particular period actively working to secure the introduction of Canadian jurisdiction over the whole of the western part of British North America, and materially contributed to the success of the protracted negotiations which resulted in the ultimate surrender of its rights of government, etc., by the Hudson’s Bay Company. If any other proof was required to establish in the popular mind the attractiveness of the “Fertile Belt” as a desirable section for settlement, it was furnished by the written agreement under which the country was handed over to the Dominion of Canada, the term “Fertile Belt” therein receiving the stamp of the highest official recognition, and by the Hudson’s Bay Company, famous as a shrewdly managed corporation, stipulating that the grants of land to be made them were to be located within the area so designated. Settlement of “The Fertile Belt.” The term “Fertile Area” proved a very loadstone to the settler and the capitalist. Ever since the settlement of the troubles which accompanied the transfer of the great northwest to the Dominion of Canada there has been a stream of immigration flowing into the country, and up to the past few years the Fertile Belt has been the settler’s Mecca and El Dorado. In the summer of 1874 the region west of the original province of Manitoba was ‘opened up’ by the Northwest Mounted Police as far as Macleod in the south, and Edmonton in the north. In 1885 the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway main line gave western Canada direct communication with the eastern provinces, and a fair chance to develop her natural resources, particularly in the Fertile Belt, through which the line was constructed. In 1870 the population of the whole region east of Rocky mountains over which the Great Company had so recently relinquished its rule as Lord Proprietor amounted to but a few hundred; at the present time (census of 1911) it amounts to no less than one million, three hundred and forty-eight thousand, one hundred and seventy two. And with the exception of the partially settled areas in Beaver, Athabaska and Peace districts, and a few small, isolated posts on Hudson bay and along Mackenzie river, the whole of this population is located within the “Fertile Belt” as defined in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s agreement of 1869. This is not to be wondered at considering the undoubted natural attractiveness of the zone, its rapidly developed advantages in the way of railway communication, and the benefit it derived from being originally introduced to the world as a future paradise of agricultural enterprise under such an apt and alluring designation as “The Fertile Belt.” But while the united energies of the capitalist, the railroad builder and the agriculturist have been devoted to the exploration of the Fertile Belt, the much larger area of virgin country extending from the northern limits of the strip in question to Arctic sea and lying between Hudson bay and Rocky mountains has been neglected. This (not including the Yukon), the most northern section of the vast western region formerly ruled by the big fur-trading company, comprises no less than one and one-half million square miles of country, or considerably more than the combined territory (on March 1, 1912) of the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba. Its very vastness, coupled with its remoteness from the great centres of population, has tended to keep it, as far as the world at large is concerned, comparatively A Terra Incognita. The word “comparatively” is used advisedly, for while it is true that the greater part of the unexploited northland is unexplored and unknown, we have in one way or another obtained considerable useful information about it. Now and again word has come from some missionary station or trading post somewhere up in the far north, hundreds of miles beyond the northern limits of the “Fertile Belt,” of root crops, barley, oats, and even wheat being raised during a long succession of years with phenomenal success. Explorers returned from the great north have related how they were regaled upon potatoes and other vegetables grown a few miles from Arctic Circle. A sample of wheat grown at Fort Vermilion in north latitude 58·4°, three hundred and fifty miles north of Edmonton, was awarded First Prize at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, in 1876, in competition with the whole world. Geological explorers have reported vast deposits of coal and other minerals underlying immense areas in the far north. Adventurous travellers, back from the least promising regions of Canada’s great northland have disclosed the existence of timber areas and of game and fish preserves of fabulous richness. And this great northern country long ago had its champions who challenged the attention of the world by predicting for sections of it, at least, an agricultural and industrial future. Mr. Malcolm McLeod, formerly of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and, as a son of the North, jealous of its reputation, stirred up the thought that in the glamour attached