Canadian River

“ The reservoir 109 serves many purposes: flood control, local irrigation, camping and boating facilities, and fishing and water skiing.
The Canadian River has its origin on Raton Mesa and flows southward to Conchas Dam, then turns abruptly eastward. On its way across the High Plains, it cuts into some of the oldest rocks that can be seen on the western edge of the plains, the Dockum Group of Late Triassic age. The best place to view the earth-building processes of this region is where State Highway 120 crosses the gorge of the Canadian River between Wagon Mound and Roy. ”

“ The tense, smooth slant of water at the margin of the American fall is not deep enough to be green. In the sunshine it is a clear amber, and when shadowed, a brown that is darker, yet just as pure. But wherever the Canadian fall is visible its green crest is conspicuous. Far down-stream, nearly two miles away, where the railroad-bridge crosses the gorge, it shows like a little emerald strung on a narrow band of pearl. ”

“ The St Lawrence is far the most important Canadian river from the historic and economic points of view, since it provided the main artery of exploration in early days, and with its canals past rapids and between lakes still serves as a great highway of trade between the interior of the continent and the seaports of Montreal and Quebec. ”

“ These masses had apparently been produced by the evaporation, during the dry season, of the waters of some small lake. The whole country near the mountains abounds in licks, brine springs, and saline efflorescences, but it is in the neighbourhood of the red sand-rock before mentioned, that salt is met with in the greatest abundance and purity. The immediate valley of the Canadian river in the upper part of its course, varies in width from a few rods to three or four miles, but it is almost invariably bounded by precipices of red sand-rock, forming "the river bluffs." ”

“ Canada's arctic belt has shrunk a little each year, and her isothermal lines gone a little farther north. The only limit to growth in the North Country is the nature of the soil. I am not, of course, speaking of the Arctic slope, but I am of the great belt of wild land north of Saskatchewan River. And where the arable land stops, the great fur farm of the world begins—-a fur farm which may change but can never be exhausted. Of course, Canada has a great northern belt of land that is not arable, but in that belt are such precious minerals as were discovered in the Yukon. ”

“ Saskatchewan River here literally widens to seventy miles of swamp, where you can barely find foot room dry soled except in winter, when the marsh turns to iron ice twelve feet thick. Through this swamp country runs a ridge of rock northeasterly to Hudson Bay. Down this ridge run Nelson and Hayes and Churchill Rivers in a succession of rapids and lakes, wild rough barren country, where you can paddle in summer or course by dog-train in winter for four hundred miles without sight of arable land or human dwelling. Along this ridge the railroad runs from the wheat plains. ”

“ All of these rivers are waterways of some importance in their lower course, and are navigated by powerful stern-wheel boats supplying the posts and mining camps of the interior with their requirements. In most cases they reach the coast through deep valleys or profound canyons, and the transcontinental railways find their way beside them, the Canadian Pacific following at first tributaries of the Columbia near its great bend, and afterwards Thompson river and the Fraser; while the Grand Trunk Pacific makes use of the valley of the Skeena and its tributaries. ”

“ Where the Saskatchewan makes a great bend three hundred miles northeast of Prince Albert, it is no longer a river—it is a vast muskeg of countless still amber water channels not twice the width of your canoe and quaking silt islands of sand and goose grass—ideal, hidden and almost impenetrable for small game. ”

“ The time is not far distant when this mighty river will be frozen to the
distance of fully a mile out, and men may skate where Atlantic steamers
sail. At present the river is free, but the frost comes like a thief in
the night, and the wary shipmasters have already gone into winter
quarters. The railway people are also preparing for the too familiar
terrors of the Canadian winter. As we steamed out of Quebec we saw the
snow-ploughs conveniently shunted, ready for use at a moment's notice. ”

