CHAPTER X

THE NEW HUDSON BAY ROUTE

In the preceding chapter I showed how a huge stretch of Western Canada was opened up to civilisation and settlement by a railway. Another momentous development within the Dominion is about to occur. I refer to the project (now in hand) for constructing a railroad that will link Winnipeg with Port Nelson, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, and so give Central Canada a seaport—a seaport open seven months in the year.

The 397 miles of rails that remain to be laid will provide a shorter and cheaper route between the prairie provinces and Europe. In mere distance, the journey from the Manitoba capital to Liverpool will be reduced by about 900 miles. But that fact indicates the least part of the boon that is promised to commerce. The cost of carriage by land is considerably higher than the cost of carriage by water; and along the new route grain from Winnipeg will reach the steamship after a railway journey of 582 miles, instead of, as at present, a railway journey of either 1,422 or 1,904 miles.

Yet the new line is chiefly important for a reason apart from the reduction in freight and the revolution in trade which it is likely to effect. That line will unlock a new territorial treasury of natural resources, and open to the settler a region (known now as Keewatin) much larger than the Province of Manitoba. It will, moreover, be the first stage in the development of Northern Canada—those wonderful realms of long days which I am convinced are destined, by reason of their high agricultural potentialities, to strike the imagination of the world with the force of a great geographical revelation.

Here, then, and in certain subsequent chapters of this book, I definitely pass from one phase of my subject to the other. Yet, since forecasts are vain unless supported by facts, I shall make Canada of “To-day” throw light on Canada of “To-morrow.”

Things heard and things seen—just a stray fact or two—awakened my curiosity, and I went from end to end of the Dominion in a spirit of inquiry. Calling on all the provincial governments in the West, I pointed my finger to blank spaces on the map and asked: “What do you know about them?” This led to some significant experiences.

In British Columbia came the astonished reply: “Well, of course, there are people up in the Yukon—just here and there—mining. And gold, coal and copper mines are scattered about this province. More than that we know nothing, except that explorers have testified, concerning nearly every region they have visited, that the country is rich in fine timber and minerals. As for possessing any definite knowledge of central and northern British Columbia—why, sir, we still have only the most imperfect and superficial knowledge of this southern part. The other day I was over in Vancouver, and I went on the inaugural trip along a new railway running a few miles out of the city. Many of the leading citizens of Vancouver were in the cars, and there they were exclaiming in astonishment over a beautiful district that they had never dreamt was so near their doors!”

At Edmonton, the minister I interviewed jumped from his seat when he heard my inquiry, and, striding across his office, eagerly unrolled a huge map of his province. “Look!” he cried, as his hand swept over the bulk of the area. “That is all a sealed book to us. We know generally that it has a splendid climate, and that millions upon millions of acres are underlain with coal. But the whole of that country is unsurveyed, and practically the whole of it is unprospected and unexplored. You want to know about that land? Ah! and so do we. The Government wants very much to know about it. No doubt a lot of valuable data is in existence, if only it could be collected and collated. I mean the experiences of isolated missionaries, pioneer settlers and so on. People talk about Alberta as though it were a settled country! I have often seen Edmonton referred to as being in Northern Alberta! So no wonder you are surprised to find the Government with blank minds about half the territory under their authority. Look! The settlement north of Edmonton is still below the middle of the province. The whole of the northern part may be described as a practically unknown country.”

It was the same in Saskatchewan and Manitoba—the governments were eager to secure the very information I asked them to impart. But at the four capitals I received hints as to quarters in which reliable knowledge might be looked for. The result was that I interviewed several explorers, besides discovering, at Ottawa, a veritable mine of information about the great north lands. For the Federal Government and its chief geographer (Mr. R. E. Young) had preceded me in this search for obscure knowledge. A special committee, it seemed, had assembled, interviewed and cross-examined the handful of men who could speak from personal knowledge about the empty spaces on the map of Canada. Their evidence was placed at my disposal; and to that source I am largely indebted for the information in this chapter, and in those dealing with “New Saskatchewan” and “Northern Alberta.”