to the original exploitation of the “Fertile Belt” the natural resources of the vaster country to the north would be overlooked, and in the preface of his book, published in 1872, on Sir George Simpson’s canoe voyage from Hudson bay to the Pacific in 1828, wrote:—“The object of the present brochure, at this juncture, is to direct attention—by an account of a canoe voyage through the region—to the fact that beyond that belt of supposed limited fertility, which is implied in the term “Fertile Belt,” there is, in our north west, an area, continuous in every direction and easily accessible to its utmost limits, containing over three hundred millions of acres of wheat and pasture lands, with forests of finest timber, and the largest known coal and bitumen, and also probably the richest gold areas in the world—a land teeming with animal and vegetable life, extending to the very Arctic Circle, and owing its wealth in that respect to exceptional causes. I refer to that area—comprised entirely of Silurian and Devonian systems—watered by the great Athabaska, Peace and Mackenzie rivers, with their countless affluents.” The very year of Confederation the attention of the reading public of the world was forcibly drawn to the latent natural wealth of the northland. The writer The Northland’s First Champions. To find the first champions of the great Northland as a prospective theatre of enterprise and development, and to trace the history of the exploration of the region from the beginning, it is necessary to go back many years, to a date, in fact, only two years more recent than the founding of Quebec by Samuel de Champlain. Henry Hudson, the great English sea captain, was engaged in the search for a northwest passage, when on August 3, 1610, he rounded the northwestern shoulder of Labrador and entered the bay which he thus discovered and which The southern coast of Hudson bay, east from Port Nelson (York Factory), was visited and explored by Captains Luke Foxe of London and Thomas James of Bristol in 1631, and again visited by James in 1632. These two navigators met off the coast near the mouth of Winisk river on August 29-30, 1631. Each had given a name to the country to the southwest. Foxe called it “New Yorkshire” and James “The South Principality of Wales,” probably on account of the previous name “New Wales” given by Button in 1612 to the land southwest of Port Nelson. These two navigators sailed together to the eastward, to the entrance to James bay, and there separated, Foxe to go north and James to the southward, to winter. Foxe called the bay he had left “Wolstenholme’s Ultimum Vale.” James, after rounding the cape, determined its latitude (55° 5') and called it “Henrietta Maria Cape,” after the Queen, and also after his own ship. Oat field at Ile À La Crosse. In 1668 Captain Gillam entered Hudson bay with a pioneer fur-trading expedition under the patronage of some influential Londoners, at the head of whom was Prince Rupert, Duke of Cumberland, Count Palatine of the Rhine and cousin of Charles II, King of England. Thus was inaugurated the regime of the Hudson’s Bay Company, but the Royal charter to Prince Rupert and his associates, constituting them “The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay”, was not granted until 1670. “The Hudson’s Bay Company.” The company was organized to prosecute the fur trade, and not for colonizing purposes. The few explorations into and from the company’s first posts on the bay were made solely in the interests of the fur trade. When in 1683 Governor Sargeant was urged to send men to penetrate into the country, the object was distinctly stated to be “to draw down the Indians by fair and gentle means to trade with us.” This was the burden of many letters of instruction sent out to Hudson bay in those days, but the response was not very promising. The company’s servants were not easily induced to imperil their lives, particularly as they complained Soon after the Hudson’s Bay Company An Early Parliamentary Inquiry. In 1748, Up to this time the territory about Hudson bay had been commonly supposed “to be a mere waste and howling wilderness, wherein half-famished beasts of prey wage eternal war with a sparse population of half-starved savages; where the drought is more than Saharan, the cold more than Arctic, and that woe would betide the mad and unfortunate individual who might be so far diverted from the path of prudence as to endeavour to settle in those parts.” Evidence heard before the committee revealed the fact that intelligent men who have lived in the country several years considered that it possessed decided attractions as a field of settlement, and held that nothing but the policy of the fur-trading company kept settlement back. Some of the evidence as to the resources of the country and as to the conditions of the very slim white population is still edifying. The attack upon the legality of the company’s charter, however, came to nothing, and the revelations made as to the suitability of the country for settlement had no practical result, which is scarcely to be wondered at considering