Mission Garden at Fort Providence.
Mission Garden at Fort Providence.
“Fort Good Hope is situated a short distance below the Ramparts and is the lowest fort on the Mackenzie. It was originally built over one hundred miles lower down, and has been moved several times before the present site was finally selected. It is situated only a few miles south of the Arctic circle, but this does not prevent some gardening from being attempted. Potatoes, turnips and other garden vegetables are raised in some quantity, and even barley has occasionally been ripened, although the ground is permanently frozen three or four feet from the surface. Cattle and poultry are kept at the fort, but the former have to be fed over seven months in the year. . . .”
Can Furnish Local Food Supply.
In summing up the result of his explorations, Mr. McConnell stated in his report:—“At all the posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company, along the Mackenzie and its tributaries, with the exception of Fort McPherson, small plots of land are annually cultivated and large quantities of potatoes, turnips, beets and other vegetables are grown for use in the district, while at Fort Liard and Fort Providence, the two most southerly posts in the district, both wheat and barley have been tried with success. There is, however, little reason to hope that Mackenzie river district as a whole, or even the southern part of it, except in limited areas, will ever be able to support a purely agricultural community, or that its products will ever be able to compete in the open markets of the world with the produce of more favoured regions. Its agricultural development will depend on a local market being obtained. When the time comes, as come it must, when the undoubted mineral resources of the region are drawn upon, the food required by the mining population, or the greater part of it at least, can be supplied locally. The amount of arable land is small compared to the total area, and is mostly confined to the vicinity of the larger streams. Away from the rivers, frozen marshes and muskegs and shallow lakes cover the greater part of the surface. The alluvial lands along Slave river, the upper part of Mackenzie river, and the country bordering the Liard for some distance above and below Fort Liard and west of the mountains, are the best parts of the district.”
Climate of Mackenzie Region.
Mr. McConnell, in his report of his explorations of both 1887 and 1888, makes the following references to the climate along Mackenzie river:—“The warm weather which commenced at Fort Simpson on May 1, continued throughout the month, and under its influence the snow quickly disappeared, and the spring advanced with astonishing rapidity.
“In the lower part of the river the ice was broken up at Fort Wrigley on May 18, at Fort Norman on May 19, and at Fort Good Hope on May 21. Theice on the river above Fort Simpson, between the mouth of the Liard and Great Slave lake, did not, however, move until after June 1.”
May 31, 1888, Mr. McConnell foundAnemone patens, the first flower of the season, in full bloom above Fort Wrigley. When Mr. McConnell left Fort Norman June 12, 1888, the trees were still leafless, but the various species of willows and birches had hung out their catkins, and the early flowering anemones and other flowers brightened the valley with colour. June 18, when Mr. McConnell left Fort Good Hope,anemone patensand other early flowering plants were in bloom, but the general forest still remained leafless.
The Liard District.
Mr. McConnell’s report gives us occasional comprehensive glimpses of the territory on either side of the Mackenzie. He says that the surface of the country bordering the Mackenzie in the latitude of the Liard, on both the lower and higher levels, is usually more or less undulating, and is diversified by innumerable shallow lakes of all sizes, while a large proportion is underlaid by muskegs and marshes, covered with sphagnum or bog-moss, which remain frozen throughout the year. The higher lands and ridges separating the lakes and marshes are usually rather densely forested, chiefly with white spruce (Picea alba), the Banksian pine (Pinus Banksiana) and the aspen (Populus tremuloides).
As to the basin of the lower Liard itself, Mr. McConnell mentions the following facts:—On his way down to the Mackenzie in 1887 he arrived at Fort Liard, fifteen miles below the mouth of the Nelson, on July 29. In the reach from the Nelson to Fort Liard, the river is generally wide and filled with sandbars and wooded islands. It is bordered in many places with wide alluvial flats, covered with tall, straight cotton wood, large spruce and canoe birch. Its valley is wide and shallow and lined with gently sloping, spruce-clad banks. On some of the flats the Indians have built houses, and fenced in small plots for farming purposes, for which the greater part of this section of the district seems well adapted. Mr. McConnell passed one small Indian farm about thirteen miles below the mouth of the Nelson, and another one at the mouth of Fishing creek, a few miles above Fort Liard, while others were noticed in the lower part of the river.
Fort Liard and its Environment.
Fort Liard is situated on a fertile flat, part of which has been cultivated for years with unfailing success. Wheat and barley are grown here year after year, while potatoes, cabbages, turnips, and other vegetables are raised without the least difficulty. At the time of Mr. McConnell’s visit, August 1, “all the crops were well advanced and in good condition; the barley was just turning colour, and the potatoes were almost large enough to eat. There is no reason, either climatic or otherwise, why the whole country bordering the Liard, from Beaver river to near its mouth, should not, when needed, support an agricultural community.” Mr. McConnell climbed one of the mountains near Fort Liard to a height of three thousand feet and “obtained an extensive view from the summit,over the plains to the eastward. The country in that direction rises gradually from the river in easy undulations, and appears to culminate at a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles in a low plateau through which Black river has cut a wide gap. A dense forest, relieved in places by gleaming lakes and light green marshes, stretches to the horizon.”
