ZONES OF MINERAL WEALTH
ZONES OF MINERAL WEALTH
The map reproduced above, has been specially drawn for “Canada To-day and To-morrow,” by Mr. R. W. Brock (Director of the Geological Survey of the Dominion Government). It shows the great continuous geological zones which have yielded vast mineral wealth in settled southern areas, and of which—as high scientific authority confidently predicts—equally rich fields await exploitation in the as yet unsettled northern areas.The numbering of the five geological zones follows the order in which they are mentioned in the accompanying chapter, namely, I, Appalachian province: II, Lowland province: III, Laurentian plateau: IV, Interior plain: V, Cordilleran belt.
The map reproduced above, has been specially drawn for “Canada To-day and To-morrow,” by Mr. R. W. Brock (Director of the Geological Survey of the Dominion Government). It shows the great continuous geological zones which have yielded vast mineral wealth in settled southern areas, and of which—as high scientific authority confidently predicts—equally rich fields await exploitation in the as yet unsettled northern areas.
The numbering of the five geological zones follows the order in which they are mentioned in the accompanying chapter, namely, I, Appalachian province: II, Lowland province: III, Laurentian plateau: IV, Interior plain: V, Cordilleran belt.
“There are five main zones or provinces,” replied Mr. Brock. “First there is what may be called the Appalachian province, of which the Canadian portion embraces south-east Quebec and the maritime provinces. The Appalachian region is characterised by rock formations which range from pre-Cambrian to carboniferous, and which are typically disturbed and thrown into a succession of folds. You will be aware that some of the eastern United States are in the foremost rank of the world’s mineral and industrial districts. They occur in the Appalachian region, the best developed State being Pennsylvania, which produces domestic minerals to a yearly value of nearly £2,000 per square mile. The same minerals occur over the Appalachian extension into Canada. Important deposits of coal, iron, and gold are mined in Nova Scotia. Of lesser importance, but of considerable value, are the gypsum, stone, and building-material industries in that province, where manganese, antimony, tripolite, and barite are also mined, while some attention is paid to copper; indeed, Nova Scotia already has an annual mineral production of about £200 per square mile. The comparison between £200 and £2,000 may not seem impressive, but it bears a fair relation to the difference between the density of population in Pennsylvania and in Nova Scotia. That matter of population is, of course, vital, since mineral production, like agricultural production, passes with the development of a country from methods that are rough-and-ready to those that are ‘intensive.’ Expert authorities have estimated the coal reserves of Nova Scotia at 6,000,000,000 tons. The thickness of the carboniferous system is believed to bein some parts 16,000 feet, and at the Joggins, on the north arm of the Bay of Fundy, is a remarkable continuous section showing 14,570 feet of strata, including seventy seams of coal.
“In the matter of mineral development New Brunswick is still very backward. This is partly due to the covering of soil, but mainly to the forested state of large areas—conditions that make discoveries difficult. Indeed, very little of the country has been prospected. The principal products so far are gypsum, lime, coal, building material, grindstones, clay, and mineral waters. Iron promises to become important. Antimony is being mined, while copper, lead, silver, nickel, gold, etc., have been found. Shales rich in oils and ammonium salts occur in large quantity. We have just found very fine clay deposits in the maritime provinces.
“South-east Quebec is already a high producer of economic minerals. In addition to possessing the main asbestos mines of the world, it has important industries in chrome-iron ore, copper, and pyrites. Iron ores and gold also occur there. And so I think I have supplied you with plenty of reasons for agreeing that the Appalachian area may ultimately give as good an account of itself in Canada as it has in the United States.”
“And what of the next geological bond between the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack?”
“Next in order,” replied Mr. Brock, “comes the Lowland province, embracing the southern portion of Ontario and the valley of the St. Lawrence. It consists mainly of flat-lying palæozoic rocks, and is, so to speak, an extension of part of the State of New York. On both sides of the international boundary the mineral products are the same—namely, clay, cement, and otherbuilding materials, as well as petroleum, natural gas, salt, gypsum, and other non-metallic products. They are extremely valuable, if they do not appeal to the imagination in quite the same manner as the metallic minerals.”
“The two geological areas you have dealt with so far,” I ventured to point out, “have covered only a portion of Eastern Canada.”
“Exactly,” replied Mr. Brock. “But the next geological province to be considered embraces about two million square miles, or more than one-half of the Dominion. It may conveniently be called the Laurentian plateau. It runs from Newfoundland to the eastern border of Manitoba, embracing the vast territories lying north of the St. Lawrence Valley, and enclosing Hudson Bay like a huge V. It is an area of pre-Cambrian rocks, and one extension passes into New York State (where it supports some large and varied mineral industries), and another extension crosses into Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (where it provides the Michigan copper mines and the great Lake Superior iron ranges).
“These pre-Cambrian rocks are remarkable for the variety of minerals they contain. Iron, copper, nickel, cobalt, silver, gold, platinum, lead, zinc, arsenic, pyrite, mica, apatite, graphite, feldspar, quartz, corundum, talc, actinolite, the rare earths, ornamental stones and gems, and building materials are found in the Laurentian plateau, and nearly all of them are being profitably mined. And since the list I have just given you is far from complete, it would perhaps be better to describe the wealth of the Laurentian plateau negatively. Diamonds have not yet been located in that geological region, though, I should add, as they have been foundin glacial drift brought from that area, they undoubtedly occur there.
