Canada To-day and To-morrowCopping, Arthur E. (Arthur Edward)
History
Canada To-day and To-morrow
Copping, Arthur E. (Arthur Edward)
Canada
Mr. Low is not the man to neglect opportunities. “The surrounding
country appears to be fertile,” he noted, “as, in the clearing about the
old Hudson’s Bay Company post, timothy grass grows abundantly and small
fruits ripen early.” On the other hand, no great success had apparently
attended horticultural efforts at the second trappers’ settlement he
visited. “Great difficulty is experienced,” we are told, “in growing a
small crop of potatoes, although the soil is the best in the region.”
Again, “attempts have been made at this place to grow oats, barley, and
wheat, but without success.” The explanation of this unsatisfactory
state of things is detected by the scientific mind, and a valuable hint
to the agricultural world is the result. This particular Hudson’s Bay
post happens to be twelve hundred feet above sea-level—indeed, it
occurs very near the line of greatest elevation running through Quebec
province. “When lands are situated above the thousand-foot level,” Mr.
Low points out, “there is constant danger of summer frosts, though these
would probably be lessened by clearing the lands and breaking the
surface with the plough.” He emphasises his contention by instancing
experiences at the Hudson’s Bay post beside Waswanipi Lake, which is
situated about one hundred and fifty miles away to the south-west. The
climatic conditions are more favourable there because the elevation is
only seven hundred feet above sea-level. At the Waswanipi station, we
learn, “excellent root crops are grown annually, while experiments with
the cultivation of cereals show that oats, barley, and the hardier
varieties of wheat easily ripen.” The Canadian settler, when choosing a
northern homestead, will be well advised to keep this matter of
elevation in mind.
Mr. Low, it will be observed, by no means limits his investigations,
when travelling through a new country, to matters germane to his own
science. “The fisheries of the larger lakes,” reported this broad-minded
geologist, “will undoubtedly be a source of considerable wealth to the
province as soon as a railway provides quick transport.” Speaking from
personal experience, he goes on to say that “the chief food fishes are
lake-trout, brook-trout, pike, pickerel, sturgeon, whitefish, and two
species of sucker.” The sucker is, I believe, also known on the North
American continent as the “stone-roller” and the “red-horse.” No doubt
it is more appetising than it sounds.
Coming now to matters belonging to Mr. Low’s special province, I must
first mention his discovery of an interesting freak of Nature. “Near the
western end of McKenzie Bay,” it seems, “is a low cone of dark, rotten
serpentine, peculiar on account of its magnetic attraction, the compass
pointing to it from all directions within a radius of half a mile.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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