“ Mountains, valleys, glacier-bound peaks, domes, spires, and snow-capped pyramids are seen in all directions, brought out in minute detail by the singular clearness of the atmosphere. Tall forests are spread out far, far below our feet, the mammoth trees looking no larger than pen handles, while the river winds like a broad silver belt through the green sward of the valley. Thus the Canadian Pacific Railway passes for hundreds of miles along glacial streams in full sight of the frozen rivers which feed them. ”

“ This canal is situated upon American territory-a fact which gives our friendly cousins the exclusive possession of the great northern basin, and which enabled them at the very outset of the Red River affair to cause annoyance and delay to the Canadian Expedition. Poor Canada! when one looks at you along the immense length of your noble river boundary, how vividly become apparent the evils under which your youth has grown to manhood! ”

“ The men spend the winters in the woods or timber limits, felling the timber, hewing the great logs or drawing them by the aid of horses or oxen to the surface of the frozen rivers, and the summers in “driving” the logs, enclosing them in the booms (logs with ends{184} fastened together by chains to form a barrier or enclosure for the loose floating logs) , and in taking the great rafts down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. Many a river shore in Upper Canada re-echoes the songs of the French-Canadian lumberman or voyageur in the twilight of a summer evening. ”

“ So great, however, is the desire to shorten the time and distance necessary for the transportation of grain from Lake Superior to Montreal that an increasing quantity is taken by water as far as the Lake Huron and Georgian Bay ports, and thence by rail to Montreal. Numerous smaller canals bring Ottawa into connexion with Lake Champlain and the Hudson river via Montreal; by this route the logs and sawn lumber of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick find their destination. It has long been a Canadian ideal to shorten the distance from Lake Superior to the sea. ”

“ Several small rivers, whose banks are very high, and nearly perpendicular, intersect this part of the country, and render travelling an undertaking of difficult and dangerous performance. Horses, in ascending and descending these steep banks, frequently fall, and are sometimes dashed to pieces, in spite of the best exertions of their drivers. From the head of Lake Ontario to the Grand River Ouse, the river takes a western direction, and thence to the township of Woodhouse its inclination is southern, but from Woodhouse to Port Talbot it preserves a south-western course. ”

“ The hand that made us is divine.
“The country in which Lake Erie lies is elevated nearly 300 feet above that which surrounds Ontario. The extensive slope, or mountain, as it is called, which divides the lower country from the upper, is, in many places, nearly perpendicular. It commences on the northern side of Lake Ontario, and runs thence round its north-western point, until it is intersected by the road which leads from York to Amherstburgh. It afterwards pursues an eastern direction, and finally embanks the strait or river of Niagara. ”

“ To-day between Montreal and Quebec are ninety-nine lighted buoys, one hundred and ninety-five can buoys; between Quebec and the Straits, three light ships, eighty gas buoys, one whistling buoy, seventy-five can buoys, four submarine bell ships, and a line of lighthouses. Telegraph lines extend to the outer side of Belle Isle, and hydrographic survey has charted every foot of the river. In spite of these improvements, insurance rates are four to six per cent. for lines to Canada, where they are one and one-half to two and one-half to American ports. ”

“ In these boats, all the merchandise destined for Upper Canada is conveyed; and, fitted out in this style, they depart from La Chine, four or five of them generally forming one party. They quickly arrive in Lake St. Louis, which is formed by the junction of the Ottawa, or Grand River, with the St Lawrence. If the wind happen to blow favourably when they are passing through this lake, they haul up their sails until they arrive at the Cascades, which are about thirty miles from Montreal.
Working a Canoe up a Rapid. ”

“ With respect to the Canadian side, the water is drawn from the river in such a way as not to affect the American falls at all, because the point from which it is drawn is considerably below the level of the water, at the point where the waters separate above Goat Island, and the Waterways Commission and Dr. Clark agree that the taking of 13,000 cubic feet from the Canadian side will not in any way affect or reduce the water going over the American falls. ”