the conditions prevailing in both Europe and America—conditions which in the course of a few years were to result in momentous changes in the map of this continent. No additional data as to the resources and geography of the great northland were produced until the years 1770 and 1771 when Hearne Made His Historical Trip of discovery. Many of the witnesses examined during the enquiry of 1748-49 had spoken of the statements of Indians regarding the rich copper mines existing on a great river many miles to the northwest of Churchill. The Indians who visited that post in 1768 so impressed the governor, Mr. Moses Norton, with their version of the richness of the copper deposits along the river they called the Neetha-San-San-Dazey (the “far-off metal river”), that being in London the following season he induced the Company to send out an exploratory expedition. The man selected During the eighteen years or so following Hearne’s discovery of Coppermine river, considerable knowledge was acquired as to the resources of the more southern portions of the still unexploited north country by the activities of the Canadian fur traders, including the Northwest Company, in North Saskatchewan, Clearwater, Athabaska and Peace river regions, Mackenzie’s Trips of Exploration including the discovery of the great river of the north which still bears his name, were notable events in the history of the north country; momentous events, in fact, in view of the knowledge first obtained through them of the vast natural resources of the great Mackenzie basin. Winter travel—Dinner time. Mackenzie set out on his first voyage from Chipewyan, at the head of Lake Athabaska (a Northwest Company’s post), June 3, 1789, and proceeded in canoes via Slave river, Great Slave lake, and Mackenzie river as far as Whale island in the estuary of that stream. On July 16, he started on the return trip by the same route, and reached Chipewyan on September 12. On his second trip, in 1792, Mackenzie proceeded from Chipewyan to the summit of the Rockies via Lake Athabaska, Peace river, and its affluents, making his way to the Pacific through the passes of the mountains, and down the streams on the western slope as best he could. David Thomson, an energetic but little known traveller, made a track survey in 1799 of Lesser Slave river, and of the Athabaska from the mouth of the Pembina Sir John Franklin. With the first journey of Lieutenant (afterwards Captain Sir) John Franklin, R.N., in 1820, began a series of explorations which extended over a period of about thirty years, in connection with which the study of the natural history and geography of the far north country was carried on more systematically than had hitherto been possible. Franklin was fully equipped by the British Government for scientific work, and was accompanied by Doctor John Richardson, Lieutenant George Back and Lieutenant Robt. Hood—men of acknowledged skill and ability. The expedition left York Factory on September 9, 1819, and, travelling by way of Oxford House and Norway House, arrived on October 22 at Cumberland House where they went into winter quarters. In order to arrange in advance for the further progress of the expedition, Franklin, accompanied by Back, left Cumberland House on January 18, 1820, and, travelling by way of Carleton House, Ile À la Crosse and Methye portage, arrived at Chipewyan on March 26. Finally the party again set out on August 2, 1820, from old Fort Providence, on the north side of Great Slave lake, to ascend Yellowknife river, and on August 20 he reached Winter lake, near which he established his winter quarters. Here wooden houses, dignified with the name of Fort Enterprise, were erected. In June the following year the party descended Coppermine river, covering a distance of three hundred and thirty miles to the sea, and paddled along the coast eastwards, exploring the coast as far eastward as longitude 109° 25' west and latitude 68° 19' north, thus exploring Bathurst inlet and Coronation gulf. The story of the dreadful hardships endured by the party on the return trip, one-half of the whole number, including Lieutenant Hood, dying of starvation and exposure, forms one of the most ghastly chapters in the history of Canadian exploration, and its publication did much to deepen the popular impression that the whole of the great northland was a hopelessly inhospitable region. As a matter of fact the disasters which overtook this expedition were due to its commissariat being inadequately outfitted. The Admiralty, who planned the expedition, knew practically nothing about the conditions of travel in the regions that they proposed having explored, and depended for aid upon the Hudson’s Bay Company. That corporation did its best, but was unable to extend to Franklin any official aid after he left Great Slave lake or to supply him with proper provisions. The bitter fight between the two big fur-trading companies had reached a climax; every officer of the Hudson’s Bay Company was needed in the Company’s service, and supplies at the frontier posts were at the lowest ebb. So the expedition