1920-21 DEPAKTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS. 109 



your Department were used by our supply men this summer and they report that 

 they found them substantially correct. As shown on the map there is another 

 route to Whitewater Lake from Outlet Bay on Smoothrock Lake by which it 

 would appear to be easier to get to the end of our line, but was not used by us 

 as we did not move farther north than the south-west bay of Whitewater Lake. 

 Our route strikes the railway at a point about two and one-quarter miles east 

 of Collins Station, the track passing over the last lake on the route, from the 

 end of this lake a portage may be made into Trout Lake, Collins being only a 

 short distance from the west end of this lake. From Gnome Lake, shown on the 

 map to the track, the route appears to be different from that on the map, there 

 are three portages from the track to Gnome Lake which is easily recognized and 

 from this point the route is as shown on the map. There is said to be a route 

 without portages from the south end of Tamarac Lake to the track but we were 

 unable to find it. 



The survey was commenced at the iron post planted at the north-west angle 

 of the Black Sturgeon Timber Limit and run north astronomically ninety-four 

 miles, twenty-four chains and twenty-two links to the south shore of Whitewater 

 Lake, crossing the Canadian National Railway at fifty-eight miles, four chains 

 and ninety-eight and four-tenths links. Observations were taken at sufficient 

 intervals to keep the line within the specified limits. The normal magnetic 

 variation was zero degrees. Iron and wooden posts were planted as directed 

 in the instructions in regard to same. In some cases where it was not found 

 possible to dig pits and make mounds on account of rock and boulders, where an 

 iron post was to be planted, and it did not appear that any better conditions 

 would prevail for a considerable distance, the iron post was set in place but the 

 pits and mounds were omitted, such points are shown in the field notes. 



The soil for the most part is sandy, a very large proportion of the country 

 being a boulder bottom. In the south fifteen miles spruce swamps are the most 

 prominent feature, there is some clay and clay loam land between these swamps 

 but these areas are not large. Through the last twenty-five miles there is con- 

 siderable of the rock and swamp typical of this part of the country. 



Up to the thirty-fifth mile the country passed through is well timbered, 

 spruce being the principal species, a large proportion of the trees are up to 

 twenty-eight inches in diameter. There is also good jack pine in this section 

 although not as plentiful as the spruce, about eighteen inches in diameter is' 

 the limit for this timber. There is a good stand of jack pine about one mile 

 across north and south just north of the Gull River. There is also in this area 

 l)irch up to sixteen inches, poplar to eighteen inches and balsam to eighteen 

 inches, a few scattered white pine were seen on the seventeenth mile. From 

 the thirty-fifth mile north the timber has for the most part been burnt or else 

 is too small to have any value. There are a few spots shown on the timber plan 

 where there is timber of good size, there are also small isolated areas, principally 

 swamps in the stretches shown as burnt which are green. 



The rock formation seen was almost uniformly granite; no minerals were 

 soon. 



No water powers of any magnitude were met with, although the supply men 

 >tate that there is a big fall in the Gull River a few miles west of the line. 



Throughout the .whole line moose were plentiful and in some parts deer 

 lid caribou were seen, the latter notably in the region of Caribou Lake. Fish, 



