In his report on the preliminary surveys for the Hudson Bay Railway, John Armstrong, C.E., states:—“Our definite knowledge of minerals is limited to limestone and marble. The limestone occurs in the southern portion of the line a short distance from The Pas, in unlimited quantities favourable for quarrying, and will probably prove the future source of supply for the greater part of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Marble of a very high grade occurs on Marble island in Hudson bay, and is also found of a fair quality at Churchill. Iron ores, gold, silver, galena, mica and other minerals have been discovered by the Geological Survey at various localities on the bay, all of which are fully described in the reports of that department. Various specimens of the precious metals have been shown to our engineers, but their origin was preserved in so much mystery that they could not be treated as evidence of the existence of the metal in that territory, and might have been used with equal effect to demonstrate the richness of a deposit in Colorado or Johannesburg.” CHAPTER V. THE KEEWATIN AREA. (Newest Ontario and Northern Manitoba.) Game, Fur-bearing Animals and Fish. Flocks of Wild Fowl that Obscure the Sky.—Six Species of Seal in Hudson Bay.—Stocked with Animals of Various Kinds.—White Fish Abound in Most of the Lakes and Streams.—Saw Eleven Moose in One Day.—The Commercial Value of the Sturgeon Fisheries.— Future Summer Playgrounds.—Barren Lands Caribou at Churchill. The immense resources of this territory in the matter of fur, fin and feather, are traditional, but the testimony of residents and explorers as to distribution, present conditions, etc., are interesting and important. Doctor Robert Bell, in his 1886 report (See p. 17), says the Indians around Lake St. Joseph “live principally upon fish in summer and rabbits in winter, but these resources are supplemented by geese and ducks in the spring and autumn, and occasionally by larger game, such as caribou and bears at any season. The fishes of the lake comprise whitefish, grey trout, sturgeon, pike, pickerel, yellow-barred perch, grey and red suckers, besides some smaller species. “At seven miles before joining the Attawapiskat, Boulder river falls into a lake three miles long, which the Indians call Sturgeon lake, from the abundance of this fish to be found in it. While in the act of setting our gill net, the evening we camped on its shores, a sturgeon, measuring upwards of five feet in length, was caught in it.” Doctor Bell reports that several lakes abounding in fish are said to occur on the course of Henley river, which flows into the Albany ten miles below the Forks.