plunged into the unexplored wilderness without enough food and inadequately supplied with ammunition. In spite of the disasters attending the return of this expedition, the British Government, determined upon completing the exploration of the Arctic coast line of the continent, satisfied itself that the route overland was the best for the explorers to follow, and Franklin, having been successful on this first trip in surveying a long stretch of coast to the east of Coppermine river, was appointed At Fort Franklin at the west end of Great Bear lake, and on June 22, 1826, set out in boats along Bear river and Mackenzie river for the coast. The principal members were Captain John Franklin, Lieutenant George Back (second in command); Doctor John Richardson, surgeon and naturalist; Some time before this expedition set forth, the crisis which had developed in the rivalry between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Northwest Company Meanwhile explorations were being prosecuted by sea among the Arctic islands and channels to the far north, and some of the expeditions were indirectly to contribute to the world’s knowledge of the northern part of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s continental territory. Captain John Ross left England in the “Victory” in 1829 and with his ship’s company was compelled to abandon the vessel in the ice in Regent inlet. They spent altogether four winters within the Arctic circle and were finally picked up in their boats in Lancaster sound by a whaler. The prolonged absence of this party caused great anxiety in England, and in 1833 a search expedition was organized at the cost of the Hudson’s Bay Company and Captain Ross’s friends with government assistance. At the head of the searching party was Captain (afterwards Sir) George Back, R.N., who had instructions to descend Thlew-ece-cho-dezeth or Great Fish river to the coast, Old Fort Reliance on a beautiful spot at the north east extremity of Great Slave lake. His explorations extended over parts of Great Slave, Artillery, Clinton-Colden and Aylmer lakes as well as the whole of Great Fish river, and from the Indians Back obtained some interesting information regarding the adjacent country. Captain Back, in 1834, descended Great Fish river, since called Backs river, to its mouth. He also surveyed the coasts of its estuary as far as Cape Britannia on the one side and Point Richardson on the other, leaving but a small space of coast line unexamined between his northern extreme and the limits of earlier explorations. The return journey began on August 16. Back reached the mouth of Great Fish river August 21, the head of it on September 17, and Fort Reliance on September 27. The next journey of exploration in this region was that of Thomas Simpson and Peter Warren Dease, An expedition which was to mark the beginning of a most notable epoch in the explorations of the Arctic regions sailed from England, in 1845. Sir John Franklin, with two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, with crews numbering one hundred and twenty-nine persons, left England on May 26, to complete the survey of the north coast of America and to accomplish the northwest passage. The Erebus and the Terror were last seen by a whaling captain July 26, 1845, moored to an iceberg, waiting for an opening in the ice to cross to Lancaster sound. As time passed without any word of the missing expedition being received, the interest and sympathy of the world were powerfully aroused, and not only England, but France and the United States also despatched Search Expeditions to the Arctic. From northwest Canada some historical expeditions made their way overland. In all thirty-five ships and five overland expeditions were engaged in this search. The entire northern coast line of America and the shores of the Arctic For the purposes of this volume the most important of these expeditions, because the most productive of data regarding the natural resources of the region under review, was that dispatched overland from Athabaska district via Mackenzie river in 1848 and 1849. From the rapids of Slave river, Doctor John Richardson and Doctor Rae (both subsequently knighted) pushed on with all possible speed, leaving the heavier boats to follow with the winter supplies, and skirted the Arctic coast eastward to the mouth of the Coppermine river. Thence they travelled overland to the mouth of the Dease river on Great Bear lake. Near this point, on the site of Fort Confidence, established by Dease and Simpson, Rae, whose detachment had ascended Great Bear river and crossed Great Bear lake for this purpose, had erected houses, and here the entire party passed the winter of 1848-49. As early in the spring of 1849 as the season allowed, the party divided on Arctic sea, and Richardson returned to England, while Rae made an attempt to reach Wollaston land. Failing in this, he returned to Fort Confidence, and ascended the Mackenzie to Fort Simpson. In the summer of 1854, under the auspices of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Rae made a journey of exploration along