North Saskatchewan River

“ This portion of the Saskatchewan is the farthest north reached by the river in its entire course. It here runs for some distance a little north of the 51th parallel of north latitude, and its elevation above the sea is about 1801 feet. During the whole day we journeyed on, the wind still kept dead against us, and at times it was impossible to face its terrible keenness. The dogs began to tire out; the ice cut their feet, and the white surface was often speckled with the crimson icicles that fell from their wounded toes. ”

“ A fertile province, in the eastern and southern portions its surface consists chiefly of plains almost entirely treeless. As the slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the west are reached more trees are found, until in the foot-hills of the mountains bodies of forest timber occur. Trees become more numerous also northward in the province, until in the region north of the North Saskatchewan river forests are again met with. From the southern boundary line for two and a half degrees north the prairie is dry, but of good soil, which grows excellent crops when irrigated. ”

“ It is therefore probable that there never were three happier travellers than Jacques, Harry, and Hamilton, as they shouldered their guns and paddles, shook hands with the inmates of Fort Pitt, and with light steps and lighter hearts launched their canoe, turned their bronzed faces once more to the summer sun, and dipped their paddles again in the rippling waters of the Saskatchewan River. ”

“ Meanwhile Nor'west traders from Montreal and Quebec, English traders from Hudson Bay, have gone up the Saskatchewan far as the Athabasca and the Rockies. What lies beyond? Whither runs this great river from Athabasca Lake? Whence comes the great river from the mountains? Will the river that flows north or the river that comes from the west, either of them lead to the Pacific Coast, where Cook's crews found wealth of sea otter? The lure of the Unknown is the lure of the siren. First you possess it, then it possesses you! ”

“ Red Lake River and the Assiniboina extend the area of “coast” navigable by steamers in the Red River Valley to 900 miles—much more than is enjoyed internally by the United Kingdom and France together. Throughout the districts thus permeated by navigable rivers, rye, oats, barley, potatoes, grass, and wheat, grow as well as they do in Minnesota; and to these wild regions must be added the country along the great north Saskatchewan, and even the region which lies between it and the Rocky Mountains in a northerly direction. ”

“ It was known that vast bodies of fresh water far beyond the basin of the Saskatchewan and the Columbia emptied towards the north. Hearne had revealed the existence of the Great Slave Lake, and the advance of daring fur-traders into the north had brought some knowledge of the great stream called the Peace, which rises far in the mountains of the west, and joins its waters to Lake Athabaska. It was known that this river after issuing from the Athabaska Lake moved onwards, as a new river, in a vast flood towards the north, carrying with it the tribute of uncounted streams. ”

“ I claim, moreover, for this route that it is shorter than any projected line at present under consideration; that it would develope a land as rich, if not richer, than any portion of the Saskatchewan territory; that it altogether avoids the tremendous mountain ranges of Southern British Columbia, and the great gorge of the Frazer River; and, finally, that along the Nacharcole River there will be found a country admirably suited to settlement, and possessing prairie land of a kind nowhere else to be found in British Columbia. ”

“ But Alberta and Saskatchewan have great water-power Water Power and Manufactures too, and Manitoba has more than all three put together.
It is hard for any one to believe, who thinks of the Prairie Provinces as flat, that their streams have “fall” enough to create the tremendous water-power which careful measurement shows them to possess. But look! One of the streams that join to make the Bow River starts at a height of 6,775 feet above sea level. Even from Calgary the water falls 2,150 feet, and from Edmonton 750 feet, to the meeting place of the North and South Saskatchewan ”

“ A tramway of five miles in length was being built by them to avoid the Grand Rapids and connect that navigation with steamers on the River Saskatchewan. On the west side of the lake, a settlement of Icelandic immigrants had been founded, and some other localities were admirably adapted for settlement. Moreover, until the construction of the Pacific Railway west of the city of Winnipeg, the lake and Saskatchewan River are destined to become the principal thoroughfare of communication between Manitoba and the fertile prairies in the west. ”

“ That would make Peace river country about one hundred and fifty miles in width, and extending from the mountains to Peace point, a distance of seven or eight hundred miles, which is all equally good for agricultural purposes with the Saskatchewan valley. That would extend considerably beyond the bottom lands of the river, including also the table land back of the river. A great deal of it is clean prairie, on the north especially. There is more of it covered with scrub and small timber than there is clean prairie, but the soil is equally good where the timber grows. ”

“ Just as the days are at their shortest, a dog sled bearing the winter packet starts from Fort Garry; a man walks behind it, another man some distance in advance of the dogs. It holds its way down the Red River to Lake Winnipeg; in about nine days’ travel it crosses that lake to the north shore at Norway House; from thence, lessened of its packet of letters for the Bay of Hudson and the distant Churchill, it journeys in twenty days’ travel up the Great Saskatchewan River to Carlton House. ”

“ On the 20th November I left Fort Pitt, having exchanged some tired horses for fresher ones, but still keeping the same steed for the saddle, as nothing, better could be procured from the band at the fort. The snow had now almost disappeared from the ground, and a Red River cart was once more taken into use for the baggage. Still keeping along the north shore of the Saskatchewan, we now held our way towards the station of Victoria, a small half-breed settlement situated at the most northerly bend which the Saskatchewan makes in its long course from the mountains to Lake Winnipeg. ”

“ It is a forest country, a spruce covered country, and lies southwest of Hudson bay, west of Nelson river, north of Saskatchewan river, and extends to Mackenzie and Athabaska rivers. It would be about two hundred miles wide from north to south. Witness did not remember the length of it. It is land similar to that of Ontario, and will grow practically everything that will grow in that province, except possibly down in the southern peninsula. The summer is warm. The winter does not count, because things do not grow in winter. ”