Mr. McConnell also states in his report that the valley depression for some distance below the fort is insignificant in size, and farther down disappears altogether, and the river undulates through a low, level plain, elevated only a few feet above its surface. Liard river is over a mile wide at its mouth.
A Mackenzie Valley Plateau.
Ten miles above the Blackwater, Mr. McConnell, in his descent of the Mackenzie in 1888, made a visit to a small plateau which there borders the river at a distance of three or four miles. The valley of the Mackenzie there has a depth of two hundred feet. After leaving it Mr. McConnell crossed a level plain which stretches eastwards to the foot of the plateau. This plain proved to be exceedingly wet and swampy, and most of the way across he was walking knee-deep through yielding moss or ice-cold water. It is partially wooded with small pine, spruce, aspen and tamarack, none of which had a diameter exceeding six inches. From the top of the plateau, the main range of Rocky mountains, which is here too far from the left bank of the river to be seen from the valley, came into sight to the west, while in an opposite direction a good view was obtained of the rocky range which borders the river to the east. The plain between these ranges, through which the river flows, has a width of sixty or seventy miles. It shows numerous lines of wooded heights running parallel with the river, but possesses no conspicuous elevations.
Mr. McConnell explains that rugged limestone ranges are visible along the reach below Fort Norman on both sides of the river, but seldom approach within thirty miles of each other. The plains between, and lower slopes of the mountains, are continuously clothed with forests of small spruce and aspen. The depression in which the river flows has a depth of from one to four hundred feet and a width of from two to three miles. River flats are seldom present, and the banks of the valley slope more or less steeply up from the edge of the water.
Mr. William Ogilvie’s Report.
Mr. Ogilvie, in the splendid report of his survey in 1888 (Sessional papers, 4th Ses. 6th Parlt.), made a special and most comprehensive reference to the agricultural capabilities of the Mackenzie country. Mr. Ogilvie’s reputation as an experienced and most accurate observer justifies an extended quotation from this section of the report.—“Everywhere, the Mackenzie basin”, he wrote (p. 82), “is quite as capable, so far as quality of soil is concerned, of supporting an agricultural population, as the greater part of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The soil, as seen from the river, is generally good, and the probability is that it continues so at least as far back from the stream as the woods extend. This extent is said to vary from twenty to forty miles on the east side, where no stream flows in,but where there are streams the distance is much greater, as the timber follows the valleys. Beyond the fringe of timber we come to the so-called barren lands, on which nothing but mosses and lichens grow and which, except as the pasturage of the musk-ox and a few other animals, are practically useless, so far as known at present. On the west side of the river the woods extend to the timber line on the mountains.
“Assuming the limits to be as above, the area of the fertile soil can readily be found. Speaking only of that portion of Mackenzie basin extending from Athabaska lake to Arctic ocean, we have a strip of land nine hundred and forty miles long, and something over sixty wide. This gives in round numbers sixty thousand square miles of land, the agricultural capabilities of which we may reasonably discuss. I think the above area is less than that actually wooded, but on the west side much of the surface is probably at such an elevation, being near the mountains, as to be outside the limits of our discussion. Theoretically, the points involved are the prevalent temperatures during the growing months, the period of vegetation and the duration of sunshine.
Temperature and Sunlight.
“I do not know of any regular record of temperature having been kept at Fort McPherson, the most northerly point at which anyone is permanently settled in the district. The only information which I have is my own record for the last ten days of June while I was camped in the valley near the fort. The lowest temperature during that period was 37.3° Fahr. on June 20, and the mean minimum from June 20 to June 30 was 43.3° Fahr. The highest observed temperature during the same period was 74° Fahr. at 1:30 p.m. on June 21, and the mean temperature at that hour for the ten days was 62° Fahr. The lowest of these temperatures would not injure vegetation. The mean minimum for the whole month would be below this, probably two or three degrees, but even that would not arrest vegetable growth. When, in connection with the temperature, we consider the number of hours of sunshine in June and July, it seems evident that Fort McPherson has all the essentials for the successful cultivation of most cereals and vegetables. At this northern point refraction extends the time during which the sun does not set, so that there are about twenty-four hours of sunshine each day from June 1 to July 15. On May 1, the sun is up for about seventeen and one-half hours, and during August the hours of sunlight vary from nineteen on the 1st to fifteen on the 31st. The total hours of sun are seven hundred and six in May; seven hundred and twenty in June; six hundred and eighty-four in July; and five hundred and twenty-seven in August; in all two thousand six hundred and thirty-seven hours of sun out of the total, day and night, of two thousand, nine hundred and fifty-two hours in the four months. As twilight continues while the sun is less than eighteen degrees below the horizon there is actually no darkness during this period. When the temperature is suitable, vegetation under these conditions thrives to an almost incredible degree, as the following shows. When I arrived at Fort McPherson on June 20, the new buds on the trees were just perceptible, and on the evening of June 22, the trees were almost fully in leaf.
“The mean minimum temperature for the month of July was 45.4° Fahr. The mean temperature for 1:30 p.m. was 64.7° Fahr., but on two occasions the thermometer went to 78° in the shade, and ten times to 70°. These temperatures were noted along the river, at different points of course, although during the greater part of the month my latitude did not change very much.
View on Peel river.
View on Peel river.