the southern coasts of Wollaston and Victoria lands, still searching for the Franklin expedition. In 1853, when no trace of Franklin could be found elsewhere, Rae again turned his steps in the direction of Gulf of Boothia. First he sought a short cut to the south of Backs river by Chesterfield inlet and Quoich river, which he ascended in a boat for two and a half degrees of latitude (up to 66° north), but finding the river full of rapids and impracticable for his purpose, he returned and hastened north to Repulse bay. The reports of these expeditions contain several references to the natural resources of the country, but they are not so valuable as would have been the case had time been less a consideration, or had the investigation of mineral deposits and other natural wealth of the country been the chief objective. Some information as to the resources of the north country was obtained by the British Parliamentary Committee of 1857 already referred to (See p. 3), but most of the evidence had reference to the southern part of Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory now comprised within the settled parts of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Canadian Parliamentary Investigations. April 12, 1870, the Senate of Canada appointed a select committee on the subject of Rupert’s land, Red river and the Northwest territory, with a view to collecting information respecting the condition, climate, soil, population, resources and natural products of the country, its trade, institutions, and capabilities and the means of access thereto, with power to send for persons and papers. The committee reported on April 25, 1870. This report with the report of the evidence was printed, in extenso, as an appendix to the Journals of the Senate (33 Victoria). None of the witnesses examined before the committee had ever been in the district north of the North Saskatchewan. One, Joseph Monkman, explained that he had been up the South Saskatchewan as far as Moose lake, and up the north branch of the same river as far as Carlton. He testified that although the country along the Saskatchewan looked promising from an agricultural standpoint, there were “no farms along the river.” Most of the witnesses were asked if they had any information as to the “far northwest,” and all who had heard anything definite regarding that region testified that their information was favourable. Since the transfer of the northwest from the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Dominion Government, a vast amount of reliable information regarding the great northland has been obtained by Canadian Government explorers, generally engineers reconnoitring in advance of railway construction, members of the staff of the Geological Survey of Canada, or expeditions despatched to various defined areas by the Department of the Interior for the express purpose of investigating their natural resources and determining their suitability for agricultural or industrial developments. More or less extensive trips through sections of the great northland by adventurous sportsmen and naturalists have also contributed considerably to our knowledge of the country. A very brief account of some of the more productive of these expeditions, with special reference to the routes followed, is necessary to enable the reader to appreciate intelligently the references to the information obtained to be made in the succeeding chapters. Scientific Investigation of the Country. In 1872, Professor John Macoun Professor Macoun had then already spent ten years study, theoretical and practical, of botany, natural history and physical geography. In the year 1875 he was appointed botanist to the expedition which, under the leadership of the Director of the Geological Survey, explored Peace river and Rocky mountains. Two years later he was asked by the Dominion Government to write a report on the Northwest territories and availed himself of all reliable information regarding the country. The summers of 1879-80-81 were spent by Professor Macoun in traversing the least known parts and investigating the fauna, flora, meteorology and physical phenomena of the country. During the years 1878-79 Doctor G. M. Dawson, of the Geological Survey, in conjunction with a Canadian Pacific Railway survey party, made an examination of the region between the mouth of Skeena river on the Pacific coast and Edmonton, including Pine river pass and its approaches, Smoky river and the fertile country north and south of Peace river. The vast extent of country covered left but little time for details, and caused the expedition to assume the character of a rapid reconnaissance survey. In 1873, Charles Horetzky In 1875, Doctor Selwyn, Director of the Geological Survey, mapped and reported upon the upper part of Peace river, as far down as the mouth of Smoky river, and in the same year Professor John Macoun, who accompanied him in the capacity of botanist, proceeded down the river to Lake Athabaska, and returned east by the Athabaska-Clearwater route, while Doctor Selwyn reascended Peace river, and returned by British