CHAPTER V

Fort McMurray to Smith’s Landing on the Slave River : TheGrahame: Beauty of Northern Twilights : Fort Chippewyan : The Slave River : The Peace River Basin.

Wefound theGrahamea much larger and more comfortable boat than theMidnight Sun, though constructed on the same lines, both being flat-bottomed craft and propelled by stern wheels.

It was late in the afternoon of another very hot day, July 2, when we resumed our journey, and sitting on the deck, I watched a panorama of rare beauty unrolled to view as we descended the river. The Clearwater mingled its contents slowly and reluctantly with those of the turbid Athabaska. Islands clothed with green spruce receded from view as others appeared in the distance.

It was after seven o’clock in the evening, when we left McMurray and yet we sat for hours taking no note of time, till some oneremarked it was getting late, though the sun, away around in the north-west, was still a little above the horizon, and seemed very loathe to sink below it. As in “The Lotos Eaters,” it seemed “a land where it was always afternoon.” There are two features that cannot fail to impress the stranger on his visit to these regions, especially in mid-summer; first, those northern twilights, and second, the profound silence that always seems to fall like a pall on the wilderness as the gathering shadows increase more and more till all nature is embraced in silent slumber.

Frequently we tied up to the shore for the few dark hours we enjoyed at this time and in this latitude, later we had none—and the deathlike tranquillity of those approaching nights was almost bewildering in its intensity. One actually seemed to have approached very near to the heart of nature.

This sensation brought back to mind the words of George Eliot in the scene fromAdam Bede, where she pictures the absolute calm which prevailed on that night when Adam was engaged long after midnight in making a coffin for his father, and when resting for amoment, he looked across the starlit fields where “every blade of grass was asleep.”

Here, we beheld the wilderness in its lethean repose. Occasionally the cry of a loon would float over the woods from some inland lake, or the hooting of an owl would be heard somewhere in the forest. These, however, seemed rather to add to, than detract from the loneliness that surrounded us. Those who have seen nature in repose will sympathise with me in my feeble attempt to convey an impression of that which is really beyond description.

After the junction of the Clearwater, the Athabaska becomes a stream varying from a quarter to half a mile in width. Some good spruce timber is seen on the way. Asphalt and coal are found along the banks below McMurray. Seams of soft coal of considerable thickness are found in the neighbourhood of Fort McKay, which is used by the blacksmiths at some of the posts.

During our stay at McMurray the first flood from the upper sources of the river overtook us, and on leaving this post the water had risen about two feet. This accelerated our speed, and from here on wewere running races with this mountain water. Sometimes we were with it, and then after several hours’ run we would leave it behind till we made another halt, when it would again overtake us. There was no mistaking it, as the colour of the new water was much more muddy than that of the original, which had in its slower course parted with a good portion of its alluvial matter.

In the course of some twenty-four hours’ run from McMurray the traveller finds evidences that he is approaching the mouth of the river. The stream increases to double or treble the width it is above McMurray. The banks become lower. Willows take the place of the poplar and spruce. Islands on every hand seem almost to block the passage. Then drowned land and great marshes, the home of wild fowl innumerable, stretch away to the horizon and at last the waters of the Lake of the Hills, now Lake Athabaska, are seen glistening to the east, while hills of red granite stretch far away to the north and below these along the shore, the whitewashed buildings of Fort Chippewyan appear.

FORT CHIPPEWYAN ON ATHABASKA LAKE

By reference to my diary, I find that it was July 4 that we reached Chippewyan, and Iremember rising before four o’clock, so eager was I to catch the first glimpse of the lake. We had been for nearly a month following down a river through a wilderness, where the range of our vision was limited by the high banks on either side, and it was like entering a larger world and was really restful when we beheld a great expanse of blue water extending off to the east as far as the eye could reach. But here, too, was “loneliness unbroken.” Another of those excessively hot days, too, that had pursued us for some time, was again with us. The lake was as smooth as glass, but the most powerful telescope revealed nothing of life on its surface, save a few wild fowl, perfectly secure, for no fowler was in sight.

Lake Athabaska is about 200 miles in length from Chippewyan on the west to Fond du Lac on the east, while its average width is probably about twenty miles.

