December, 1918] 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



105 



Madawaska was built both as a colonization road 

 and as a means of transporting freight to the lumber 

 camps. Another highway serving the same pur- 

 poses was opened up through the level ground of 

 the valley bottom as far as Golden lake. 



While the lumbering business was flourishing, the 

 settlement and clearing of land in the neighborhood 

 of Renfrew progressed steadily so that it became a 

 place of some importance as a centre of population. 



The first railway reached Renfrew in 1873, and 

 later on we find the Canadian Pacific railway divert- 

 mg its transcontinental line from the easier route fol- 

 lowing the Ottawa river to a more difficult one, in 

 order to mclude the busmess which the town of 

 Renfrew contributed. 



There is a variety of good farming land in the 

 vicinity of Renfrew. The district to the south, 

 between the Bonnechere and Madawaska rivers has 

 an undulating surface mostly covered with a thick 

 sheet of boulder clay, whose weathered surface fur- 

 nishes excellent soils. West of Renfrew there is a 

 plain two to six miles wide and 12 miles long 

 covered with stoneless marine clay over which the 

 most approved farming machinery can be worked 

 and where there is practically no waste ground 

 (fig. 3). The soils to the north and east in the 

 upland country are lighter in texture but nevertheless 

 support a considerable farming population, on ac- 

 count of the presence of large areas of crystalline 

 limestone underlying the drift. 



Samples of the excellent products raised on the 

 varied agricultural resources of this district form 

 the principal attraction at the annual three days fair 

 held in Renfrew exhibition grounds. 



When the apparently endless forests of pine had 

 disappeared from the Madawaska and Bonnechere 

 valleys the commercial interest hitherto engaged in 

 the timber trade had to adapt itself to changed 

 conditions. 



Flour mills apparently never ceased to operate 

 on the water power at Renfrew from the time it 

 was first used for that purpose. 



Two mills producing woolen goods are also 

 located on the river. A brick and tile plant pro- 

 duces burned clay wares from the marine clay 

 which underlies the greater part of the town. This 

 plant has the advantage of being able to produce 

 buff or red brick owing to the fact that the lower 

 part of the marine clay at this point carries such a 

 high percentage of lime that it overpowers the red 

 coloring tendency of the iron content of the clay 

 and imparts a buff color in the burning process. The 

 greater part of the lime has been leached by weather- 

 ing from the upper part of the clay so that the iron 

 can assert itself in giving the characteristic red color 

 to the burned ware. Tile for draining the nearly 



level marine clay plain west of Renfrew finds a con- 

 siderable market over most of this area. Not a foot 

 of this land need be unproductive if it is properly 

 underdraincd. 



The crystalline limestone in the vicinity of Ren- 

 frew has been quarried for building purposes, the 

 post office being an example of its use in architecture. 

 Its glistening white surface will probably keep fresh 

 for a long time in this situation, but in a large city 

 it would soon become dingy. 



Quite an extensive use of the crystalline limestone 

 is made in the production of quicklime for building 

 purposes, the lime kilns being situated on an outcrop 

 of this rock within the town limits. 



The remarkable mounds of sand, gravel, and 

 boulders and the curious bowl-shaped depressions 

 that accompany them which occur close to the rock 

 escarpment just north of the town are features result- 

 ing from glacial ice drainage channels. The kames, 

 as the gravel mounds are called, furnish abundant 

 supplies of material for concrete construction or 

 road-making and are freely drawn upon for this 

 purpose. 



All the industries so far mentioned have a purely 

 geographical reason for being at Renfrew, as they 

 make use of the local resources for local needs. 



Natural resources such as convenient supplies of 

 material for building purposes, productive land to 

 supply food in abundance, plenty of room for the 

 comfortable housing of labor, together with water 

 powers are geographic advantages which tend to the 

 growth of industries in the region. 



The possession of these resources with the a:d or 

 transportation facilities offered by two lines of rail- 

 way have made it economically possible to establish 

 at Renfrew industries using raw materials like iron 

 and coal which have to be hauled for long distances. 



The power furnished by the Bonnechere river 

 proved in time to be inadequate to the increasing 

 demands made upon it and one of the waterpowers 

 of the Madawaska river was recently developed in 

 order to supply the deficiency as well as provide for 

 future needs in power. The rapids at the outlet of 

 Calabogie lake on the Madawaska river were used 

 for this purpose, the distance between this point 

 and Renfrew being 1 5 miles. 

 DOUGLAS. 



The village of Douglas is on the slope of a low 

 ridge on the north side of the valley of the Bonne- 

 chere, 12 miles west of Renfrew. The river comes 

 close to the foot of this ridge and flows over out- 

 crops of shaly limeslcnes in a series of rapids and 

 falls with a total descent of 27 feet. 



A wide depression tributary to the Bonnechere 

 valley runs northward from Douglas and forms a 

 large part of Bromley township. This depression 