“This combination of favorable temperature and long hours of sunlight promises well for vegetable growth, but there are interfering causes. Unfortunately snow storms are apt to occur at any time during the year at Fort McPherson. On July 2, five inches of snow fell and the thermometer went down to 25° (7° below freezing point), yet, strange to say, the frost did not appear to hurt anything. A northeast wind continuing for a day or more, lowers the temperature in a few hours from pleasant, summer heat to what reminds one of the approach of winter.
“As far as I could learn, no attempt at cultivating cereals or roots has been made at Fort McPherson. But at Fort Good Hope some of the people grow potatoes and other garden produce, and, as the difference of latitude is not much over a degree, the same things ought to grow nearly as well at Fort McPherson. The potatoes grown at Fort Good Hope are small, averaging about the size of a large hen’s egg. Those which I tasted were bad, as if they had been frozen, but they were of the previous season’s growth, and it was then the middle of July. Even in Ontario potatoes of that age are not very palatable. This tuber appears to have always vitality enough to increase, as at Fort Good Hope they have had
No Change of Seed for Several Years.
This tends to show that the frosts are not very severe, during the time potatoes are growing and ripening. When I passed, the onions, lettuce and other thingsplanted in the gardens were pretty well advanced, the onion stalks being about as large as pencils. No cereals had been sown, but I think barley would succeed fairly well. I am not aware of any continuous record of temperature at Fort Good Hope, so I cannot say whether the climate at that place is suitable for the growth of plants during June, July, and August. While I was there the days were pleasant and warm and the nights not unpleasantly cool. Nor, if we omit July 2, when snow fell, did I anywhere note any temperature below freezing during July and August.
“It may be said that my observations extended over too great a range of latitude, to be of any value in indicating the temperature any period or any place, as while they were being taken we were constantly moving south. This is true, but it must be remembered that in moving south we were leaving the area of constant sunlight and getting to where night has a cooling effect, so that the objection has not the same weight it would otherwise have.
“The statement given below of the duration of sunlight in the months of May, June, July and August, serves to show that a difference in latitude has not the same effect in changing the summer temperatures of places in high latitudes as it has in more southerly localities. Unfortunately, the records at posts in the district are too few and meagre to either confirm or disprove this theory, and to use the records of such places as Fort Franklin, on Great Bear lake, and Fort Rae, on Great Slave lake, is hardly fair. These points are over three hundred miles apart in an air line, and the temperature at either or both may be influenced by the local conformation of the ground, or other unknown causes. However, taking the records at these places, we have the following comparison: —
“The Fort Franklin data are given in Professor Loomis’s Meteorology, published in 1875. He gives as his authority Dove’s tables in the report of the British Association for 1847. Who the observer was is not stated, but it was probably Franklin. The Fort Rae statistics were furnished by Mr. Carpmael to the Senate committee appointed to inquire into the resources of Mackenzie basin, and cover the same months as those given for Fort Franklin. These statistics, as far as they go, confirm the theory, for the extremes at Fort Franklin differ 16.8°, while at Fort Rae the difference is 33.5°, and the monthly differences at the former place are much less than the latter.[18]
“I have computed the following table which shows comprehensively the different durations of sunlight for the latitudes of Ottawa, Chipewyan, and Forts Simpson, Good Hope and McPherson.
“The number of hours of sunlight in each month has been obtained from the mean of the numbers at the beginning and ending of the month. This does not give a strictly correct result, as the sun’s declination, on which the length of the day depends, does not change uniformly, the daily change in June, when the sun has attained its greatest declination, being small as compared with that of September, when the sun is near the equator. Were the light of each day separately computed, the difference would be even more decidedly in favor of the north. In computing the above table, refraction has not been taken into account except in the case of Fort McPherson. Allowance for refraction would increase the duration of sunlight at all the other places, but much more in the north than in the south. As the table now stands it assigns to Fort McPherson eight hundred and thirty-two hours, or thirty-four and two-third days more sunlight than Ottawa, during a total period of two thousand five hundred and fifty-two hours. A better mode of comparison is to reduce the number of hours of sunlight at each place to days. It stands thus:—Ottawa, seventy-five days, five hours; Chipewyan, eighty-five days, twenty hours; Fort Simpson, eighty-nine days, eleven hours; Fort Good Hope, ninety-nine days, twenty-two hours; Fort McPherson, one hundred and nine days, twenty-one hours, and this out of a total of one hundred and twenty-three days.
Agriculture at Fort Norman.
“At Fort Norman, the Hudson’s Bay Company had a garden planted with turnips, potatoes and other garden produce. I was at that point during the last days of July, at which time potato vines were from six to ten inches long, and didnot promise a good yield. The Roman Catholic mission had two patches, together about an acre in extent, planted with potatoes. The soil here was much better than in the first patch, being a warm clay loam, while in the other it was nearly all decaying vegetable matter, commonly called ‘muck’. The mission potatoes were much stronger in the vines than the Hudson’s Bay Company’s, and, at the time, nearly covered the ground. The Anglican mission had planted a small piece of ground near the river on a sheltered bench below the top of the bank and facing the south. Here the growth was much stronger than at either of the two other places. Some barley had been sown in it, and was well grown, the stalks averaging from two to two and a half feet high, and the heads being long and just beginning to fill. The growth of grass on this flat is luxuriant, and nettles grow as strong and large as any I have seen elsewhere. Near the edge of the woods wild vetches grow as long and vigorous as they do near Edmonton. Everyone complained of the cold, wet weather which prevailed during the summer and much retarded vegetation. The Roman Catholic missionary in charge of the mission here, told me that in twenty years’ residence at the place he did not recollect such a cool, damp, cloudy summer.
