1912-13 DEPAETMENT OF LANDS, FOEESTS AND MINES. 87 



ly built and when finished and properly calked will make warm houses. Most of 

 these settlers have cows and chickens and they have most of them put up stacks of 

 hay for the winter; quite an amount of grass grows along the rivers and creeks 

 and in open places along the railway tracks. 



I beg leave to report also that many of these settlers have gardens growing 

 almost any of the more common kind of vegetables, such as potatoes, cabbage, 

 turnips, lettuce, onions, radishes, but on account of the last season being very 

 wet, some of the vegetables were beginning to rot, and did not do as well as if 

 it had been a dry season. The land in this section is nearly all red clay, and clay 

 loam. The country is hilly and there are no large muskegs or marshy land. In 

 places the country is somewhat rocky, the most being west of Lot 55 and south of 

 the Dawson Eoad. There are also a number of small gravel beds extending through 

 the whole section. It is of good quality as can be seen along the Dawson Eoad. 



I took considerable notice of the rocky country and found indications of iron 

 in many places but found no indications of other more valuable minerals. 



The timber throughout this area is nearly all second growth, especially the 

 portions west of the Kaministiquia Eiver where the C.P.E. crosses. Miost of the 

 timber is small and very little of it will be suitable for lumber. The different 

 kinds found in order of their abundance, are jack pine to 12 inches, spruce to 12 

 inches, poplar, balsam, tamarac, white birch, a few white ash. Fire has destroyed 

 a great portion of the timber. Large qantities of jack pine is still standing along 

 the Dawson Eoad west of Lot 50 and could easily be made into cordwood and 

 shipped out from Finmark on the C.P.E., or from the C.N.E. The country is 

 well watered with small streams but the water is not as good as that found east 

 of Port Arthur. 



While engaged in the work I took five astronomical observations and checked 

 the bearings of my lines with the C.P.E., C.N.E. and G.T.P. locations. On ac- 

 count of the season being wet the work was somewhat retarded. We worked nearly 

 every day in the rain, and had the country been wet with swamps and muskegs, we 

 could not have done the work in the same time. The eight iron posts provided by 

 your Department were planted and marked according to your instructions at the 

 lollowing places: S.E. corner. Lot 1, Con. 3. N.E. corner, Lot 11, Con. B. N.E. 

 corner. Lot 8, Con. 2. S.E. corner. Lot 31, 'Con. A. N.W. corner. Lot 22, Con. 

 2. S.W. corner, Lot 22, Con. 2. S.W. corner, Lot 60, Con. A., and at S.W. corner. 

 Lot 70, Con. B. 



Eegarding the old posts and lines of the former survey, I beg leave to say 

 that the only evidence of a former survey I found was a post at the south-east 

 corner of Lot 1, Concession B, and the side line between Lots 45 and 46, Concession 

 A. This line and the line of my survey ran almost parallel for about 20 chains and 

 only a few links apart, but before the end of the concession was reached the two 

 lines crossed. 



Many of the settlers along the Dawson Eoad were working on the railways 

 as section men, and all those whom I had conversation with were quite satisfied 

 to stay with their homesteads. All the buildings erected by the settlers are shown 

 on the plan and field notes. 



Whalen & Co., of Port Arthur, had a tie camp on the Matawin Eiver bank on 

 Lot 38, Concession A, where about one million railroad ties were taken out of the 

 river and shipped to different points east and west. During the progress of the 

 work the company employed about 75 men. 