“So far as Canada is concerned, the plateau is still, in the main, an unvisited treasury. Over the greater part of the area there have been nothing but the most general scientific surveys. Our southern fringe of the plateau is the only Canadian part that is known, and even of that southern fringe merely a portion has been prospected. Of the more important discoveries in that southern fringe, you will not need to be reminded. There are the gold ranges of the Lake of the Woods; the silver of Thunder Bay; the iron ranges extending from Minnesota for hundreds of miles to Quebec; the copper rocks of Michipicoten and the Bruce mines; the Sudbury copper-nickel deposit; the Montreal River and Cobalt silver areas; the corundum deposits of Eastern Ontario, and the magnetites of Eastern Ontario and Quebec. It is true that few good merchantable iron deposits have been found in our extensive iron range formation; but in the Mesabi range—the richest in the world—only about two per cent. is iron ore, so that immediate discovery in the little prospected areas in Canada is scarcely to be expected.”
“And am I not right in supposing, Mr. Brock, that the most sensational mineral discoveries have been purely accidental?”
“That is so,” admitted the geologist. “The navvy, in making his excavations, has blundered upon immense treasure. Thus the greatest asbestos deposits of the world were brought to light because a track for the Quebec Central Railway happened to be blasted through them. Then take the case of Cobalt, now the premier silver camp. Although only a few miles from one of the earliest routes of travel in the country, and althoughonly a few miles from a silver-lead deposit that has been known for a hundred and fifty years, Cobalt was discovered less than eight years ago, and then only because a railway chanced to be cut through a rich vein. It was a railway excavation, too, that revealed the Sudbury nickel deposits. Still, you must not run away with the idea that all the laurels have been won by the navvy. To mention only one of the ‘finds’ made by our staff, it was an officer of the survey who discovered the rich corundum deposit extending in a belt one hundred miles long. Yet that discovery serves, equally with those of the navvy, to illustrate the unprospected nature of Canada—even of those parts of Canada that have been populated for a considerable period. For that corundum was found in a district that had long been settled.
“What a field for explorers is that Laurentian plateau! It is not possible for the most pessimistic person to fear that Nature has, by a strange coincidence, concentrated all the mineral wealth in the only part that is populated—that southern fringe which, though still only imperfectly prospected, has yielded over four hundred million tons of iron ore, nearly five thousand million pounds of copper, and immense quantities of silver and the other minerals I have mentioned. The explorations of the geological survey have shown that, scattered over the whole area, are patches of all the various formations that go to make up the pre-Cambrian; while practically every mineral that occurs in the south has been noted by explorers in the north. It is therefore quite safe to assume that, in the great northern areas as yet unattacked by the pick of the prospector, are vast stores of minerals that will come to light when the country is opened up.”
I told Mr. Brock that, although he had dealt with only three of the geological provinces shared by Canada with the States, he had said enough to convince me that the Dominion possessed adequate mineral wealth to support its high destiny.
“Still,” said Mr. Brock, “there is more to be told; and this very imperfect survey of our mineral resources must not be broken off in the middle. I now come to the fourth geological province, which it is convenient to name the Interior Plain. It embraces Alberta and the bulk of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, extending across the border into the Dakotas. It is pre-eminently an agricultural country, and is notably deficient in metallic minerals, as might be expected, because it is underlain with a thick blanket of almost undisturbed cretaceous and tertiary sediment. Gold dredging is carried on in the sands and gravels of the North Saskatchewan River below Edmonton; gypsum is mined in Manitoba; salt occurs in that province and in the lower Athabasca region; but with those exceptions, and materials used in the building trades, the mineral production of the Interior Plain is almost entirely confined to fuels, which, however, are very important. Natural gas over a wide area and under great pressure has been tapped, and there is every indication of a large oil field in, at any rate, the northern portion of Alberta, while some oil has been encountered in the south-west. The lower cretaceous sandstones along the Athabasca River, where they come to the surface, are for miles saturated with bitumen. These tar sands will probably average twelve per cent. in maltha, or asphaltum. Mr. R. G. McConnell saw tar sands occupying about one thousand square miles, which, taking the thickness at his estimate of 150 feet, would represent nearly fivethousand million tons of bitumen. The lignites of the eastern plains are useful for local purposes, and beds more highly bitumenised are met with as the mountains are approached. Mr. D. B. Dowling has satisfied himself that there are 7,500 square miles of coal land in Saskatchewan, and nearly twenty thousand square miles in Alberta, and he credits explored parts of the last-named province with four hundred million tons of anthracite, forty-four thousand million tons of bituminous coal, and sixty thousand million tons of lignite.”
“And the story of Canada’s wealth is still unfinished?” I asked.