At Fort Wrigley.
“At Fort Wrigley some slight attempts had been made at cultivation, but I do not consider them a fair test of the capabilities of the place. When I was there, on August 15, the people were gathering blueberries, then fully ripe and as large and well-flavored as they are in Ontario. Ripe strawberries were found on August 9 ninety miles below this, and a few raspberries soon afterwards. Above Fort Wrigley wild gooseberries and both red and black currants were found in abundance, some of the small islands being literally covered with the bushes. The gooseberries were large and well flavored, and the currants would compare favourably with the same fruit as cultivated in the vicinity of Ottawa, the black currants being especially large and mellow. This was the middle of August, latitude 63°.
One thousand one hundred and fifty Miles Farther North than Ottawa.
“At Fort Simpson the Hudson’s Bay Company has a large plot of ground planted with turnips, potatoes, onions, and other garden produce such as is generally grown without artificial means in Ontario. On August 24, when I visited this place, the growing vegetables looked almost as good as the same kinds seen at the Ottawa market at the same date. Lettuce particularly was very large and fine. There was also a large area of barley, which looked well and promised an abundant return if allowed to ripen. The grain was then full and plump and just beginning to harden, but fears were entertained that a frost might come and spoil it. The people there claimed that the prevailing cool, cloudy weather had retarded its growth, as otherwise it would then be out of danger from frost. This cereal has been grown with success at Fort Simpson for many years. I understood that wheat had been tried, but with indifferent success. The garden altogetherpresented an appearance hardly to be expected at a point eleven hundred and fifty miles farther north than Ottawa. It is situated on an island in the river, and the presence of the large body of water may moderate the climate and account for the fine appearance of the garden. Whether the same fine result can be attained a mile or more away from the river can only be decided by trial. I am strongly of the opinion that it cannot.
“On the high river bank below Fort Providence wild gooseberries and currants were very plentiful, though on the eighth of September they were somewhat over-ripe.
“At Fort Providence the usual garden produce is grown every year and generally turns out well. Barley is also grown with success, but in 1888 it was, as everywhere else in the valley, much retarded by cool weather. Up to my departure from the post, the lowest temperature, exclusive of July 2, was 31.8° on August 29. The mean minimum for the month of August was 43°. When I was at Fort Providence the barley was beginning to change color, and, unless a very severe frost came soon after, would ripen. Wheat has been grown here for many years by the Hudson’s Bay Company, generally being fairly ripe before it is touched by frost and sometimes escaping altogether. The wheat is ground in a small hand mill, and the flour used in the ordinary way by the people of the fort. While there I ground a few pounds of the crop of 1887, and had the flour made into a cake, which, though not quite so good as that made from ‘XXXX’ flour, was palatable, and would probably sustain life as effectually as any other, those using it appearing as well and strong as could be desired. I brought home a sample of this wheat for inspection.
Pea Vines still Green in September.
“At Fort Resolution the Hudson’s Bay Company were growing potatoes, turnips and barley. The first were of good quality and size, but there would be no yield of the last. The Anglican missionary also had a garden in which were potatoes, cabbage, cauliflowers, turnips, onions and peas, the latter still green on September 21. The potatoes and cauliflowers were both good in size and flavor. I was informed that small potatoes were grown in a garden at Fort Rae, situated on a long arm of Great Slave lake, but, according to report, there is not much land around the lake available for farming, even were the climate suitable, as it is nearly all rock. At Fort Smith nothing of importance from an agricultural point of view had been done, and the autumn frosts were very severe.
“In conclusion, I may say that I do not wish to be understood as representing this country as suitable for agricultural operations, as I do not think it is. I have merely presented the results of the attempts which have been made. These results are doubtless much more favorable than might be expected, but how far they would hold good elsewhere than in the immediate vicinity of the river is not known. It is probable that the presence of such a large body of water, with a temperature of about 55°, has a beneficial influence on vegetation.
“Before that part of our territory will be required for settlement, there will be ample time to determine by experiment exactly what it is worth for agriculture.
European Comparisons.
“In looking over the world for countries lying in the same latitude to compare with it, we find Norway extending from latitude 58° to 70° 30′, with an area of one hundred and twenty-three thousand two hundred and six square miles, and a population of one million eight hundred and six thousand nine hundred. Of her territory only about one-thirtieth is under cultivation, one-fourth being covered with forest, and the rest barren mountain land. But as Norway is exposed throughout its whole length to Atlantic ocean, the comparison is hardly apposite. Better suited for comparison is that division of Russia known as Finland, lying between 60° and 70° north latitude, with an area of one hundred and forty-four thousand two hundred and fifty-four square miles, and a population of two million one hundred and forty-two thousand and ninety-three.
“This shows us that we must not regard the district as altogether useless nor despair of its ultimate occupation to at least the same extent as the countries named. When we take into consideration also the adaptability to settlement of Athabaska and Peace river valleys, which are parts of the same great drainage basin, we may look forward with confidence to its ultimate occupation by several millions of inhabitants.”