“Yes,” said Mr. J. Burr Tyrrell, the well-known mining engineer, who was in the Government Geological Service from 1883 to 1898, “I spent nine or ten years in the country to the west and south-west of Hudson Bay.”

“And you think well of agricultural possibilities there?” I asked.

“Undoubtedly,” said Mr. Tyrrell. “You may take Canada as a whole, and say that north of the present settled region there is a broad belt of several hundred miles that will be good for farming. It carries immense quantities of valuable timber. Beyond that belt is a great region which will yield valuable minerals.”

And now let me reproduce Mr. Tyrrell’s specific testimony concerning the region that will be opened up by the Hudson Bay Railway. He indicated a line running north-west from Churchill, and pointed out that the country north of that line is outside the farmer’s scope. South of the line there is a belt of from one to two hundred miles in width, which is sparsely wooded, having trees along the banks of streams and in sheltered positions. In this belt there are areas that would support a northern vegetation, but it is not, in his opinion, eminently suited for agriculture, there being but little decomposed soil there except in the valleys. South of that belt is a forest region, about two hundred miles wide, lying west of the Nelson River and extending along the Churchill River right away to the Mackenzie and Athabasca rivers. It is for the most part excellent agricultural land—as fine as can be found in the North-West.

“Everywhere,” said Mr. Tyrrell, “I found abundant evidence of rich vegetation, and wherever agriculture or horticulture had been attempted within the forest belt it had been eminently successful. I have seen growing in that country potatoes—and most excellent ones they were—carrots, turnips, cabbages, cauliflowers and all the ordinary garden produce that grows in Ontario. Indeed, the land there is similar to the Ontario land, and on it can be raised practically everything that can be raised in that province, if we leave the Niagara peninsula out of account. The summer is warm, and there is a good rainfall. The winter does not count, because things do not grow in the winter. A small part of the district is park country, half wooded. The belt is a continuation northward of the settled Saskatchewan country.”

In the specified area (through which the greater part of the new railway will pass) it appears that the Indians, when hunting in the spring, plant little patches of potatoes here and there, and return in the autumn to dig them for use in the winter. “On several occasions,” said Mr. Tyrrell, “I have gone out and dug a pail of beautiful potatoes from those little Indian gardens buried in the woods. They have received no hoeing, or any other sort of cultivation, from the time of planting to the time of digging.”

Mr. Tyrrell has no doubt that the country in question will support quite a thick population; and he mentioned that, south of the forest belt, and north of Lake Winnipeg (in other words, the region to be traversed by southern sections of the Hudson Bay Railway), “there is another magnificent area, from five to ten thousand square miles in extent, and as fine a country as is to be found in Manitoba or anywhere else. That area extends westward along the Churchill. These lands to the north of Lake Winnipeg are an extension of the same basin as the Manitoba clays.”

Let me now call another witness—Mr. A. P. Low, Deputy-Minister of Mines in the Federal Government, and, as an earlier chapter has borne witness, formerly a prominent member of the Geological Survey. In that capacity Mr. Low pursued some explorations in Keewatin, with the result that he is able to make the following contributions to our knowledge of this undeveloped region:

Between Norway House (which is north of Lake Winnipeg) and Hudson Bay the country is not very elevated, the highest points being probably about 1,000 feet above sea level. For about half the distance to the bay the traveller passes over a rolling plain, the rocks being ancient formations of the Laurentian and Huronian age, while farther on there is a deposit of limestone and sandstone. On the first half of the journey from Norway House to Churchill the country slopes very gently towards the bay, the grade being not more than eight or ten feet to the mile, if it be that. The north-eastern part of the country is practically a plain.

Mr. Low pointed out that considerable areas of swampy land exist. The rivers have thrown up banks, and there is only an occasional break in those banks to serve for drainage. In many places the river banks are from five to ten feet higher than the adjoining land, which consequently is more or less drowned for a distance often extending back as far as one can walk in a day.