“The most impressive part,” replied Mr. Brock, “has still to come. We have now to consider the fifth geological province—the Cordilleran Belt. In Canada it has a length of 1,300 and a width of 400 miles, and it extends across the western States, through Mexico, and into South America. Its rocks range from the oldest to the youngest formations. Vulcanism and mountain-building processes have repeatedly been active in that province. The Cordilleran Belt is recognised as one of the greatest mining regions in the world, it being noted principally for its gold, silver, copper and lead. Of the well-nigh incalculable wealth of gold and other minerals in California and Mexico I need not remind you. And the riches of the Cordilleran Belt in the south afford a sure clue to its riches in the north. In Canada and Alaska the geological province is still for the most part unprospected. But here and there, as you know, the wealth has been tapped, and last year (1909) British Columbia alone yielded minerals to the value of nearly £5,000,000. So far the Yukon has practically produced nothing but placer gold, but it has produced about £25,000,000worth of it. While partial development has taken place along the international boundary line, and while some of the main streams have been imperfectly prospected for placer gold, the greater part of the Canadian section of the Cordilleran Belt is as yet untouched. Probably not a fifth has been prospected at all, not a twentieth prospected in detail, and not one area, however small, completely tested. The Belt in Canada is not merely rich in gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc, but it has enormous resources of excellent coal, varying from lignites to anthracite. Only the coal areas in the southern portion of British Columbia, and a few small areas on the Telkwa and Nass rivers, and on the Yukon, are at present known, but Mr. D. B. Dowling estimates that the prospected fields represent, in the Yukon, thirty-two million tons of anthracite, and the same quantity of bituminous coal, and, in British Columbia, twenty million tons of the former, and 38,642 million tons of the latter. Then, too, great unprospected areas are known to contain, in places, coal formations, and no doubt they will, when explored, add greatly to the reserves I have just mentioned. So far, production has not kept pace with discovery; but a largely increased output may be expected in the near future, for those regions supply the best steaming and coking coals anywhere to be obtained in the West, and new railways will facilitate distribution. Only about one-fifth of Alaska has been explored, and lack of transportation facilities hinders development there; but already Alaska has a large production, which shows that the Cordilleran Belt maintains its highly mineralised character throughout its length.”
“And now, Mr. Brock,” I said, “there is another matter about which I should like you to express yourviews. How comes it that, when Canada possesses all this mineral wealth, the English people have, in the past, so often burnt their fingers in financing Canadian mines?”
“I am very glad,” replied Mr. Brock thoughtfully, “you have raised this question, which is of great importance. Not all have burnt their fingers, but there have been too many instances, some of them notorious. You are thinking mainly, I presume, about events that are rather more than fifteen years old—events which resulted, necessarily but most unfortunately, in deflecting British capital from Canada; though happily, thanks to the lapse of time and the logic of facts, the financial suspicion and sensitiveness then generated have passed away. Of course in those affairs there were deplorable elements for which Canada was in no way responsible. One name in particular will be present in both our minds; but, at this time of day, the personal side of the matter need not be recalled; and I will only say generally that we had nothing to do with the ludicrous over-capitalising of good properties, and the crippling process of establishing offices and staffs on a scale which, though undoubtedly princely and imposing, was, from the practical point of view, not merely superfluous but ineffective.
“Speaking generally,” continued Mr. Brock, “the causes of non-success are bad investment, bad management, and perhaps in some cases bad luck. There have not been many bad investments by mining companies that know what they are about, that employ experienced, technical men to look over the field and closely examine a property before purchase, and that move cautiously and intelligently, doing their developments step by step. It is quite common to see the investments made by menwho are not sufficiently competent or experienced to form a sound judgment, or who do not carry out an adequate personal investigation before effecting their purchases. Sometimes it is very evident that knowledge and training were not the qualifications that led to their selection for such responsible work. It is by the merest chance if those investments turn out satisfactorily. Unfortunately, in every country, and in Canada as elsewhere, there are people ready to profit by such visitors. The knowing ones promptly take their mental measure, learn what financial backing they have, and very likely bait a trap for them.”
“In other words,” I could not forbear to observe, “the innocent Englishman falls among thieves.”
“That,” said Mr. Brock quietly, “is a harsh but not unwarranted way of putting it. However, a man who is willing to buy a pig in a bag does not require to leave home to find those willing to accommodate him. I am prompted at once to say two things: in the first place, the practices to which I refer are confined to a small minority of a large and honourable class of men; and, secondly, those who act in this way are actuated by a belief that, where the wits of one man are pitted against those of another, the keener party is entitled to any advantage he can secure. These men are, you must remember, born gamblers; and they lay themselves out to win, not so much for the sake of the material profit (they are mostly men of substance) as for the sport of the thing.”
“Fraud for fraud’s sake,” I interjected.
“Please understand,” Mr. Brock again reminded me, “that I am explaining, not exculpating, their conduct. And, as a matter of fact, no resentment that you can express at these miscarriages of capital canequal the regret they excite among responsible people in this country. For British capital is an important factor in Canada’s development; and it is therefore greatly to the interests of Canada that British capital should, in all cases, be invested in mines that will pay well, and thereby serve as a magnet for further British capital.”
“Will you,” I asked, “make the position clearer by indicating the sort of meshes in which my unsuspecting countrymen get entangled?”
“Well,” said Mr. Brock, “occasionally they are represented by a man who pays too much attention to what he is told. Such a man may travel over a good deal of territory, meet a number of mining folk, and hear a great deal about the exceptional merits of, let us say, the M. Tee property, until he places an undue valuation upon it, and is consumed by a desire to become its possessor.”
“And so,” I exclaimed, “that most treacherous form of conspiracy is considered by the guilty parties as sport?”
“Call it what you will,” Mr. Brock replied, “but the interests of Canada, as well as of the English investor, demand that a different type of representative should be engaged.