In the report of his trip in 1891, Mr. Ogilvie gives the following notes on agriculture in Mackenzie valley:—
“Fort Providence was infested with grasshoppers to such an extent that every bit of grain sown there was cut to the ground, nothing but the stubs of the stalks being visible. Wheat has been grown there with varying success for many years, and the fact that in latitude 61° 20′ 38′′ it has been completely devoured by grasshoppers is itself worthy of record.
“At Simpson the garden stuff, although very nice in appearance, was not up to what I saw there in 1888, just at the same time of the year too, though it would compare very favourably with the appearance of those in places ten and fifteen degrees farther south. At that date (August 25 to 28), garden stuff was well advanced, green peas were in use, as were cabbage, potatoes, carrots and other vegetables, all large and well flavoured. The barley sown was short and stunted looking from drought, but of fair quality.
“In 1888 the Company’s officer in charge planted ash-leaved maples sent in from Manitoba to see how they would stand the climate, eleven degrees farther north than their native home. Last year they were quite large and seemed to flourish as well as they would have done in their native soil. Many head of cattle were kept here, which seem to thrive as well as they would anywhere else in our country. The hay for their winter subsistence is cut on the hills south of the fort.
At Liard in 1891.
“At Fort Liard the same drought seems to have prevailed, and prevented the usual development of what was planted. At the date (September 4) of my arrival, the barley had been harvested some days, and though the strawwas short the grain was plump and hard and of fair yield. Potatoes were of good size and of fair quality. Wheat had often been grown here successfully, but as it can only be used whole, it is considered better to grow barley, which can be, and is, used as cattle food. Cattle are kept here, and seem to thrive as well as they do in other places of the country. At this post the soil is a rich, black loamy clay, and the surface is thickly wooded all around. As seen from the high ground on the opposite side of the river, the country to the south and east appears undulating, rising into extensive ridges all heavily wooded. This condition is said to continue through to Hay river. In the valley are many lakes, some of considerable extent, and many large swamps. I could not learn anything of the character of the soil, but it is fair to assume from the general character of the woods, that it is of fair quality.
“While at this fort I examined the daily journal of events kept at every post, for the purpose of getting some information as to the times of the general run of farming events, opening or closing of the river, or any other fact of agricultural, meteorological, or general interest. I will here make a few explanatory remarks with regard to these journals. It is a standing rule in the Company’s service that a journal of daily events be kept at every post, but each officer seems to have a different idea of what a daily journal even is, and there seems to be a want of continuity, so to speak, in the records when there is a change of writers or officers, some officers aiming at making it what it was intended or ought to be, a chronicle which could at any time hereafter be consulted with confidence regarding historical, meteorological and agricultural events in particular, and information generally. Unfortunately, many seem to have considered it an unpleasant duty, and put it off from day to day, until a long interval had elapsed, then went at it in desperation and made the best record they could from memory, of course often omitting many items of interest and general importance. In many of the journals I have seen there are great gaps, the officer at the place being absent on a journey, or sick or otherwise unable to write the journal at the post.
Notes from Liard Journals.
The journals at Liard gave me the following dates and facts:—
1878. Planted seed May 9; reaped barley, omitted; first ice drifting in the river, October 18; ice set in river, October 29.1879. Planted seed April 22; reaped barley August 14; first ice in river October 15; ice set fast November 7.1880. Planted seed May 7; reaped barley August 14; first ice in river October 25; ice set fast November 9.1881. Planted seed May 5; reaped barley August 12; first ice in river October 10; ice set fast November 13.1882. Planted seed May 9; reaped barley August 22; first ice in river October 16; ice set fast November 7.1883. Planted seed May 3; reaped barley August 10; first ice in river October 29; ice set fast November 9.1884. Planted seed May 1; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 10; ice set fast October 29.1885. Planted seed May 22; reaped barley August 11; first ice in river October 23; ice set fast, omitted.1886. Planted seed May 7; reaped barley August 19; first ice in river November 9; ice set fast November 20.1887. Planted seed May 3; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 22; ice set fast November 9.1888. Planted seed May 9; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 20; ice set fast November 5.1889. Planted seed April 16; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 28; ice set fast November 14.1890. Planted seed April 30; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 15; ice set fast November 14.Potatoes are generally harvested about September 20. The ice generally breaks up in the river about May 1.
1878. Planted seed May 9; reaped barley, omitted; first ice drifting in the river, October 18; ice set in river, October 29.
1879. Planted seed April 22; reaped barley August 14; first ice in river October 15; ice set fast November 7.
1880. Planted seed May 7; reaped barley August 14; first ice in river October 25; ice set fast November 9.
1881. Planted seed May 5; reaped barley August 12; first ice in river October 10; ice set fast November 13.
1882. Planted seed May 9; reaped barley August 22; first ice in river October 16; ice set fast November 7.
1883. Planted seed May 3; reaped barley August 10; first ice in river October 29; ice set fast November 9.
1884. Planted seed May 1; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 10; ice set fast October 29.
1885. Planted seed May 22; reaped barley August 11; first ice in river October 23; ice set fast, omitted.
1886. Planted seed May 7; reaped barley August 19; first ice in river November 9; ice set fast November 20.
1887. Planted seed May 3; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 22; ice set fast November 9.
1888. Planted seed May 9; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 20; ice set fast November 5.
1889. Planted seed April 16; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 28; ice set fast November 14.
1890. Planted seed April 30; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 15; ice set fast November 14.
Potatoes are generally harvested about September 20. The ice generally breaks up in the river about May 1.
