1912-13 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 139 



to construct this season, as rocky hills and steep pitches had to be cut down and 

 the low places built up with rock. No gravel was available in the district and rock 

 had to be crushed to surface the road with. The old road followed close to the 

 bank of the Winnipeg River in places, or close to the right of way of the railway, 

 where it was dangerous for teams to pass. Over 7,000 cubic yards of crushed rock 

 was required on this road. The rock excavated from the hills was used in the road 

 bed in the valleys. 



The road between the two towns is now completed and will compare favorably 

 with the best macadamized roads in any part of Northern Ontario. The distance 

 from the east branch of the Winnipeg River on the Keewatin branch is 2 6-10 

 miles. At a point on this road about half a mile east of the Keewatin bridge, the 

 trunk road branches to the north-west, crossing Darlington Bay on the long wooden 

 bridge constructed last season by the Colonization Road Department. This bridge 

 is over 600 ft. in length built on piles. From the Kenora and Keewatin Road to 

 the bridge, a good portion of the road had to be built up with stone and surfaced 

 with gravel, and crushed rock. North of the bridge througli the Township of 

 Pellatt the country was found very broken. The road winds through the valleys. 

 In the rocky parts, road material, even soil was difficult to procure and had to be 

 drawn a considerable distance; In other places, where the road passed through 

 sections of good farming land, it was possible to use the grader. The road in 

 places follows a Colonization Road cut out two years ago. This road was straight- 

 ened and where practicable was changed in order to improve the grades. There is 

 now a well graded road for a distance of nearly nine miles beyond the Darlington 

 Bay bridge. There still remains 5^2 miles of this road to be graded. 



The country to the north and north-west of the towns of Kenora and Keewatin, 

 through which the above road passes and extending west to the Manitoba boundary, 

 and north to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, is generally rugged, hilly and 

 rocky, and in part mountainous. Not more than one-fifth of it can ever be con- 

 sidered as fit for cultivation of any kind. The arable land occurs in small tracts 

 varying from a few acres up to a hundred acres, but seldom exceeding a few 

 thousand acres in extent; comprising nowher<^ any important or extensive field for 

 colonization. 



The country has at difl'erent times, in places, been swept by forest fires. There 

 still remain, however, very considerable areas of Jack Pine, Spruce and Tamarac 

 with scattering groves of Red and White Pine. "WTiere the land is free from stone 

 or rock, and except in the Jack Pine plains where the soil is very sandy and 

 gravelly, the soil is a rich clay or clay loam; and vegetables, and all kinds 

 of grain are being produced, and as there are good markets at the towns of 

 Kenora and Keewatin, farming where carried on is very profitable. Heretofore 

 the settler was seldom able to reach these markets except in the winter season when 

 sleighing was good. With the road as now constructed, it will be possible for 

 him to reach a market at all seasons of the A^ear. Later on, this road, which is 

 now within sixteen miles of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, might be extended, 

 as all along the route, small scattered areas of fairly good land are met with. The 

 road might also be extended west to the Manitoba boundary, a distance of about 

 sixteen miles, if it is ever found practicable for the Manitoba Government to con- 

 struct a trunk road east from Winnipeg north of the Canadian Pacific Railway to 

 the Lake of the Woods, one of the finest tourist resorts in the west. 