“Another cause of non-success has been the time at which British capital has been invested. It has come in on the crest of a boom, a prospect being purchased as, and at the price of, a mine. When the prospect fails to develop into a mine—and only a very small percentage of prospects can reasonably be expected so to develop—one more investment is announced as a failure. If prospects are invested in, the investors should be prepared to take up a considerable number,and only after careful selection, so that there may be a reasonable chance of one of them developing into a mine. The selection should be made on the best possible technical advice, which should include the recommendation of a reputable expert who has local knowledge. The mining engineers of Canada are as intelligent and reliable as those to be found elsewhere, and they have their local reputations at stake and—I am sure I can add—their country’s good at heart. That expert local knowledge is the best insurance one can have against an unfortunate investment. No matter how tempting an option may seem, it should not be taken up until there has been a personal investigation by, and a favourable report from, an expert of professional standing and local knowledge. When that principle is more generally understood and acted upon, Canadian mines will become reliable and prosperous investments for British capital, instead of mere speculations.
“You are not altogether free from the wild-cat promoter. There have been instances of properties being purchased, without regard to their merit or lack of merit, in a district that happened to be in the public eye, and, following the appointment of a management calculated to command confidence, the investor has been invited to subscribe for stock. In the case of property purchased in such a way, it would not be at all surprising if the best management in the world should fail to achieve success.
“Of lavish and superfluous expenditure on home offices I have already spoken. At the mine itself there has also been, in some instances, a good deal of money wasted on excessive plant and improvements—notably on permanent works when only those of a temporarycharacter were warranted. This extravagance has resulted largely from a want of familiarity with local conditions.
“But the worst mistake of all is to look after the details of management in Great Britain. Efficiency is impossible under those conditions. The management must be on the spot. Put in a man with the requisite knowledge and character and give him a free hand. If his work prove unsatisfactory, dismiss him and get somebody else; but so long as he is manager let him act as such. Have a home man if you like as consulting engineer. Let him go out and decide the general plan of development; but give the local manager a free hand in carrying out the campaign. Let the consulting engineer inspect his work, and learn his reasons for having run this cross-cut and that drift; let the consulting engineer decide whether he is doing well or ill, whether he is saving money or wasting it, whether he should be retained or dismissed; but do not relieve the local manager of responsibility. Do not have him work on cabled instructions based on cabled reports and office maps, and then expect efficient management and a successful mine. If he needs assistance and advice he needs them at the mine, and that is where he should have them.”
Those words, coming from the foremost Government geologist of Canada, carry great weight; and I hope Mr. Brock’s counsel will be taken to heart by the City of London.
And now—not to close this chapter in a minor key—I will glance briefly at Canada’s mineral production in 1910. It represented a value of £25,000,000, or rather more than a 14 per cent. advance on the figures for the previous year. Coal occupied the premier place,with a value of, approximately, £6,000,000. Silver came next (£3,420,000), while pig iron, nickel and gold each yielded a total in excess of £2,000,000. They were succeeded in the scale of value by copper and asbestos.
CHAPTER XIVNEW SASKATCHEWAN
The story of modern Canada is a story of amazing mistakes and delightful discoveries. At every stage of development popular surmise has been made to look foolish by the accomplished fact.
“The statesman is alive who prophesied that if a railway were ever built around Lake Superior it would not earn enough money to buy axle grease.” So I was informed by Mr. Arthur Hawkes, the genial publicist, who added: “On my first visit to Canada in 1885 I heard an Ontario man warning emigrants against going so far into the wilds as Winnipeg.”
As for Saskatchewan, it was not so very long ago when people shrugged their shoulders over that “frozen and barren wilderness.” It was opened up by railways, and behold Saskatchewan to-day as a smiling country that is excelled for grain production nowhere in the Empire. I learn that the agricultural produce of the province has already reached an annual value of £30,000,000, the total cereal crop for a year—according to Government figures—exceeding 200,000,000 bushels. When one understands that this is the yield from only twelve per cent. of the available arable land of Saskatchewan, one begins to see grounds for the prophecy, which has been uttered by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, that the day is not far distant when Saskatchewan will produce annually a billion bushels of grain.And the curious fact has to be noted that the Saskatchewan of all those figures and references is not Saskatchewan at all, but only the southern half of Saskatchewan—the half that has been opened up by railways.
What particularly struck me in travelling through the province was that, when on the most northerly margin of the settled country, I kept coming upon farmers whose wheat and oats had won important prizes. The farmers were disposed to think the fact was sufficiently explained by their agricultural aptitude. But I could not help suspecting that their terrestrial latitude had a good deal to do with it. A six months’ Canadian summer is longer—from a plant’s point of view—than a seven months’ Canadian summer. For wheat and oats do not make much progress in the dark; and the lengthening of the winters as one goes north is, within a limit only to be fixed by experience, a disadvantage of no account beside the advantage of longer summer days.
Settlement has probably not yet reached the ideal latitude for wheat growing. At any rate, having regard to the rapidity with which railways are extending, the time has come when, to Canada and her prospective immigrants, the possibilities held out by Northern Saskatchewan have become a matter of eager interest. I will therefore focus such meagre evidence as is available on the subject.
The first witness we will call is the Venerable Archdeacon J. McKay, who for forty-five years has been in charge of Church of England missions in the West. For a decade he lived on the Churchill River, a little to the north of Lac la Rouge. Therefore he is in a position to give us tidings of territory situated abouttwo hundred miles north of the limit of the surveyed lands—territory, however, which is still within the area of Central Saskatchewan.
The Archdeacon leads off with this appetising fact: cranberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, and currants grow wild and abundant in the district. He reports that there are plenty of trees there, notably spruce and poplar, which are good for pulp-wood if not very important as timber. At Lac la Rouge he has seen good wheat raised for seven years in succession without any trouble being experienced from frost. Potatoes also grow there splendidly; indeed, as the reverend gentleman put it, the locality is “all right for raising anything that can be raised anywhere in Saskatchewan.” He explained that if the country were cleared of timber it would, in his opinion, be fair agricultural land. With regard to stock, he could merely say that he himself had kept, at the mission on the Churchill River, fifteen head of cattle and two horses.