Between the Liard and the Peace.
“On the west side of Liard and East Branch rivers it is not very far to the mountains, consequently the area of land which might be utilized agriculturally is not very extensive on that side. On the east the same character of surface holds I believe from the Liard southward to the Peace watershed, high dry ridges with many intervening swamps and lakes, many of the swamps being very extensive. This is as the Indians and one or two white men who have made journeys into it have said of it. The soil is generally of fair quality, some of it good. On my return from Sikanni Chief river to Peace river I found the same general characteristics, ridges with swamps between. I am afraid the elevation above the sea level along this route (the average reading of the barometer being about 27.00 inches while I was on it) is too high to allow farming in the sense in which we understand it. On the streams flowing into the Peace, there is much prairie, but it is confined mainly to the immediate valleys of the streams; much of it is springy and wet, evidently the water from the adjacent swamps percolating through. The soil is all good, and if the climatic conditions were suitable, a very large percentage of good country would be found in this section. Many of the swamps could be drained as the natural facilities for drainage are good. Although it was in October I passed over it I witnessed no severe frosts, very little ice being visible anywhere, and the flora giving no evidence of having been much injured by the frosts. In the prairies along the creeks, the grasses and plants are generally of as luxuriant growth as in places much farther south and east. The grass was generally long and meadow-like, but as we approached Peace river it became more like true prairie grass, until extensive areas of true prairie were passed over along the tributaries of Peace river.
“The weather for some days previous to my arrival at Nelson (September 15) had been showery and unsettled; this culminated on September 16 in a very heavy rainfall which changed to snow on September 17 and 18. This was damp andstuck to and loaded the trees in the forest to such an extent that the weight broke thousands of them. The snowstorm appears to have been local, as I afterwards learned that it had not extended to Peace river nor more than one hundred miles south from Nelson. The weather cleared on September 19.”
In a communication to the press in 1910, Mr. Ogilvie wrote:—“From Fort Vermilion to Fort Liard on Liard river, where wheat has been successfully grown for more years than many people would credit, is three hundred and ten miles; by trail, say three hundred and fifty. On this stretch just across Peace river Hay river prairies are highly spoken of, and certainly look well from the river. A railway line would probably follow down Black river valley to Liard, and extensive meadows in this valley were reported by natives when I was there in 1891.”
Evidence Before the Late Senate Committee.
The select committee of the Senate of Canada which sat in 1907 devoted considerable attention to the agricultural possibilities of Mackenzie valley. Mr. R. G. McConnell of the Geological Survey was examined before the committee and said he did not happen to be in places where there was any farming going on, but was at Fort Providence in the autumn and wintered there one winter, and ate potatoes, turnips and other vegetables like that all winter that had been grown there. That is north of Great Slave lake. Going down the Mackenzie, Mr. McConnell explained, once you get away from the river flat you get into a rolling country partly with muskeg, with hard ridges between. The only possible part of that country suitable for agriculture, he thought, would be the large flats down Mackenzie river. It is a wide valley, but there is the same thing there: you never know exactly beforehand what is going to happen. Certainly it does not look like a favourable country for agriculture once you get away from the river.
The prairie on Liard river is a little north of the 60th degree of latitude. There is a lot of marsh hay growing around Great Slave lake. It would be good for feeding stock. Along Great Slave lake itself there is a large tract of flat country which may come in some time. Most of the grass Mr. McConnell saw there was a heavy marsh grass. It is not jointed, though there is some of that kind. He remembered seeing patches of it on Hay river.
Asked as to the extent of good agricultural land in the country, Mr. McConnell said it depended on what was called good agricultural country. He knew that at Fort Good Hope, right down on the circle, they can raise good potatoes, because he saw them, and there is no reason why they cannot raise vegetables all the way down the Mackenzie as far north as that. The land on both sides of the river suitable for agriculture does not extend far. There are flats two or three miles wide—bottom flats of the Mackenzie a mile to a mile and a half wide. Once you get up out of the valley the country is rolling and partly muskeg. There is a large tract of that sort of country extending as far north as Fort Good Hope. It is about a thousand miles altogether from Great Slave lake to the sea, and that flat would be six or eight hundred miles in length.
Intense Summer Heat.