Columbia. Doctor Robert Bell, In 1882, a track survey and geological examination of Athabaska river below the mouth of Lac La Biche river, was made by Doctor Bell. In A micrometer survey of the lower part of both Peace and Athabaska rivers was made by William Ogilvie An Exploration of Mackenzie river, Great Slave lake and river, and Lake Athabaska. Mr. Ogilvie ascended this great waterway and prepared a report which is still much consulted. In 1891 Mr. Ogilvie, under the direction of the Surveyor-General, again made an exploratory survey in the same region. Mr. Ogilvie’s instructions were to make a thorough exploration of the region drained by Peace river and its tributaries, between the boundary of British Columbia and Rocky mountains and to collect any information that might be of value relating to that region. As it was desirable that he should, if practicable, connect the end of his micrometer survey of Mackenzie river made in 1888 with that made on Great Slave river in the same year, which he was then unable to accomplish on account of high water, Mr. Ogilvie took with him the necessary instruments, but he found it impossible to complete this work. This time, he descended the great northwestern waterway from Athabaska to Fort Simpson, and, ascending the Liard and “East Branch” or Nelson river, as it has since been officially called, reached Port Nelson on September 15, ascending Nelson and Sikanni Chief rivers and portaging through the woods to St. John on Peace river. Another interesting report was the result of this really hazardous trip. In 1886, In 1887, Mr. R. G. McConnell, B.A., of the Geological Survey, descended to Mackenzie river from the Yukon via Liard river, and during that year and the following one explored a considerable part of Mackenzie basin including Slave river, Salt river, Hay river, part of the western end of Great Slave lake, etc. The result was embodied in a most interesting official report In the years 1888, 1889, 1890 and 1891, Mr. McConnell effected a most important exploration of the unexplored country between Peace river and Athabaska river and in the basin of the Athabaska. He investigated as thoroughly as he could the phenomena of the so-called tar-sand deposits and the Oil Springs of Athabaska region, about which the few hunters, traders and travellers who had hitherto penetrated so far had brought back such astonishing tales. His report, printed in the annual report of the Geological Survey of Canada for 1890-91 (New Series, Vol. V, Part I), excited much interest at the time throughout the scientific world, and is still regarded as the standard authority on the subject. In the summer of 1889, a well-known English sportsman set out upon a trip to Great Slave lake district with the object of making some explorations. This was Mr. Warburton Pike, Mr. J. Burr Tyrrell, of the Geological Survey, explored the country bordering on the east shore of Lake Winnipeg in 1890 and 1891. In 1892, Mr. Tyrrell, assisted by Mr. D. B. The Vast Wilderness, through which the lines of exploration upon these occasions passed, lies for the most part north of latitude 59°, and extends from the coast to Hudson bay, westward to Lake Athabaska, comprising an area of not less than two hundred thousand square miles. The work of the party embraced a survey of the north shore of Lake Athabaska, Chipman, Cochrane, Telzoa or Dubawnt, Thlewiaza, Kazan and Ferguson rivers, in whole or in part, Chesterfield inlet, and the shore of Hudson bay from Chesterfield inlet to Churchill, as well as a line overland in winter, from Churchill to York Factory, and another from Churchill to Split lake. Portage near Long Spruce rapids, Nelson river. The distance travelled in 1893 was three thousand two hundred miles, one thousand six hundred and fifty of which had not been previously surveyed or reported on in any way. The whole distance of six hundred miles from Churchill to Lake Winnipeg was covered on snowshoes. During the trip of the following year Mr. Tyrrell travelled two thousand nine hundred miles, one thousand seven hundred and fifty by canoe and seven hundred and twenty-five on snowshoes, most of this distance being through unexplored country. Jas. W. Tyrrell, C.E., D.L.S., who formed part of this expedition, subsequently published a popular account of the trip of three thousand two hundred miles in a book entitled “Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada.” During the summer of 1896 James Macintosh Bell, F.R.