Archdeacon McKay is also able to testify concerning the Ile à la Crosse country, which lies in much the same latitude as the area already alluded to, but some hundred and sixty miles farther west. This is his instructive summary: “Plenty of timber, and plenty of hay as a rule—some prairie hay and some swamp hay—and the soil is fairly good. It is better than at Lac la Rouge, and it gets better as you go west.” Questioned as to the wild grasses, he described them as “long,” and as “very much the same as the natural hay in Manitoba.”
Once more we hear of prairie fires; and it would seem that they have been particularly destructive in the rocky districts. Cross-examined with regard totimber possibilities, Archdeacon McKay recalled the interesting circumstance that he himself had erected a saw-mill, which was run by water-power, at Lac la Rouge. He added these significant details: “The logs average seventeen to the thousand feet, and are fourteen or fifteen feet long. The diameter would be about two feet across at the butt. They are large, clean logs, very much the same as those at Prince Albert. This good timber is scattered all over the country, sometimes for miles.” Pressed to give a more definite impression of the timber area, he said he believed it extended right away to the borders of the province. It appeared that he had travelled backwards and forwards a good deal, “visiting Indian camps and so on,” and he noted very much the same kind of trees everywhere. Of course there are muskeg in some places, and in others he saw “heavy timber.” Reindeer Lake was the most northerly point he had reached, and he saw plenty of trees up there.
It will now be of interest to learn what light the Archdeacon can throw on the fauna of unknown Saskatchewan. “In Lac la Rouge and the lakes generally,” he said, “fish are abundant. They are mostly white-fish and lake trout. The Indians do not sell them; they have no market. For some time there would be plenty of fish for commercial purposes. I saw a lot in Reindeer Lake.” With regard to fur-bearing animals, “sometimes they are on the increase, sometimes on the decrease, but on the whole there is a decrease, especially in beaver.”
Archdeacon McKay gave some interesting details with regard to climate. A peculiarity of the country round Lac la Rouge, it seems, is that “the frosts are very late.” On an island in the lake he has seenpotatoes growing in October, with the tops untouched by frost. He imagines that the large body of water serves to equalise the temperature; and he recalled the interesting fact that when Mr. Chisholm, the Indian inspector, came out one year to make treaty payments to the natives towards the end of August, the potato plants were unaffected both on the mainland and on the islands, “and the inspector told me that crop was a good deal touched at Prince Albert before he left.”
The snowfall is not very heavy. Three feet on the level, it appears, would be considered deep snow. As a rule, the first frosts come in September. He had known potatoes to be “touched,” but not seriously, on the fifteenth of that month. As for the time of sowing, grain could go in, as a rule, by May 5th. That was the date on which the Archdeacon had been in the habit of sowing wheat. He plants potatoes about fifteen days later.
Asked to give his impressions of the winter and summer temperatures, once more he drew an analogy between unknown Saskatchewan and a district in settled Saskatchewan. “In winter,” he said, “judging from my own sensations, the lowest temperature is about the same as at Prince Albert. In the summer time the weather is as hot as at Prince Albert. But, of course, the country of which I am speaking is farther north, and therefore the days are longer.” Of the Lac la Rouge district he reports that, speaking generally, there is sufficient rainfall for crops. One summer there was quite a long spell of dry weather, and it affected the wild fruits; but that was an exceptional state of things. The rainy season is quite equal to Manitoba’s. Thunderstorms and hailstorms occur, but not more frequently than in the south.
“The only whites in the country,” said the Archdeacon, “are the Hudson Bay officials and traders. I built the saw-mill to provide lumber for our mission buildings and boarding school. The number of Indians who take treaty money in that district is over five hundred. They are Crees.”
In conclusion the Archdeacon pointed out that canoeing and pedestrianism represent the only means of reaching the desirable and productive region in which for so many years he has resided. Naturally he is anxious for a railway to connect settled Saskatchewan with Lac la Rouge. “It is all level country,” he said; “there would not be the slightest difficulty in constructing the railway.”
We will now turn to the evidence of scientific investigators. Acting for the Federal Government, Mr. J. Burr Tyrrell explored the vast tract of country between Athabasca Lake and Churchill River—the country, that is, lying north of the area with which we have hitherto mainly been concerned. With Mr. Tyrrell was associated that other distinguished and experienced geologist, Mr. D. B. Dowling.
Mr. Tyrrell reported that the country is generally forested, though most of the timber is small black spruce and tamarack. Banksia pine forms thin, parklike woods on the sandy plains. In places berries grow in great profusion, chief among them being the common huckleberry and the small cranberry. The former thrives in the deciduous woods along the Churchill River, while the latter covers the dry slopes from the Saskatchewan northward. The blue huckleberry is found on the banks of Cree and Stone Rivers, but the bushes did not seem anywhere to bear much fruit. The raspberry occurs on the richer ground bysome of the streams. The yellow swampberry is found abundantly in the moss of the wet spruce and tamarack swamps. On drier land towards the north he found the crowberry, while the Pembina berry grows in the deciduous woods beside the streams, especially in the southern portion of the district.