“ The outlet of Lake Ontario is the beginning of the river St. Lawrence; and a little below are the famous rapids of that magnificent current, which make the scene of the Canadian Boat-song.
Lake Erie lies south-west of Lake Ontario, its eastern termination being at Buffalo, and running in a south-westerly course two hundred and fifty miles, in breadth seventy miles; having the most desirable agricultural regions of Upper Canada in the north, and parts of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, on the south. ”

“ The navigation also being very properly left free, the river is constantly covered with numerous canoes, generally hollowed out from the trunks of trees. The boatmen brave the most tempestuous weather; and, though often driven several leagues out of their course, are scarcely ever wrecked. Even in winter, when they must encounter blocks of ice, with which the channel is encumbered, they contrive with ropes and iron-pointed poles to raise their vessels upon the surface of the masses, and drag them along till they find open water on which to launch it. ”

“ As most of the Canadian rivers have waterfalls on their course, they must become of more and more importance as sources of power. The St Lawrence system, for instance, generates many thousand horse-power at Sault Ste Marie, Niagara and the Lachine rapids. All the larger cities of Canada make use of water power in this way, and many new enterprises of the kind are projected in eastern Canada; but the thousands of feet of fall of the rivers in the Rocky Mountain region are still almost untouched, though they will some day find use in manufactures like those of Switzerland. ”

“ My route to New Brunswick from Canada was by the Grand Portage, about thirty-six miles across. The roads, though bad, were better than I expected. On my way I passed through some new settlements on reclaimed swamps, near the Rivière du Loup and crossed two or three high mountains, which form part of the Alleghany chain, lying between New Brunswick and the River St. Lawrence. The greater part of the country here is a complete bed of rocks, and the whole way through the woods offers little encouragement for settlers. ”

“ A single incident will serve to throw some light on the perils and toils that were encountered. At the time of the incident in question, they had crossed the watershed by following the south branch of the Peace River to its source, and were now descending a mad torrent which runs westward, and is tributary to the Fraser River, which latter Mackenzie mistook for the Columbia. ”

“ It is a very pleasant drive along the banks of the Straitened River, or Detroit, close to the water, and occasionally in it, to refresh the horses. The population, chiefly French Canadians and Indians, occupy the roadside in detached farms; the Canadian huts and houses being, as in Lower Canada, invariably whitewashed and planted at short intervals. ”

“ They seem hardly to tinge the whiteness; rather, to float over it as a misty bloom. We are loath to turn our eyes from them, fearing they may never show again. Yet they are as real as the keen emerald of the Horseshoe. [10]
One should walk through the New York State Reservation, which extends for some distance above the commencement of the Rapids, to get a more complete view of the scenery above the Falls, the wooded shores of Goat Island, the swiftly moving waters, the broad river, the beginning of the Canadian Rapids, and the Canadian shore in the distance. ”

“ Canada is the child of the sea. Her infancy was cradled by her waterways; and the life-blood of her youth was drawn from oceans, lakes, and rivers. No other land of equal area has ever been so intimately bound up with the changing fortunes of all its different waters, coast and inland, salt and fresh.
The St Lawrence basin by itself is a thing to marvel at, for its mere stupendous size alone. Its mouth and estuary are both so vast that their salt waters far exceed those of all other river systems put together. ”

“ Even the long winter of the North comes to an end in time, and once again we had open water; the last-bound river was again free from ice, and Jack used to take long swims, but he always came back. Finally the run of salmon struck the river, and I took Jack down to the bight of the sandbars to fly him at bigger game than the trout. He made one or two dives and came ashore empty-mouthed. He saw there were no caresses for Jack, so he tried again. ”

“ The volume of water in the Canada Fall is much greater, however, than that of the American, and the impetus given by the Rapids carries the water over the precipice with great velocity, and it forms a grand curve in the descent, falling clear of the rocky wall into the bed of the river below. The lower strata of this wall being of a loose, shaly character, the action of the spray has hollowed it out, so that between the wall of rock and the descending wall of water, a cavernous space exists, into which the tourist may venture by a rocky and somewhat perilous path from the Canada side. ”