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Canada, made a geological reconnaissance of the north arm of Great Slave lake in 1899, wintered at Fort Resolution, and in 1900, accompanied by Mr. Charles Camsell, travelled to Great Bear lake, made a geological exploration of its northern shores, and returned by a chain of lakes to the north arm of Great Slave lake, proceeding to Edmonton the same winter. In the summer of 1899, In 1900, J. W. Tyrrell, C.E., D.L.S., who had been assistant to his brother in 1893, conducted an important exploration of the country between Great Slave lake and Chesterfield inlet on Hudson bay. In all, one thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine miles of survey were accomplished, and in the performance of this four thousand six hundred miles were travelled With Sleds and Canoes. Mr. Tyrrell proceeded via Resolution, Great Slave lake, old Fort Reliance, Lockhart river, Pike’s portage, Artillery lake, Clinton-Colden lake, Smart lake, Sifton lake, Hanbury river and Thelon river to a point near the confluence of Dubawnt river. Hence a portion of the party under the direction of C. C. Fairchild, C.E., was despatched to survey Aberdeen, Schultz and Baker lakes, while Mr. Tyrrell returned up the Thelon to devote his attention to the upper part of the river and the divide between the upper Thelon and Artillery lake, traversing, unattended, the one hundred and sixty miles between a small branch of the Thelon and Artillery lake. The party was reunited at Artillery lake, and returned to civilization via Resolution, Chipewyan and Edmonton. In 1898, Mr. David T. Hanbury The United States Biological Survey, in the early spring of 1901, determined to send Mr. Edward A. Preble In the spring of 1903, the results of his work in 1901 having been elaborated but not published, Mr. Preble In 1905, Mr. Alfred H. Harrison About the Delta of Mackenzie river and Herschell island, and returned home in 1907 by the same route. Mr. Harrison, before he made this trip, had considerable knowledge of the Northland, for he had made a trip as far as Great Slave lake in 1902. Mr. Harrison is, moreover, the son of a former officer of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who in 1852 was stationed at the company’s post at Fort Good Hope. Mr. Harrison, upon his return to During the seasons of 1903, 1904 and 1905, Messrs. Mr. In 1906 and 1907, Mr. Joseph Keele of the Geological Survey of Canada made a reconnaissance across Mackenzie mountains on Pelly, Ross and Gravel rivers, in the mountain region lying between the Pelly and the lower reach of Mackenzie river in 1907 and 1908. During the summer of 1908, Inspector E. A. Pelletier, of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, with a corporal and two constables, patrolled the country between Great Slave lake and Hudson bay. They left Fort Resolution on Great Slave lake on July 1 and travelled via Pike portage, Artillery lake, Hanbury river and Thelon river, to Hudson bay at Chesterfield inlet, where they arrived on August 31. No natives or guides were Inspector Pelletier estimated the distances travelled on this patrol as follows:—
Of the canoes used on this patrol, one was an eighteen foot length, forty-two inch beam, the other eighteen and one-half foot length, forty-three inch beam; both were eighteen inches deep, longitudinal strip cedar, varnished, fitted with oars for hard pulling against strong winds on the lakes. Inspector Pelletier had a good stock of paddles and fifty-five foot lateen sails. Each canoe weighed one hundred and twenty pounds portaging weight. The portage from Great Slave lake towards Artillery lake was found to be about six miles from the site of Fort Reliance, of which historic establishment a stone chimney alone remains standing. Some interesting topographical information regarding the region between Hudson bay and The Pas was obtained through the surveys made under the direction of John Armstrong, C.E., for the Department of Railways and Canals in 1908 and 1909, for the purpose of determining a projected location for a railway to Hudson bay from The Pas, the nearest point on the Saskatchewan then having railway connection. From The Pas to a point north of Pipestone lake a single route was laid down; thence two routes, one to Port Nelson, the other to Churchill, were surveyed. Mr. Armstrong, in his report (Sessional Paper No. 20 d.—1910), makes some interesting references to the natural resources of the district covered by the surveys. All the expeditions which have been thus briefly passed in review made additions to the knowledge we possess of the natural resources of the great unsettled In 1908, Farm at Mount Nebo on Green lake trail, sixty-five miles from Prince Albert. South of Churchill river, and extending east to the old canoe route from Cumberland House via Frog portage to Stanley Mission. Mr. Crean was instructed by Mr. R. E. Young, Superintendent of the Railway Lands Branch, to pay particular attention to obtaining information about the character of the country away from the travelled routes, and to ascertain the value of the district to be traversed for farming, lumbering and mining purposes. Mr. Crean left Prince Albert August 20, 1908, and returned there January 6, 1909. He proceeded by team to the south end of Green lake, and after reaching that point travelled chiefly by canoe, making side trips inland, where it seemed desirable to do so. After the ice formed he procured dog trains to continue the exploration. On this trip Mr. Crean explored the district bounded on the In 1909, Mr. Crean was again sent out to carry on his exploration of the country north of the surveyed area in Saskatchewan and Alberta and extending west