The Unexploited West: A Compilation of all of the authentic information available at the present time as to the Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions of Northern CanadaChambers, Ernest J.
History
The Unexploited West: A Compilation of all of the authentic information available at the present time as to the Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions of Northern Canada
Chambers, Ernest J.
Canada -- Economic conditions; Northwest, Canadian -- Economic conditions
No other attention is, or has been, given to these animals than to
occasionally send a man out to hunt them up and count them. This is not
so difficult a task as it would seem, as they run in bands; each band
consists of mares and a stallion, who will give fight to the death for
his mares. Each band is known by the name of its stallion, and as each
keeps pretty well in the one locality, it is not so difficult to keep
track of them as it would appear. I saw several bands on my way from
Dunvegan and all were very fat, notwithstanding that the cold winter
weather had set in a month before, and the snow had been a foot deep for
ten or twelve days. ‘Chinook’ winds occasionally visit this part of the
country and carry the snow off; here also they blow from the southwest.
The approach of one is known some little time before it arrives by the
roar it makes. Many people in the country call them the ‘high-winds’
they blow so strongly. They often visit Lesser Slave lake.”
Mr. R. G. McConnell of the Geological Survey, in the report of his visit
to the country, wrote in 1888:—“Vegetables of various kinds are grown
yearly without difficulty, at Fort Vermilion, Lesser Slave lake,
Whitefish lake and Trout lake, while potatoes are grown by the Indians
even on the summit of Birch mountain, at a height of two thousand three
hundred feet above the sea. Wheat and other cereals have been fairly
successful at Lesser Slave lake and at Fort Vermilion, the only places
where they have been tried. The prairie country round Fort Vermilion
equals in fertility the famous Edmonton district and appears to enjoy an
equally good climate, its higher latitude being compensated for by its
more western situation and by its lower elevation. This district is
about one thousand feet above the sea. In the interior, narrow strips of
aspen-covered, but excellent land, are usually found along the main
rivers, and surrounding many of the lakes, and numerous areas, often
EQUAL IN SIZE TO EASTERN COUNTIES,
might be selected, which appear well adapted for cultivation, but the
numerous swamps, muskegs and marshes which separate these areas detract
greatly from their value. The western, and especially the northwestern,
portion of this district contains the most promising agricultural
lands.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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