He considers that probably half the country due east from Norway House—say for one hundred miles—would be fit for agriculture. There are, of course, very few settlements in there at present, and the only one Mr. Low visited was a Hudson Bay post at Trout Lake. There he found peas, potatoes and other garden crops growing and looking well. That no appreciable trouble occurred from summer frosts was shown by the condition of the green peas. Apparently, indeed, the climate is quite favourable for hardy crops. The soil areas fit for agriculture are fairly large, rocky hills occurring only at intervals; and he has no doubt that quite a large region will be available for future settlement.

With regard to the plain south-east of Nelson River, Mr. Low said it appears to be muskeg and spruce land rather than a hay area. He does not regard that low-lying country around Hudson Bay as of first-class agricultural value in its present form; but it shows a fair amount of vegetable growth, the subsoil is largely clay, and with some drainage, he thinks, a great deal of it will be good for farming.

Another influential witness is Mr. D. B. Dowling, of the Geological Survey. Speaking from personal knowledge of the region to be traversed by the railroad, Mr. Dowling threw light on the strips of raised land running beside the rivers. He said they represent a mile, or less than a mile, of well-made country covered by fine forests. “The centre portion between the streams,” he added, “is now exactly as it was when it first came from the sea, except that it has some vegetation on it which it had not at that time. All it needs is drainage. The soil and climate are good.”

On this crucial matter of farming prospects in the country to be opened up, the personal experience of two other members of the Geological Survey is available. I refer to Mr. Owen O’Sullivan and Mr. William McInnes. Mr. O’Sullivan, in 1904, was engaged in studying the west coast of James Bay, and in the summer of 1906 he started from Split Lake, on the Nelson, and went down the Little Churchill to the Big Churchill. The land about Big Lake, he said, is a good loamy soil, but from Big Lake to the Big Churchill the country is rocky and swampy, though with a good deal of rich clay loam in places. Mr. O’Sullivan was able to testify that very tasty potatoes are grown at Split Lake. In the month of June he ate some that had been grown during the previous year. He saw turnips, cabbage and lettuce growing, and they appeared to be very good. The potatoes were taken up on August 23rd and 25th. Some left in the ground had the tops touched pretty severely by frost in September. On being asked about the land near the head of Lake Winnipeg, Mr. O’Sullivan said he never tasted better potatoes than some that were grown at Cross Lake. Concerning a point far to the north of the terminus of the new line, this explorer had an interesting piece of information to impart. He saw lettuce and turnips growing at Churchill, and he is of opinion that potatoes, with proper attention, would mature there.

Special interest attaches to the experience of Mr. McInnes, because he zig-zagged across the actual ground to be crossed by the first half of the Hudson Bay Railway. The whole region from Split Lake to the Saskatchewan is, he said, a clay-covered country. In traversing that country he went by way of the Burntwood River and returned by way of the Grassy River, making a number of excursions between those two boundaries. After leaving Split Lake, he found the clay-covered country absolutely free from boulders and gravel. Even on the shores of the lakes, unless a height of about 800 feet were reached, no gravel bars were met with. “There is absolutely nothing to interfere with the cultivation of the soil,” testified Mr. McInnes. “The country has been repeatedly burnt over, and it is covered by a very open forest. Grasses grow fairly luxuriantly there, the blue joint grass and a wild rye being the prevailing species. I understand that these are a good meadow growth and make excellent fodder. While there in June, July and August I saw grass growing to a height of from eighteen inches to two feet.” Asked to indicate the extent of the country he was describing, Mr. McInnes computed it at about 10,000 square miles, adding that he did not mean to say the whole of that area was good agricultural land.

This explorer’s testimony will enable the reader, without consulting a map, to have a definite idea of the nature of the land along the new route. The Pas, on the Saskatchewan River, to the north-west of Lake Winnipegosis, may be taken as the starting-point of the line, since a railway to that place has for some time been constructed as part of the Canadian Northern system. Setting out from the Pas, and proceeding towards Nelson, Mr. McInnes passed through about 140 miles of country underlain by the flat limestone of northern Manitoba. He walked for miles over bare hills that carried hardly any soil. Then he entered the clay belt previously mentioned. The railway, he explained, would traverse about 170 miles of those clay lands before it reached Split Lake.