Mr. Elihu Stewart (See p.136), describing his trip to the far north before the Senate committee of 1907, said that after leaving Lake Athabaska there is rock along the Athabaska, but there are plains, said to be good land, extending from Slave lake down to Peace river. Below Fort Smith there is a deposit of alluvial soil very similar in appearance and in character to that of the prairie, extending as far as Rocky mountains, below Fort Simpson, and even along the valley then all the way down as far as Mr. Stewart went. It was a surprise to him. Mr. Stewart was at Fort Providence on July 15, 1906. Fort Providence is near Slave lake, on Mackenzie river, in latitude 61·25°. This is nine hundred and seventeen miles by travelled route from Athabaska, but, as near as Mr. Stewart could calculate it, about five hundred and fifty miles farther north than Edmonton. He saw there on July 15 wheat in the milk, potatoes in flower, peas fit for use, tomatoes, turnips, rhubarb, beets, cabbage, onions, and other garden vegetables. The tomatoes were not fully formed, and Mr. Stewart did not think they ripened. They grew them under glass. The strawberries ripen at any time; in fact they had ripe strawberries before that, also raspberries, currants, gooseberries and saskatoons. The wheat that Mr. Stewart saw there was just in milk. He inquired when it was sown, and was told May 20. It seemed incredible, until it was remembered that there is scarcely any darkness during summer there. There were about twenty hours’ sun each day, and the heat was greater for several days than anything Mr. Stewart had ever experienced in Ottawa. Along the lower Athabaska and at Chipewyan, Mr. Stewart and his fellow travellers had it over one hundred in the shade for several days. There was a thermometer on the steamer in the shade. Perhaps the heat was greater on the boat than it would have been ashore. Certainly it was exceedingly hot weather, and continued all night. There was very little night at that time. The hot wave extended down to the Arctic sea as Mr. Stewart ascertained from Indians who had come from Rampart House, near the Alaskan boundary, to meet the steamer, the “Wrigley.” He returned with them instead of coming back with the boat, and they lost two of their dogs from the heat, and that in the Arctic circle. From his observations along the river, that portion of the Mackenzie he travelled through presented a better appearance than Athabaska basin. He did not see much hay around Slave lake. He was not travelling through the country there.
Nine Hundred and Seventy Miles North of Edmonton.
Fort Good Hope, in latitude 66·16°, is nine hundred and seventy miles farther north than Edmonton, yet Mr. Stewart saw cabbages, onions and other garden vegetables growing in the gardens there. Beyond Fort Good Hope the frost is so near the surface of the ground that it is pretty hard to raise anything. At Fort Macpherson, and in that neighbourhood where the portage is crossed, there is frozen soil. The vegetables at Fort Good Hope looked as good as any others. The soil there was very fertile. The fort which is nearest to the mouth of the Mackenzie is “Point Separation.” It is not on the Mackenzie, and was so namedbecause it was there that Sir John Franklin and Doctor Richardson separated on Franklin’s memorable second trip. There were no evidences of vegetation along the river that far north that would lead the witness to conclude that agriculture could be carried on there. As far as Fort Good Hope, on this side of that place, and around Providence the country is a fine one. It is a wooded country.
In Mr. Stewart’s 1906 official report (p. 13) he writes:—“On July 15, the garden at Fort Providence (latitude 61·4°) contained peas fit for use, potatoes in flower, tomatoes, rhubarb, beets, cabbages, onions. Besides vegetables, there were cultivated flowers and fruits such as red currants, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries and saskatoons. But most surprising thing of all was a small field of wheat in the milk, the grain being fully formed.” This was stated to have been sown on May 20 and harvested before July 28, slightly over two months from sowing.
Sit Out all Night and Read.
Mr. H. A. Conroy of the Indian Department (See p.136) informed the Senate committee that he had been down at Fort Providence mission in 1902. The missionaries had a splendid farm about latitude 62·30°, and he saw beautiful crops of wheat, oats, barley and peas. He left there on July 28, and their barley was fit to cut, and they were cutting it. Their oats and wheat would be ready to cut in a day or two from the looks of it, and the priest later told him all their grain was cut without a bit of frost. They have lots of sunlight. One could sit out all night and read. The altitude is low, and you can see the reflection of the sunset and sunrise.
W. F. Bredin, M.L.A., (See p.104) in his evidence before the committee, remarked that the southern shore of Great Slave lake seems to have good agricultural prospects. One notable place there is Hay river. There they raise barley and all the common vegetables. At the mouth of Great Slave river and at the mouths of all the rivers running in there, large quantities of hay grow. In fact there is a very rank growth of grass along all those streams as far north as one likes to go. Where the ground along the river is not covered with trees, grass grows. At Fort Providence, about forty miles down the Mackenzie from Great Slave lake, they raise barley and all the vegetables every year, and some years wheat and oats.
One hundred and seventy miles below, north of Fort Providence, is Fort Simpson, where Liard river comes in. The Hudson’s Bay Company for many years have raised barley and vegetables at that point. In some years they might raise wheat, but not every year. At all those Hudson’s Bay Company’s posts they always raise vegetables. They do not pretend to raise any other grain regularly but barley, because
They Use Barley for Soups.
They pound the hull of it in a hollow piece of wood and use the grain for soups. At Fort Simpson he saw cauliflowers, cabbages and cucumbers growing under exactly the same conditions as they would grow them in northern Alberta. The cucumberswere simply planted in a hotbed, and allowed to remain there protected in the early spring from the frost, and then allowed to grow in the hotbeds, with the sashes off, in the summer time.