A CORNER OF MONTREAL HARBOUR, SKETCHED FROM CUSTOMS HOUSE
A CORNER OF MONTREAL HARBOUR, SKETCHED FROM CUSTOMS HOUSE
These explorers saw the moose, the barren ground caribou, the Canadian lynx, the grey wolf, red, black and cross foxes, the wolverine and the skunk. The black bear roams over the whole country. A few beavers may still be met with in many of the streams. The rabbit or American hare is found everywhere in the denser woods. Porcupines are plentiful around Cree Lake, and in those portions of the sandy country that have not recently been hunted over by Indians.
“The time at our disposal,” said Mr. Tyrrell, “did not permit us to make a close examination of the birds seen, but, generally speaking, except along the banks of the Churchill River, where ducks breed in great numbers, birds are not at all numerous in the district explored.” Coveys of ruffled grouse and spruce partridge were found in the thicker woods everywhere. A few snowy owls and bald-headed eagles were observed. Fish seemed to be everywhere abundant in the lakes and streams.
“The number of Indians who live in and travel through the country, obtaining a precarious existence by hunting and fishing, is,” we learn from Mr. Tyrrell, “very small.”
To quote another authority, Professor John Macoun (the well-known naturalist of the Geological Survey) said: “There can be no question about the value of the land north of the Saskatchewan, and settlers going in there are assured of three essentials—wood, water,and hay—for cattle. . . . The low altitude and the long day are fixed conditions.”
With reference to altitude, I may point out that Prince Albert is nearly five hundred feet lower than Regina, and that the Lac la Rouge district is two hundred and sixty feet lower than Prince Albert. Regarding the duration of sunlight, a careful record was made, over a period of four months, as to the relative length of day in the district under consideration, at Prince Albert and at Ottawa. Taking a date at random (June 20th), the figures were, respectively, 17 hours 30 minutes, 16 hours 42 minutes, and 15 hours 26 minutes.
In conclusion, let me briefly refer to the experiences of Mr. Frank J. P. Crean, who was specially commissioned to explore, in 1908 and 1909, the huge areas of Saskatchewan and Alberta lying north of surveyed limits. Mr. Crean reports that those northern countries are “capable of producing large quantities of cereals and farm produce and of supporting a large population. The over-abundance of water and lack of natural drainage, causing large swamps and muskegs, might, in my opinion, be easily remedied by clearing out some of the rapids on the Churchill River and providing outlets for the surplus water where natural outlets are lacking. Very little work would be necessary to open fine waterways navigable for small craft throughout the country. . . . The climate seems well adapted for raising any cereals. In fact, wherever wheat has been tried it has been grown successfully. . . . I would estimate that an area of fully 5,000,000 acres is suitable for settlement as soon as surveyed and made accessible by roads; and an area of about 12,000,000 acres of swamps, or land probably too wet at present for successfulcultivation, could be reclaimed at a moderate expenditure. . . . In the south-easterly portion the soil is good, being a light loam, with a blue clay subsoil; towards the west the land is light loam with a sandy clay subsoil. . . . Of course the winter is cold, but not any colder nor longer than the winter in some of the settled portions of Saskatchewan. In August, 1908, a frost occurred almost all over the settled parts of Saskatchewan, but did not apparently affect the northern portion which I explored. . . . I was at Portage la Loche on September 17th, and the potato tops were not frozen in the least. The garden was also quite untouched. Cabbages, carrots, parsnips, etc., all looked well.”
Everywhere Mr. Crean found an abundance of hay. In places the meadows were small, but always numerous. Among the chief birds he saw were swans, geese, ducks, partridges, gulls, jays, kingfishers, crows, robins and loons. He noticed that the staple food of the native north of the Saskatchewan is fish, with which he is abundantly provided. “North of the Churchill,” Mr. Crean reported, “lies a district of great promise from a mineral point of view.” Finally, we learn, “there are many points where a large amount of water power could be developed.”
CHAPTER XVINDIANS AND THE MISSIONARY
The presence of the red man in Canada—and, for the matter of that, in the United States—has put the white man’s capacity and character to a searching test. I refer to the white man of the modern world, for the attitude of our ancestors towards the Indian was controlled by different contemporary conditions.
Here were some belated representatives of prehistoric man—human beings without culture or conscience, and who, but for a superior resourcefulness, seemed on a plane with the brutes of the field. By arms this wild people had easily been tamed. But from that moment they became a political and social problem with which, though it well might prove insoluble, obligations of humanity compelled the Government of Canada to grapple, without stint of effort, money or patience.
Could these quelled savages be civilised?
Worldly wisdom shook its head, and hope had nothing but faith to rest upon. The Red Indian had inherited no higher ideal of conduct than the slaughtering and scalping of tribal enemies—men, women and children—and self-mutilation as a stimulus to personal bravery. True, those practices were now prohibited by the whites—by that mysterious, masterful race who had brought fire-arms and fire-water into the Red Indian’s life.
Vaguely I knew of the missionaries who labour among the Indians and Eskimos, their lives consecrated to the work which holds them, from year to year and decade to decade, outside the range of public knowledge and recognition. I sought through the mind of one of those missionaries to peer into the Red Indian heart, so that my readers might be able to judge, from definite testimony on crucial points of human character, whether Canada’s aborigines are fitted to survive.
My visit was to the Rev. Canon H. W. G. Stocken (of the Church Missionary Society), at the Blackfoot Reserve near Gleichen, Alberta.