The appearance of Chippewyan was quite picturesque as we approached it from the south.

The Hudson Bay Company’s buildings are in the form of a quadrangle and appear very attractive from a distance. Those of theRoman Catholic Mission are quite imposing but lose some of their effect through being painted a very dull colour.

We only remained at Chippewyan about twelve hours and then started for the entrance of Slave River and Great Slave Lake. The distance from the mouth of Athabaska River to the entrance of Slave River is only eight or ten miles.

For the first ten miles after entering the Slave, the channel, or rather the one we took, winds in and out between islands and submerged land, covered with grass. These drowned lands and marshes extend apparently a long distance west, between the Athabaska and Peace River, which latter stream joins the Slave about twenty miles down the latter from the Lake. This is a hunter’s paradise, and when the railway reaches McMurray the wild goose will soon find its present security disturbed by the sportsman from the south.

SPRUCE TIMBER ON THE SLAVE RIVER

At 10P.M.the steamer tied up for the night. This had been the hottest day yet experienced. The mercury stood at 100 in the shade at Chippewyan, but the appearance of the sky portended rain, and as we retired weheard rumblings of thunder and some lightning was to be seen. A little later, the welcome drops were heard pattering on the decks. All welcomed a relief from weather that would be more suitable to the tropics than to this latitude of 59 degrees north. On waking the following morning, July 5, we found the air refreshingly cool. It had rained nearly all night, and from this on we had no more such heat as we had heretofore experienced. At a distance of some fifteen miles from Chippewyan, the land becomes higher and is covered with timber, considerable quantities of which are seen from the river; the varieties being spruce, poplar, birch, tamarac and willow; some of the first named being of good quality, running in size up to twenty inches at the stump. This timber continues somewhat irregularly throughout the whole course of the Slave from here to Great Slave Lake.

At about twenty miles below Lake Athabaska, the Slave receives the Peace River, and the former at once becomes an immense stream, averaging perhaps a mile in width. The Peace itself is really a great river: rising on the eastern slope of that great Atlas chainof North America, the Rocky Mountains, it flows easterly and northerly for some 800 miles till finally at this junction its waters mingle with those coming from the same watershed via the Athabaska.

Ever since the mountain water overtook us, we had witnessed considerable drift timber, but immediately after passing the junction of the Peace this greatly increased; and cast up by previous floods on the shores, sand bars and islands were thousands upon thousands of spruce trees, sufficiently large for lumbering purposes.

The Peace River deserves more than a passing reference. It is much the largest of the many tributary streams whose waters find an outlet to the Arctic Sea through the Mackenzie. In fact, it and the Slave might be regarded as the Upper Mackenzie with Great Slave Lake as an immense expansion. It is something in the neighbourhood of 800 miles from where the Finlay and the Parsnip, under the shadow of the Rockies, join to form the Peace, and from here to its mouth it flows through a valley containing a large percentage of exceedingly fertile land. There have been different opinions as to thefuture of this valley as an agricultural district, but it is probable that with the exception of that portion near the source, where the elevation is considerable, the basin of the Peace will not be behind that of the North Saskatchewan in its yield of cereals and vegetables and quite equal to any portion of the great west as a grazing country, though it must be remembered that it is more or less wooded.

In the year 1902, I visited the Upper Peace, as before stated, and on September 16, at a point nearly 500 miles above the mouth, wheat was already cut, oats mostly cut, and I was informed that this was about the usual time of harvesting. I also saw at the Roman Catholic Mission, a few miles above Peace River Crossing, and almost opposite the mouth of Smokey River, potatoes, cabbage, beets, onions, pumpkins, tomatoes, muskmelons, etc., and also tobacco. The latter may not be equal to the famed Havanna leaf, but it possesses sufficient nicotine to gratify the appetite of those dependent on it for their supply.

The river at this point is considerably over a quarter of a mile wide, and the water at thisseason was clear and blue. The valley, which is here over two miles wide, about one mile on each side of the stream itself, is six or seven hundred feet lower than the table land above.