Mr. McInnes pointed out that on the Nelson River wheat has been grown successfully at Norway House and at Cross Lake. The Hudson Bay people do not raise wheat at their posts nowadays, but formerly they grew it and ground it in hand-mills. He saw potatoes that had been produced fifty miles north of the Pas, and they were great showy specimens such as one sees at exhibitions. On July 11th, when Mr. McInnes arrived at Nelson, potatoes planted by the Indians had tops eleven inches high and almost ready to flower. When he returned to the Pas, on September 6th, he found the Indian corn there was very well headed out, with large, fine ears quite ready for table use. He stayed at the Pas until September 29th, by which time the locality had not been visited by frost. “With eighteen hours of daylight, and no frost in the summer,” Mr. McInnes said, “vegetation is rapid; and in a country where you can grow Indian corn, you can grow practically anything.”

As the reader will probably have gathered, within the large territory to be traversed by the line there are four old posts at which missionaries and Hudson Bay people would be likely to have had instructive agricultural experience. I refer to Norway House, which, as already mentioned, lies to the north of Lake Winnipeg; Cross Lake post, which is north of Norway House; Cumberland House, which is north-west of the Pas; and Nelson House, which is east of the new line, at a point rather less than midway between the Pas and Port Nelson. Sir John Richardson bore witness in 1820 that wheat was successfully raised at Cumberland House. Speaking of Nelson House, the Rev. J. Semmens has said: “In my experience wheat is not a sure crop there. All depends upon the season. Oats and barley will do well any time.” The evidence of the Rev. Dr. John McDougall is also available. He said: “The district in which are situated Norway House, Cross Lake, Oxford House, Island Lake, Nelson House and Split Lake covers a wide area, and at each of these places garden vegetables and grain for personal requirements have been successfully grown for a number of years. Summer frosts are practically unknown, and the germination of vegetation, owing to the long hours of sunshine, is exceedingly rapid.”

That must conclude my summary of evidence tending to show that farming will flourish in the new region to be opened up. On other vital points I shall put some of the foregoing authorities again into the witness-box.

There is general agreement that the country possesses considerable timber wealth. Speaking of the region between Norway House and Hudson Bay, Mr. Low said the forests, as in so many parts of Canada, have been largely destroyed by fire, but around some of the large lakes, on their islands, and in other places a fine growth of timber is found, with white and black spruce pine, aspen poplar, and white birch running to eighteen inches in diameter. This is what Mr. Dowling said: “There is a strip all along the front of the bay which has no trees. Back in the interior there is timber. Along the river valleys the trees are always well grown.” Mr. O’Sullivan explained that the spruce and poplars in the valleys are sometimes twenty inches in diameter, and that the cottonwood grows to about fourteen inches in diameter. Speaking of the country generally, Mr. McInnes said there is a great deal of timber that would be fit for wood-pulp.

As to the country’s wealth of fish and game, the testimony is less qualified. Mr. Low mentioned that the inland waters of Keewatin would yield a tolerable abundance of whitefish, lake trout and other species, and he said that in Hudson Bay the Indians net a number of whitefish and ordinary river trout which have developed sea-going habits. From the same source we learn that along the east and north-west shores of Hudson Bay the excellent and beautifully coloured Arctic salmon is found. Mr. Low mentioned that black, silver and grey foxes are taken in the northern part of Keewatin, and they, with the beaver, the otter and the marten represent the principal furs of the country.

From Mr. Dowling we hear that the rivers of Keewatin abound with perch, dory and jackfish, while some of the larger streams contain sturgeon. He saw five bears, and testified that it is a great country for foxes, “which seem to be able to live on the sea-birds and mice.” Mr. O’Sullivan, after mentioning that sturgeon occur all through the Little Churchill River, and that some of them weigh forty pounds, added: “At Churchill you get the porpoise, which is quite an item when you have to keep dogs for the winter.”

