60 REPORT OF THP: No. 3 



Appendix No. 21 



Extract from report of Speight & vanNostrand's survey of base and meridain 

 lines district of Kenora, 1927. 



General Features 



The area drained through Whitefish River into Lake of the Woods occupies 

 roughly the quadrilateral enclosed by lines drawn from the east of our base 

 line to the respective north and south ends of our meridian, and from those 

 points to our int^ersection with O. L. S. Niven's 7th meridian. The surface 

 throughout the area is broken but the hills for the most part are seldom more than 

 seventy to eighty feet high. Our line crossed, however, a ridge west of Fishhawk 

 Lake, some three hundred feet in height, from which an extensive view of the 

 surrounding country could be obtained and our meridian ended at Niven's 

 base line on the summit of a somewhat similar eminence. Very broken ground 

 was encountered immediately east of Sturgeon Lake. No river, in the usual 

 sense of the word, exists in this area. Drainage is effected through a series of 

 lakes in each major valley. Lake Rowan in the central part of the basin is the 

 largest of the lakes, though Atikwa Lake in the northern part is almost as large. 

 Smaller lakes are almost innumerable. 



About two miles west of O. L. S. Niven's 7th meridian, our line reached 

 the Lake of the Woods, and after crossing Whitefish Bay, was carried across the 

 Aulneau Peninsula. The peninsula is of the same general character as the 

 country to the east consisting of rocky ridges varied here and there by a lake 

 or an occasional spruce swamp. 



Soil 



Little agricultural land was seen, a few small areas near O. L. S. Niven's 

 7th meridian and east of Whitefish Lake being the most promising. Elsewhere 

 the rock, if not exposed was buried for the most part under deposits of boulders, 

 gravel or sand. 



Timber 



The merchantable white and red pine was cut off the lands crossed by our 

 lines many years ago. At Rainmaker Lake we did notice however, some groves 

 of red pine which had not been cut, owing presumably to difificulty in driving the 

 logs. 



At present the Keewatin Lumber Company has several camps for cutting 

 pulpwood and jack pine in the territory adjacent to our lines. The camp 

 headquarters are at the head of Whitefish Bay. The best pulpwood seen from 

 our lines, lies to the east of Atikwa Lake, where there is a stand of mature 

 timber, mostly spruce and jack pine, which should yield a very profitable 

 cordage. South of Lake Rowan the forest is largely poplar and birch about 

 thirty-five years old. Along the base line, most of the timber has been destroyed 

 by fire within the last twenty-five years. On the Aulneau Peninsula fire of 

 more recent date burned over practically all of the part visible from our lines. 

 The fire has been followed by second growth, now about fourteen years old. 

 Numbers of trees not common in New Ontario are found on islands in Lake of 

 the Woods. We noted oak, elm, ironwood, basswood, hawthorn and plum 

 along our line. With the exception of the elm these are, however, quite small 

 and scrubby. 