“Archdeacon Tims came out here in 1883,” said Canon Stocken, “and I came out in 1885. I was under Archdeacon Tims until 1888, and since 1895 I have been in charge of this mission. In the early years the outlook was dark. We sowed, and there was no visible harvest. It was difficult to reach the hearts of the Blackfeet. They had been fearless, fierce and successful fighters, and there seemed no room in their minds for beautiful and holy thoughts. Unlike other Indians, they even had no hope of ‘Happy Hunting-Grounds.’ Their barren imaginations only pictured aimless, restless wanderings on adjacent sand-hills after death. With dread and in a spirit of propitiation, they worshipped the sun, the moon, the earth, and the water. For them the weasel, the eagle, the crow, the otter, and the beaver were sacred, and they wore the skins and feathers of those creatures as charms. Thefts, murders, and crimes of all sorts were lauded if the penalty were escaped; and preservation from the penalty was invariably attributed to the protecting influence of some charm. Unlike Indians of the north and the east, the Blackfeet knew of no Great Spirit. There was no hopein life, no hope in death, for that poor, unhappy people, whose God was their belly, whose glory was in their shame, who minded earthly things.
“Of course, through the schools, it proved possible to make some progress with the Blackfeet children. But I felt that, here as elsewhere, the work of reaching the adults was of supreme importance. Hoping against hope, we took all opportunities to try and illumine the minds of the chiefs, the braves and the squaws. For fifteen years with heavy hearts we laboured. Then on a sudden came our abundant reward. It was in the early spring of 1898. The schools, the hospital, the preaching, the conversations from time to time—all those influences yielded fruit in the day of blessing when we witnessed the birth of the Spirit among the Blackfeet. I will tell you what happened.
“For some time we had succeeded in attracting a few Indians to our Sunday services—merely a handful, among whom the only regular attendant was a young man named Kaksakin, which means ‘An Axe.’ One Sunday I was walking from the schoolroom, where the service had been held, and proceeding slowly towards the mission-house. I had been discoursing on the life of St. Paul, which had been the theme of my sermons for several months past. The old, old question was running in my mind—when would the great change come to my people? As I walked a hand was placed on my shoulder, and, turning, I found that three members of my congregation had followed me. Young Axe was one, Pukapinni (‘Little Eyes’) was another, and Pukapinni’s brother Matsenamaka (‘Handsome Gun’) was the third. Young Axe was the first to speak. He told me of his desire to become a child of God and to be baptised. Then the others said thesame: and my heart leapt when I saw the eager sincerity on their faces.
“Those two brothers had come originally to our services at the eager persuasion of Axe. Curiosity and ridicule clearly engaged their thoughts at first. But the satirical smiles had gradually died away, and of late they had listened as earnestly as Axe himself. But of what was passing in their hearts I had no knowledge until that ever-memorable Sunday afternoon. Little Eyes poured forth the story of a dream he had had. In that dream he entered the school porch, and was standing by my side as I rang the bell for the morning service. Suddenly he saw a spiral staircase passing up far out of sight. I asked him to come with me up the staircase, and he consented, so that presently we ascended far above the earth, and came at last to the top, where a lovely country spread in every direction. In that dream I asked what he thought of the sight before him, and he said it was more beautiful than anything he had ever seen before. I urged him in the dream never to forget what he had seen, and then I bade him to descend again. ‘I did so,’ he said, ‘trembling very much, but reached the earth in safety.’ That was the end of the dream. He said God had sent it to him, and he wanted to obey His voice and be baptised.”
That, Canon Stocken told me, was but the beginning. A great spiritual awakening had come to the Blackfeet, and for some time the reserve was in a state of strange unrest. Many had dreams, which were deeply impressive as told to the missionary by those awed and child-like Indians. For some time he lived amid marvels and mysteries, not knowing what new wonder the hour would bring forth. At first, indeed,he was frightened and in a great uncertainty, scarce daring to hold to the hopes those manifestations put into his mind. Yet it did not seem incredible that matters should shape themselves thus, and not otherwise, when into the darkness of heathendom there first came spiritual light, leaving the Indian dazzled, bewildered, exalted.
“Following those first conversions,” said Canon Stocken, “we had about twelve weeks of careful, individual preparation, and on March 27th, 1898, the first five adults were baptised, receiving the names of Paul, Daniel, Timothy, Thomas, and Ruth. From that time there were crowded congregations at the services. I can never forget those wide-open, straining eyes. No more impressive sight can any man see than the faces of heathen who begin to realise that there is something outside of themselves. The most solemn and wonderful time I think I ever experienced was on the evening of Easter Sunday. In the morning I had said, in dismissing my congregation, ‘Now, to-night I’m going to have a special service in the mission-room for those Christians who want to understand more about the Resurrection, and I’ll tell you of all the appearances of Christ that are mentioned in Scripture.’ Every one of the Christians came, besides some heathen, among whom was the wife of our Axe. She was very angry with him for becoming a Christian. She had refused to go to the service. But he made her come. Thinking of Constantine’s method, he was going to put the sword into force, so she yielded. Neyer shall I forget the awful, death-like stillness as those men and women strained their whole being, so to speak, to take in the subject of the Resurrection. You could positively have heard a pin drop on the floor. I was trembling allover at the responsibility of telling them those things which now they heard for the first time. I concluded with a short prayer, and then I went out to put my surplice in an adjoining room. Before, however, I had taken it off that woman came rushing in—the wife of Axe, I mean—and cried aloud: ‘Mokuyomakin, I do believe! I very much believe! I believe the teaching of God. I want you to baptise me also.’ The upshot was that she became a most earnest Christian. My poor wife used to say that, apart from Naomi (and I will tell you about Naomi later), there was no one in her women’s class upon whom she could lean more confidently than upon Esther, which was the name given in baptism to Axe’s wife.”
