With regard to natural gas, Mr. Von Hamerstein ventilated a grievance of the backwoods. It seems that an experimental bore-hole at Pelican Portage struck “a very large volume of gas, and the well has never been plugged.” He considered it an actual sin to leave it like that, as “the gas has now been escaping for eleven years.” It is robbing the whole district of gas that might be used in the future. It seems that the Government prospectors who made the well were boring for petroleum. The tremendous flow of natural gas interrupted their work. They left the gas alight, and returned to the spot in the following year, hoping the flow would by that time be exhausted. Instead, they found it still burning; so they went away, and never returned; and during the eleven years that have since elapsed it has continued to burn. Once when Mr. Von Hamerstein went there, the column of flame was 40 feet high; afterwards he found it had been reduced to 18 or 20 feet. He mentioned that he has expended more than £12,000 in “punching holes through the ground.” There is no doubt in his mind that “petroleum will be found all through the country from Athabasca River to the Peace River.” It seems that, in connection with their prospecting, mining and boring operations, Mr. Von Hamerstein’s parties use a good deal of natural gas. “We light our camps with it,” he said, “and do our blacksmith’s work with it, and it comes in very handy.” Mr. Von Hamerstein remarked: “As far as petroleum is concerned, I have all my money put into it, and there is other people’s money in it, and I have to be loyal. As to whether you can get petroleum in merchantable quantities, that is a matter about which I would not care to speak. I have been taking in machinery for about three years. Last year I placed about $50,000 worth of machinery in there. I have not brought it in for ornamental purposes, although it does look nice and homelike.” He explained that there are sulphur beds and springs between McMurray and Lake Athabasca, and on the Clearwater River first-class medicinal springs. “It is a very nice, picturesque country,” this interesting witness added, “and the natives go up there and doctor themselves.” CHAPTER XVII NEW TRANS-CONTINENTAL LINES Often the miner, and sometimes the farmer, enters a territory before trains have superseded the canoe and the ox-wagon; and in our chapter on Northern Alberta we have glanced at the romantic life of a pioneer who, if lacking modern means of access to his market, has a delightfully free hand to tap the overflowing natural resources of the landscape surrounding him. A finer career that, I think, for young and muscular manhood than the daily sitting on a stool in smoky London City. But it is for the adventurous, resourceful, self-contained men who need no companions but their own healthy thoughts.