DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS FOR 1931 89 



I am thankful to say that I had only one man who met with an accident 

 by cutting himself and this happened in the early part of the work where it 

 was not too difficult to get him out. 



Swamp is the predominant feature of the whole area covered. Along the 

 nine miles of Niven's meridian included in this survey, typical muskeg prevails 

 but north of the Moose River I would not call the country, generally, muskeg, 

 but rather very swampy clay land covered with from one to six feet of black 

 muck. This, however, does not apply to the west boundary of Dunsmore 

 Township where again the country is chiefly muskeg with marked ridges of sand 

 or gravel all running in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction. 



It is rather remarkable that in the whole ninety miles covered by this 

 survey the line did not cross a single lake, rock, ridge nor a hill, except for the 

 ravines of streams. 



There are numerous creeks throughout the country and with very few 

 exceptions they have good currents. 



Owing to the flatness of the land and the blanket of moss and decayed 

 vegetable matter which covers it, the natural run off of the water is very slow 

 and consequently back from the streams the timber which consists of spruce 

 and tamarac is small though in most cases fairly thick. Along the streams, 

 including the smallest, however, timber of good size and quality is plentiful 

 and consists of spruce, poplar, balm of gilead with a few balsam and cedar. The 

 tamarac in this section of the country was not so seriously affected by the blight 

 which killed so much of this timber throughout the country about thirty-two 

 years ago. 



I have much faith in the future of large sections of this country. The 

 land consisting of black muck and clay is fertile and where drainage is afforded 

 it is very productive, and I can see no reason why large areas could not be drained 

 as the streams have plenty of fall. When I reached the Cheepash River on the 

 4th of July, its banks were strewn with wild flowers, consisting of tiger lilies, 

 roses and many other varieties with which I am not familiar. Wild fruits 

 consisting of strawberries, raspberries, black and red currants and gooseberries 

 also grow abundantly in the few places where the ground is exposed to the 

 sunlight. One of the finest patches of wild raspberries I ever saw was encountered 

 in the eighth mile of the west boundary of the Township of Brain. The fact 

 that there is frost in the ground until late in the season and in some places 

 apparently does not come out at all is not due to a lack of heat to melt it but to 

 the almost perfect insulation afforded by the moss. In spite of the frozen ground 

 there was no frost at nights while I was there and the long days were extremely 

 hot. 



Black flies and mosquitoes are naturally bad in a swampy country such as 

 this but the worst pest is the moose fly which very much resembles a honey bee 

 in size and appearance. Fortunately, they disappeared about the middle of 

 July. Another handicap to be contended with was the lack of dry ground to 

 camp on. Night after night it was necessary to build the beds up out of the 

 water with poles. 



No mineral was discovered on this survey, but on the way out I passed 

 through the large gypsum deposit on the Cheepash River and again on the 

 Moose River. I anticipated that the line would cross this deposit and no doubt 

 it did but the gypsum did not appear on the surface. 



Game is not plentiful, in fact, during the first half of the survey scarcely 

 any sign of game was seen. West of the Cheepash River, however, moose were 

 fairly numerous. A few partridge were seen but they were not numerous, owing, 