I asked Canon Stocken to elucidate the Indian name by which Esther had addressed him. “Mokuyomakin means Running Wolf,” he explained. “The Indians christen everybody, you know. It was an old chief who dubbed me Running Wolf soon after I arrived. The words have no personal application to myself. The old chief said it was the name of a friend of his who had lately died, and for whose loss his heart was heavy. I considered he was paying me a real compliment, and I have always felt very proud of my name.”
Canon Stocken next told me about Little Eyes, who figures on the Government list as Paul Little Walker. His father, it appeared, was Bull Backfat, who was head chief of the Blood Indians and a famous warrior and hunter. “When Little Eyes was only four years old,” said the canon, “Bull Backfat was killed, accidentally or otherwise, by an Indian. The boy was then brought here by his mother, whose name was Little Walker, and he became one of the mostconspicuous lads on the reservation. I have told you of the dream that led to his conversion. He was thirty-one years of age at that time. He received the name of Paul at his baptism.
“It will be difficult for me,” continued Canon Stocken, pondering his words, “to make you realise the simple earnestness and sincere devotion that have characterised that man’s life down to the present day. I would like first to say that many and many a time he has helped me spiritually. There have been occasions of stress and sorrow when, following a long and exhausting day, I have sat alone at my desk in such an extremity of physical weariness that, when a knock has come at the door, I have been tempted to disregard the summons rather than have my rest disturbed. Sometimes Paul has proved to be the visitor, and each time, in a little while, his words and thoughts have lifted my oppression and renewed my strength, leaving me very grateful.
“Soon after his conversion he was going among the heathen Indians one Sunday morning, as came to be his custom, and trying to persuade them to attend the service. Among those to whom he spoke was the wife of one of his uncles—a woman bitterly hostile to Christianity. ‘No, no,’ she indignantly replied, ‘I won’t be seen inside your church. I don’t believe in your God,’ and she jumped up and got her tanning knife and started to tan. Paul said: ‘This is God’s day. It is not the will of God that we should work seven days. Our bodies need a rest, and to-day it is our duty to worship.’ Then he walked away. But he had not gone many steps when he heard a scream, and, turning round, he saw the woman lying in convulsions on the ground. ‘Go away,’ she cried, whenhe stepped up to her; ‘your God has done this.’ ‘Done what?’ he asked. ‘Broken my knife in half,’ she replied. And then he saw that the blade of the tanning knife had snapped. ‘I do not know if God did this,’ Paul quietly rejoined, ‘but you had better learn a lesson from it.’ And, as a matter of fact, though that woman never became a Christian, she was ever afterwards respectful about Christianity.
“Paul, you will notice, is not superstitious. One day, soon after his conversion, we were talking about Indian charms, some specimens lying before us. ‘If there was anything in them,’ Paul said simply, ‘they would jump up and help me to have a better temper.’ He was a little hasty and liable to fits of anger, I should mention, until he learnt to conquer the weakness. Indeed, several people told me that he had been, as they put it, a very tough sort of fellow. How different to the later Paul—the present Paul!
“He devises his own ways of doing good, but always with modest diffidence. One day he came to me in anxious sorrow and said: ‘What is right? What ought I to do? There is Owl Voice over there, and he is angry with his wife. Some Indians have gone to him and said she has behaved as a bad woman, and I fear he will take her life before sunset. The chiefs are there, and the camp is quite excited. What I want you to tell me is—What is my duty? May I not go and try to bring peace? ‘I said ‘Yes—what else could you do?’ Paul looked relieved; but he showed me how the uncertainty had come into his mind. ‘I asked Axe first,’ he explained, ‘and at once Axe said: “We believe in Christ and God, and we do what is right. But those heathen people are different. Let them alone.” But I then said to Axe:“By what we hear about Jesus Christ, I think He would go and try to make peace.”’ I said to Paul: ‘Go, please, by all means; and I do hope you will be successful!’ He went; and the sequel I heard next day from one of the chiefs who was present—Big Road, who became a Christian later on. Big Road came to me and said: ‘This young man of yours is a wonderful fellow.’ I said: ‘Why?’ He said: ‘We have never seen anything the same as this in our lives. We all like him.’ I said: ‘Tell me of it.’ Big Road said: ‘He came into the tent yesterday, and went up to Owl Voice and held out his hand. Then he stepped up to Owl Voice and kissed him, and said “My brother, I’ve come to you as a friend, as a servant of the God above us, because I believe that Jesus Christ would do what I am trying to do if He were here. I want to restore peace between you and your wife. I want to tell you that I don’t believe one word of what you have been told about your wife. I want you to say you will forgive your wife what you thought was wrong, and that you will let her come to you, and you will kiss her in the presence of these chiefs, and say it is all right.” Owl Voice looked on the ground and was silent a long time. Paul continued to speak to him, and said: “Well, my brother, you will do what I ask? Let me bring your wife to you that you may kiss her.” At last Owl Voice looked up in your young man’s face, and said: “Well, I believe you are right.” Then the young man went and took the girl by the hand and brought her to Owl Voice, and said: “Now, kiss her.” Owl Voice looked up and kissed his wife, and said: “It is all right.” Then he turned to the chiefs and said: “You can all go,” and they went.’ ”