W REPOET OF THE Xo. 3 



The line runs through an entirely unsettled section of Northern Ontario, 

 the only inhabitants being a few Indians who trap in the winter, but who do 

 not appear to travel away from a few main canoe routes during the summer. 

 Some of the local Indians were employed at times on the survey, and their local 

 knowledge of canoe routes and of the country generally was found to be of very 

 great assistance. These Indians were industrious, reliable and above the standard 

 of intelligence that one would naturally expect. 



The agricultural possibilities of the country are practically nil. The land 

 is for the most part rocky and stony, with considerable areas of swamp consisting 

 of a layer of muskeg more or less deep, underlain with sand and boulders resting 

 on the rock beneath. Some fairly prominent ridges of sand and boulders occur, 

 but not so frequently along the southerly .portion of the meridian line as further 

 north. The whole region south of Lake St. Joseph has been swept by fire, appar- 

 ently about the time of the construction of the National Transcontinental Rail- 

 way, and the Thunder Bay Branch of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. This 

 portion of the country is very rough and rocky with numerous lakes of various 

 sizes occupying the depressions between the ridges. About sixty per cent, of 

 the territory seen from the line, south of Lake St. Joseph, has been burnt within 

 ten or twelve years, and the timber destroyed. The economic loss in this respect 

 has been very great, as a large amount of good spruce and jack pine timber has 

 been destroyed. These burnt areas are now growing up with the usual second 

 growth of jack pine, spruce, poplar and white birch characteristic of the country. 

 In places the country is almost impassable on account of the tangled masses of 

 fallen timber, and the work of cutting the line through these sections was exceed- 

 ingly "laborious. The green timber is largely confined to the swamp areas, and in 

 some cases the spruce is of fair quality, but the average is rather small. The 

 best timber seen on the line south of Lake St. Joseph is close to the Sturgeon 

 River, and again north of the large bay extending to the east of Lower Green 

 Grass Lake, near mile 41 ; there being in both cases a fine growth of large jack- 

 pine and spruce. A few small groves of red pine were seen, the largest one 

 being east of the narrows between Green Grass and Lower Green Grass Lakes. 



North of Lake St, Joseph the country is not so rough, there being very few 

 of the rock ridges which are so common farther to the south. The country here 

 is more gently undulating, with low lying morain like ridges of sand and stones, 

 with larger areas of muskeg between. Between miles 65 and 68 there is a pro- 

 minent ridge of sand which has been burnt over, of which large portions are now 

 absolutely bare. Some parts of this appear to consist of a sandy loam that might 

 be productive, but the area is small. A prominent ridge occurs at mile 115. 

 This is one of the highest ridges in the country north of Lake St. Joseph. 

 Another prominent ridge of sand and gravel occurs- north of mile 26 on the base 

 line and extends to the line at mile 27. This ridge is surrounded by a muskeg 

 as far as could be seen, but is fairly lieavily timbered with spruce, birch and 

 jack pine. 



North of Lake St. Joseph there is a much larger area of green timber, than 

 south of the lake, although the average growth is smaller and scrubbier, par- 

 ticularly in the more northerly portions of the country. There is one fairly large 

 burnt area extending from mile 101 to mile 111, and for a considerable distance 

 on either side of the line. This area has been burnt within a year or two. The 

 whole country north of Lake St. Joseph, while largely green, has been burnt over 

 at intervals, and in very few places was timber seen that is over 75 years old. 