One hundred and forty miles north of Fort Simpson is Fort Wrigley (north latitude 63°). That is where Mr. Bredin stated he once wintered. In the spring they put in a garden there. The Hudson’s Bay Company officials plant gardens every year at that point. The spring that Mr. Bredin was there they got their seed potatoes from Fort Good Hope, which is fourteen miles south of the Arctic circle. They went there for seed because they had none, having used up theirs during the winter. Mr. Bredin saw those potatoes. They were a played-out seed, a white-blue variety. They were not the improved potatoes but they were a fair size. They had the same class of potatoes at Hay river, but since that they got in new seed (the Early Rover) from outside, and they grow very much better crops. The season at Wrigley is quite long enough, because the sun shines there during all the growing season. That is the great secret of the growth in that country. There is not much fertile land at Wrigley. Down there Rocky mountains are on both sides of the river, and there is a great deal of muskeg. The garden at Fort Wrigley
Was Originally Muskeg
and covered with moss. As soon as the timber is cut off a muskeg the moss dies, the frost comes out of the ground, and gardens can be cultivated. The trees throw out their leaves in Mackenzie basin about the middle of May, before the ice goes out of the river. The year Mr. Bredin was there the ice went out of the Mackenzie at Fort Wrigley on May 23, and the trees were all out in leaf before that time. On Mackenzie river the trees leaf out almost in a few hours. The quickness with which the leaves appear on the trees in the spring is simply marvellous.
Mr. Bredin was never up Liard valley, but heard a great deal about it at Fort Simpson, and he had seen the journals of the Hudson’s Bay Company that were kept at Fort Liard, two hundred miles up Liard river. From these sources he gathered that they raised all the cereals there, such as wheat, oats and barley, as well as all the vegetables of the commoner varieties.
Mr. Bredin informed the committee that the spring he was at Fort Wrigley the months of March and April were the finest he ever saw. He was there just one spring, and it was as pleasant weather as he ever saw in his native province of Ontario, for those two months, while the winters were no worse than he had seen them in Manitoba. Mackenzie river closed on November 19 that year and there was a little snow then—and it lasted until March. Practically all the snow went off the latter part of March.
Mr. Edward A. Preble of the United States Biological Survey (See p.22), speaking of his trip down the Mackenzie in 1904, states that the country about Fort Providence is level and is mainly grown up to poplars (Populus tremuloides). Back from the river are many muskegs, with their characteristic tamarack and spruce forests. The Roman Catholic mission established is now one of the largest in the north. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s post was established there in 1868, and thepost at Big island was abandoned. Both establishments cultivate large fields of potatoes and the various root crops.
Mr. Preble reports that on June 17, below Fort Norman, a small quantity of snow fell. On June 21, at Fort Good Hope, the leaves on most of the trees were about half grown. On the same date the sun was visible at midnight from a low hill near the post, and many birds were in full song at that hour. For the next three weeks, north of this point, the sun was continually above the horizon. Vegetation now advanced rather faster than Mr. Preble’s rate of travel northward, but was not at its height when he reached the delta of the Mackenzie on June 30.
United States Official Report.
Mr. Preble in his published report (North American Fauna No. 27) presents a map of the Northland, showing the “life zone.” What he calls “the Canadian zone” extends from the southern margin of the map to an irregular line trending in a northwesterly direction from a point about 52·30° north latitude, just south of Hudson bay, to a point about 58·30° north latitude at Rocky mountains. The main irregularity in the course of the northern boundary of this zone is due to a wedge shaped projection into the zone to the north, due to the well known northern trend of the isothermal lines from a point in eastern Saskatchewan. The line from about longitude 150° runs direct across Lake Athabaska, cutting it in half practically, then to the mouth of Slave river on Great Slave lake, thence in a sweep to where the 65th parallel of north latitude strikes the Mackenzie. Thence the line runs back southeast to the Liard, following that stream to the western margin of the map.
North of the “Canadian” zone, the “Hudsonian” zone is represented, its northern limit being an irregular line running northwesterly from north latitude 55·11° on Hudson bay to the delta of the Mackenzie. This zone is represented as extending northward in wedge shaped projections for some distance down the valley of the Dubawnt, down that of the Coppermine, and into the lake country north of Great Bear lake. All of the country north of this is described by Mr. Preble as the “Arctic zone.”
Mr. Preble remarks in his report:—“The northern border of the Canadian zone in the Mackenzie region limits the successful cultivation of barley, potatoes, and the more hardy root crops, although with special care most of them are raised in certain favoured localities in the southern part of the Hudsonian. Even in the Canadian, however, an occasional failure occurs, in the case of the less hardy crops, because of the occurrence of unusually late spring or early autumn frosts. In most parts of Peace river valley, and even in lower Liard valley, wheat is a successful crop. Peas, potatoes, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, cabbages, lettuce and onions are raised with a considerable degree of success as far north as Fort Norman, near latitude 65°, near the northern extremity of the Canadian strip. Nearly all of these meet with a fair amount of success at Fort Rae and also at Fort Good Hope, in the lower Hudsonian, but at Fort Rae the situation is specially favourable as regards slope exposure, and the permanent frost, which remains near the surface in most parts of the Hudsonian,probably retreats to a much lower depth. At Fort Good Hope the almost continuous sunlight of summer probably compensates in part for its extreme northern position.”
The importance of these extracts from Mr. Preble’s report lies in the fact that this is an official report of a trained, scientific explorer who has lived in the north country for months, who has travelled extensively, and whose sole object as a responsible salaried official of a foreign country is to provide indisputable data for scientific study.
An English Traveller’s Testimony.