Mr. McInnes found two companies turning to commercial account the fish of the lakes occurring within a convenient distance from the Saskatchewan. “Going out,” he said, “our party was short of pork and stopped to get supplies. In one night’s fishing the Indians caught so many sturgeon that we had enough to carry us for 150 miles, to the Hudson Bay post. One of the sturgeon was three feet long.” Ducks, he said, were fairly plentiful, and so were wild geese, “which live on all sorts of little shell-fish, water-beetles and crabs, besides the seeds of many water plants other than wild rice. I shot mallards in that country,” he went on to say, “and their crops were full of little bivalve shells about the size of my nail.” This was Mr. Tyrrell’s impressive testimony: “Some of the small, shallower lakes contain whitefish in enormous numbers. While paddling along in a canoe I have seen the fins of thousands sticking up out of the water. . . . There are all the fish the lakes will hold—they are as full as the water can supply food for them.” Mr. Tyrrell came across great herds of cariboo in the far north.

And now, through the eyes of those who have been there, we will glance at the mineral possibilities of the new country. Mr. Low pointed out that between Chesterfield and Fullerton there are several fairly good deposits of iron pyrites, and that some of these contain small deposits of gold, which, he mentioned, was also found by Dr. Wright somewhere in Whitcher Inlet. On the same authority we learn that “the general character of the southern part of Keewatin as regards mineral resources is good.” Mr. Dowling, however, inclined to the opinion that the country is not rich in minerals. But incidentally he observed: “There is iron ore, and the possibility of gold and silver ore, and also copper ores in the Grass River district. There is no asbestos. With reference to mica, it can be found all over the country, but in small pieces.” Mr. McInnes explained that, north of the Saskatchewan, he crossed forty miles of limestone that would be excellent for building purposes. On the Upper Winisk River he discovered a large area of so-called norite rock. That is the rock in which the nickel of Sudbury occurs. He examined samples under the microscope, and said the Keewatin formation is not to be distinguished from the Ontario formation. Mr. McInnes also found—this time at Cross Lake—an “area of Keewatin rocks, cut by intrusive granite, of the same character as the photogene of Western Ontario, which is almost always gold-bearing.” Mr. Tyrrell recognises great possibilities in the rocks of Keewatin, and he looks for “a large development at some time” in the copper industry between Chesterfield Inlet and the Copper Mine River. He said that “the Eskimos pick up native copper and make their implements from it.”

That, one would think, is a very valuable clue. Mr. Tyrrell showed me a large specimen of native copper that he had obtained from an Eskimo hunter. This eminent geologist saw gold and copper in rocks near Chesterfield Inlet, and he has “every confidence” that those rocks will produce workable ores.

And now I will finally recall the foregoing witnesses, in order that they may say what opinions they formed with reference to the climate of Keewatin. Mr. Low considered “the summer as equal to that of Saskatchewan.” “At Churchill,” said Mr. Dowling, “we had winds from the south-west practically all through the summer, and that made it very warm; but there were two days when the wind came from the north, and people wanted their overcoats at once.” From Mr. McInnes came the statement that “the country averages from four to five degrees in the summer months higher temperature than is found at the same latitude farther west.”

Speaking of the arable belt that is two hundred miles wide, Mr. Tyrrell said there is little or no summer frost there. At Nelson, gardening commences, he understood, at the end of May, and frost does not appear until about September 20th. He went on to make the following useful statement: “People must not suppose that vegetation is affected by the isothermal line, which merely connects points that have the same annual mean temperature. As things do not grow in the winter, the winter temperature has nothing to do with farming possibilities. The summer temperature is the only temperature that counts for growth in the northern country. As between two places in different latitudes, you have to take into consideration the length of the day and the amount of sunlight. Where the days have eighteen hours’ sun a plant will grow faster than where the days have only fourteen hours’ sun.” And again: “The large body of water in Hudson Bay and James Bay has an equalising effect on the winter temperature of the surrounding country, tending to make the summers cooler and the winters milder.”

And so, I think, the evidence is abundant that, when trains run between Winnipeg and Hudson Bay, one section of the Great North Lands, emerging from the mists of obscurity and misapprehension, will take its place among the most productive and habitable regions of the British Empire.