DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS FOR 1931 93 



the first three weeks of July when we were taking our canoes around and bringing 

 our supplies in. 



We did not see any Indian encampments other than English River Post, 

 which was reported on last year. We saw signs of trappers along the principal 

 creeks and rivers. 



Appendix No. 32 



Extract from the report, Retracing O.L.S. Niven's 1898 Meridian from Mile Post 

 198 to Mile Post 288, District of Cochrane, by E. L. Moore, O.L.S., 1930. 



I left North Bay on the 3rd of July with most of my party, all of whom 

 were experienced men, and arrived in Cochrane that night, where I engaged two 

 more men and continued the journey the next day to Mileage 29.6 on the Temis- 

 kaming and Northern Ontario Railway north of Cochrane, at which point the 

 railway crosses the Jawbone Creek. Fortunately this creek was swollen due to 

 heavy rains of a few days previous, and with considerable difficulty I made my 

 way in relays up this creek with four canoes and all my supplies for the entire 

 trip to a point a short distance east of the meridian that I was to retrace and 

 about three miles south of my starting point, where the creek became useless 

 as a canoe route. From here the route was by way of portages and small lakes 

 to a lake about a mile east of the 200th mile on the meridian and while camped 

 on this lake the survey proper was commenced from the 198th mile post. The 

 main party of the survey usually moved and camped along the line while the 

 heavy supplies and canoes were taken down a creek, the outlet of this lake to the 

 Little Abitibi River, a route which I would not recommend to anyone except 

 in extreme high water. From the Little Abitibi River the canoes and supplies 

 were portaged into Haultain Lake; thence down the Bad River, the outlet of 

 Haultain Lake, a few miles to a portage route into the French River in the 225th 

 mile of the line; thence into this river which was followed to its last crossing of 

 the line in the 268th mile where the party was finally equipped for the last lap 

 of the survey which was without canoe route. After a few days on the line 

 from this point, four of the packers were sent back to take the canoes down the 

 French River to the Moose River, up the Moose River to the Abitibi, and up the 

 Abitibi River to the point where the survey was completed, both parties reaching 

 this point at almost the same time. The return trip was commenced the follow- 

 ing day up the Abitibi River to Blacksmith Rapids, where the extension of the 

 said railway was built about a quarter of a mile west of the river. The extension, 

 however, was not open for public service, but I was able to get a construction 

 train as far as Coral Rapids where there was a regular service south and I arrived 

 in North Bay on September 7th. 



The travelling through this country was very difficult and the load of supplies, 

 particularly during the first part of the trip, was necessarily heavy. The streams 

 are all shallow, swift and stony. The French River which crosses the line four 

 times between 225th and 268th miles is from one hundred to two hundred feet 

 in width, but for the most part is so stony and shallow in low water that it is 

 almost unnavigable with a canoe and it was necessary for the men to wade and 

 pull the canoes through much of it. The Abitibi and Moose Rivers are also 

 very shallow and stony and without a guide who knows the channels travelling 

 on them is treacherous, but I was thankful to have three men with me who were 

 quite at home on these rivers. 



