That, one would think, is a very valuable clue. Mr. Tyrrell showed me a large specimen of native copper that he had obtained from an Eskimo hunter. This eminent geologist saw gold and copper in rocks near Chesterfield Inlet, and he has “every confidence” that those rocks will produce workable ores. And now I will finally recall the foregoing witnesses, in order that they may say what opinions they formed with reference to the climate of Keewatin. Mr. Low considered “the summer as equal to that of Saskatchewan.” “At Churchill,” said Mr. Dowling, “we had winds from the south-west practically all through the summer, and that made it very warm; but there were two days when the wind came from the north, and people wanted their overcoats at once.” From Mr. McInnes came the statement that “the country averages from four to five degrees in the summer months higher temperature than is found at the same latitude farther west.” Speaking of the arable belt that is two hundred miles wide, Mr. Tyrrell said there is little or no summer frost there. At Nelson, gardening commences, he understood, at the end of May, and frost does not appear until about September 20th. He went on to make the following useful statement: “People must not suppose that vegetation is affected by the isothermal line, which merely connects points that have the same annual mean temperature. As things do not grow in the winter, the winter temperature has nothing to do with farming possibilities. The summer temperature is the only temperature that counts for growth in the northern country. As between two places in different latitudes, you have to take into consideration the length of the day and the amount of sunlight. Where the days have eighteen hours’ sun a plant will grow faster than where the days have only fourteen hours’ sun.” And again: “The large body of water in Hudson Bay and James Bay has an equalising effect on the winter temperature of the surrounding country, tending to make the summers cooler and the winters milder.” And so, I think, the evidence is abundant that, when trains run between Winnipeg and Hudson Bay, one section of the Great North Lands, emerging from the mists of obscurity and misapprehension, will take its place among the most productive and habitable regions of the British Empire. CHAPTER XI EXPERIENCES OF IMMIGRANTS Readers of this book will, I hope, include many persons who think of emigrating to Canada; and fain would I answer the question uppermost in their minds. “What experiences await us there?” they will be anxious to learn.