from the territory covered the previous year. He was instructed to cover as much of the country west to the Athabaska and North to the Clearwater as time would permit. He left Prince Albert on June 17, 1909, completed his season’s work at McMurray, and thence proceeded to Edmonton, reaching there December 11, 1909. From Green lake, Mr. Crean travelled principally by canoe, making numerous portages, some of considerable length. On some occasions he hired horses and used them as a means of transportation. The total area explored, or about which information was thus obtained, is approximately twenty-one million acres. Mr. Crean reports:—“Of this tract, not over two million acres is covered by water—lakes and rivers. A conservative estimate of the land available for settlement in its present state, when means of access are provided, would be about ten million acres. The greater portion of the remaining area, say nine million acres, could be drained, and, in my opinion, would well repay the expenditure. Throughout the tract there is ample fall which would allow of drainage being successfully carried out. A portion of the tract lies on the head waters of Churchill river, and all the streams contain numerous rapids and falls. On the west side of the height of land sloping towards the Athabaska and the Clearwater there are also excellent facilities for drainage. This tract is well supplied with timber, some of which may be suitable for export.” Mr. Crean, during this exploratory trip, visited the country between Green lake and Meadow lake, Birch lake and Loon lake to the westward; Waterhen lake and Island lake; Canoe lake and Burnt lake; White Fish river and lake, and Watchush lake; Gipsy lake, Gordon lake and McMurray; Gregoire lake. Mr. Crean’s report of his exploration in the season of 1908 was printed for public information, but owing to the great demand for copies the edition was soon exhausted and it was decided therefore, to issue the two reports in one new publication. The gross area covered by the two reports, and as to which some information was gathered, might be stated at approximately forty million acres. Inspired with the wish to see for himself the country for the administration of which he was responsible, the Hon. Frank Oliver The reports of explorers and travellers as to the character and resources of the great northwest have been supplemented by a considerable amount of information received from Hudson’s Bay Company officials, and others engaged in the fur trade, missionaries, prospectors and pioneer settlers. Certain 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 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 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. The region designated “The Keewatin Area” comprises that part of what was formerly the provisional district of Keewatin which lies east of the province of Saskatchewan, south of the 60th parallel of north latitude, west of James bay and southwest and west of Hudson bay. Its southern limits are defined by the former (up to 1912) northern boundary of Manitoba and the former (up to the same date) northwesterly boundary of Ontario. During the first session of the 12th Parliament of Canada (1911-12) the whole of this territory was annexed to the two provinces lying immediately to the south of it, Ontario and Manitoba. The dividing line between the portion of the former district of Keewatin annexed to the province of Ontario, and that annexed to the province of Manitoba, is described in the legislation extending the boundaries of the two provinces as a line from the extreme north end of the At the date of the final revision of these pages for the press, the division of the territory was too recent to permit of effective separate treatment of newest Ontario and newest Manitoba as separate territorial units, and any attempt to effect such separate treatment, it was felt, would only result in confusion. The “Northern Saskatchewan Region” comprises the whole of the province of Saskatchewan, north of the surveyed area. The “Northern Alberta Region” comprises the whole of the province of Alberta, north and east of the surveyed area. The “Mackenzie River Region” includes all the territory in the great Mackenzie basin, north of the province of Alberta, extending northward to Beaufort sea, west to the boundary of Yukon territory, and eastward to the basin of Coppermine river, that of Yellowknife river, a line in prolongation of the latter stream across Great Slave lake and following the right bank of Slave river to the northern boundary of Alberta. The area comprised within the designation “The Barren Lands” includes the immense territory extending eastwards from that last defined to Hudson bay, and including the bare, treeless, but wrongly called “Barren Lands.” With this brief and general outline of the various districts before him, the reader will more readily follow the attempt to present in a systematic and intelligible form all the data of practical value available regarding the varied natural resources of this vast territory.
THE KEEWATIN AREA CHAPTER II. |