RAPIDS ON THE SLAVE RIVER AT THE SECOND PORTAGE

On the way in from Lesser Slave Lake, I had been told to have my camera ready as we approached the descent at Peace River Crossing. Even the stolid half breed who accompanied me was almost enthusiastic in his description of the view that awaited us, so that I was quite prepared for what I apprehended would be something like the view of Niagara River from Queenston Heights. It resembled more the Grand Canyon of Arizona. All at once there appeared before us something so gigantic in its dimensions and so bewildering in the beauty of the vista which it revealed, that I feel any words that I can pen would rather conceal than reveal any true conception of this wonderful picture. Looking from the upland in every direction and on both sides of the valley, the table land seemed to the eye as level as the proverbial billiard table, while beneath and extending east and west for distances which I hesitate to estimate, laythis great excavation, for such it really is, and far below, the blue water of the river was seen threading its way along the base, at times dividing itself between islands and sand bars and then reuniting in its hurried flow ever onward and downward in its course. A few miles above “The Smoky” was seen threading its way through a similar valley, while farther and farther away were other tributary streams flowing through other valleys till the vision was only lost by the interception of the horizon. One can form but a feeble conception of the energy that nature has expended in excavating this great canyon, through which now flows a navigable stream with but one obstruction in its course for some 700 miles. Evidently this has been accomplished simply by the water from the mountains seeking ever a lower level. The swift current of the stream was not only sufficient to delve out the enormous quantity of earth embraced in this valley over two miles wide and to the depth I have stated, but also to transport it for hundreds of miles down stream where it was deposited, forming sand bars and islands all the way to Great Slave Lake.

At the source of the Danube River at Donoueschingen stand two statuary figures, the one representing the country and the other, the river. The former is indicating to the latter the route to be taken, and the injunction is “Go this way and open the wilderness.”

Here we have a valley even greater than that through which the Danube flows, and the injunction is being obeyed in the opening up of a region of inestimable value for the benefit of those who will yet seek their homes in this part of our possessions.

We will now resume our narrative by returning to the Slave River, which connects Lake Athabaska with Great Slave Lake. It is about 300 miles in length, but navigation is obstructed by rapids that commence at Smith’s Landing, 100 miles from Athabaska, and extend down stream to Fort Smith, a distance of sixteen miles. For this reason, the steamerGrahame, with the scows that she had in tow from McMurray, proceeded no farther than the former place, and the cargo was freighted overland to Fort Smith on wagons drawn by oxen, which delayed us about a week. Most of the country passedover on this portage is very sandy, which made very heavy drawing. This will be spanned one of these days by an electric tramway, the motive power for which can easily be obtained from the rapids near by.

SMITH’S LANDING ON SLAVE RIVER

The prevailing rock formation between Chippewyan and Smith’s Landing is granite; that about Chippewyan being of a red colour, while as Smith’s Landing is approached it is grey, and the soil covering noted on this section of our journey proved less inviting to the agriculturist than that either above or below it, where there is a good deposit of alluvial soil.

At La Bute, forty miles above Smith’s Landing, we saw a good deposit of tar in the limestone rock on the west side of the river.

While we were staying at Smith’s Landing awaiting the transport of the cargo across the portage to Fort Smith, a tug towing several scows which we had passed farther up the river arrived. They were accompanied by Bishop Grouard and were the property of the Roman Catholic Church over which he presides in this district, and also in that of the Peace River country. I was glad ofhaving an opportunity of meeting him again, especially as he had some years before made the trip which I proposed to take from Fort McPherson to Fort Yukon.

On July 9, we crossed the sixteen mile portage to Fort Smith just below the rapids. We had a comfortable carriage drawn by horses and made the trip in about three hours. Here we boarded the trim-built little steamer,Wrigley, which we found much smaller than theGrahame, but on the whole fairly comfortable. She differed from theGrahameand theMidnight Sun, being built on a different model, the former being like the Mississippi steamers, with flat bottoms, and drawing only about two feet of water, while theWrigleyis similar in construction to the steamers of the lower lakes of Canada, with a screw wheel, and drawing nearly six feet when loaded.

STEAMER “GRAHAME” AT SMITH’S LANDING

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