“ Many of our horses had been too poor to take upon this journey, and the half-breed whom I had brought from Red River, dreading the exposure of the plains, had taken advantage of the hunter’s camp to desert our service; so another man had been engaged, and, with three fresh horses and an urchin attendant in the shape of a little half-breed, designated by our new man as “l’homme capable,” and for whose services he demanded only the moderate sum of five shillings per diem, we held our course along the South Saskatchewan towards the Great Prairie. ”

“ CONTINUED—THIRTY YEARS OF EXPLORATION—THE ADVANCE UP THE SASKATCHEWAN TO BOW RIVER AND HOWSE PASS—THE BUILDING OF EDMONTON—HOW MACKENZIE CROSSED TO THE PACIFIC.
While fifty or a hundred men yearly ascended Red River as far as Grand Forks, and the Assiniboine as far as Qu’ Appelle, the main forces of the Nor’Westers—the great army of wood-rovers and plain rangers and swelling, blustering bullies and crafty old wolves of the North, and quiet-spoken wintering partners of iron will, who said little and worked like demons—were destined for the valley of the Saskatchewan that led to the Rockies. ”

“ Bredin referred briefly to a trip he made east from Athabaska district during the summer of 1906, when he travelled from McMurray up Clearwater river and thence across to Prince Albert. The land on Clearwater river for one hundred miles, in the bottoms, is very good. It appeared to him, from the river, however, to be very sandy back on the high rocks. He should think there would be a good deal of rock and muskeg. From where he left Clearwater river in to Prince Albert, on the North Saskatchewan, the country was more or less of a sandy nature. ”

“ As fish has always been the staple food of the inhabitants of that part of the province of Saskatchewan north of the river of that name, and the fur trade their only industry, it goes without saying that the country abounds in fish and game. A very few quotations from travellers and explorers is all that is required to give an idea of the species of fish and animals to be found in this region, and of their occurrence. ”

“ The Great Sub-Arctic Forest--The "Forks" of the Saskatchewan--An Iroquois --Fort-à-la-Corne--News from the outside World--All haste for Home--The solitary Wigwam--Joe Miller's Death.
At the "forks" of the Saskatchcwan the traveller to the east enters the Great Sub-Arctic Forest. Let us look for a moment at this region where the earth dwells in the perpetual gloom of the pine-trees. Travelling north from the Saskatchewan River at any portion of its course From Carlton to Edmonton, one enters on the second day's journey this region of the Great Pine Forest. ”

“ Their preparations were soon completed, and they started before us for Fort Ellice, on the Assiniboine.
We found, upon careful inquiry, that it was already too late in the season to attempt crossing the mountains before winter. We therefore decided to travel westward, to some convenient point on the river Saskatchewan, and winter there, in readiness to go forward across the mountains the following summer. We also learnt that several parties of emigrants, about 200 in all, chiefly Canadians, had passed through in the early part of the summer, on their way to British Columbia. ”

“ But this, the Indians assert, takes place in consequence of their excessive fatness, which renders them unable to rise on the wing, and they are thus detained behind, to suffer a miserable death.
In four days we arrived at the Shell River, a small tributary of the Saskatchewan; and here we had all to jump into the stream and assist in helping the heavily-laden carts down the steep bank, and up the opposite slope. The water was cold as ice, and we hardly enjoyed our compulsory bath, but the noonday sun shone warmly, and a rapid walk soon restored the circulation in our benumbed limbs. ”

“ Drawn by H. A. Strong
At a still earlier period, say in the seventies, one who in summer chanced to be on Lake Winnipeg at the mouth of the great Saskatchewan river—which, by countless portages and interlinking lakes, is connected with all the vast water systems of the North—would have [Pg 3] seen the fur traders sweeping down in huge flotillas of canoes and flat-bottomed Mackinaw boats—exultant after running the Grand Rapids, where the waters of the Great Plains converge to a width of some hundred rods and rush nine miles over rocks the size of a house in a furious cataract. ”

“ Once the sole master of the North, the H. B. C. (as it is familiarly called) is reverenced by the Indians and half-breeds as much as, if not more than, the Government established at Ottawa. It has had its forts within the Arctic Circle; it has successfully exploited a country larger than the United States. The Red River Valley, the Saskatchewan Valley, and British Columbia, are now belted by a great railway, and given to the plough; but in the far north life is much the same as it was a hundred years ago. ”

“ Some of its plants are found farther north; but small beds of alluvial are not uncommon along the coast as far north as New Jersey.
The Campestrian province might be considered as one region, but Cooper [3] has divided it into five. The Saskatchewan region, embracing all north of latitude 49°, together with the basin of the Red River of the North, has some spurs of the Canadian region running into it, and consequently some of the Canadian species are found on them and on the adjacent Silurian and other formations. This region has no characteristic trees of its own. ”

“ Inasmuch as the northern branch of the Saskatchewan River is the northern boundary of The Fertile Belt, and therefore any land on the northern bank is not within the territory of which the Company are to have one­twentieth part, it is understood that, in forming the townships abutting on the northern bank, the Company shall be at liberty to take their one-­twentieth of any such townships, giving up to the Canadian dominion an equal quantity of the portion of lands coming to them of townships established on the southern bank. ”

“ 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. ”

“ One can settle a thing, if there’s a dozen in it. You see, Nance, you and Bantry’s got to close out. He’s fixing it up to-night over at Dingan’s Drive, and you can’t go it alone when you quit this place. Now, it’s this way: you can go West with Bantry, or you can go North with me. Away North there’s buffalo and deer, and game aplenty, up along the Saskatchewan, and farther up on the Peace River. It’s going to be all right up there for half a lifetime, and we can have it in our own way yet. There’ll be no smuggling, but there’ll be trading, and land to get ”