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Canadian Forestry Journal, February^ jpi6. 



size of the State of New York, or 

 .about one-fourth larger than the 

 combined areas of Great Britain and 

 Ireland. Unlike the rest of Ontario 

 it faces on the sea, with a shore line 

 on Hudson Bay 600 miles in length. 

 In shape it is roughly triangular, 

 with a greatest length in a north- 

 east and' south-west direction of 630 

 miles, and a greatest width in a 

 north and south direction of 390 

 miles. 



It is inaccessible, except with 

 light canoes, from any of the sou- 

 thern and more settled parts of On- 

 tario, and none of the main lines of 

 travel used by the early fur-traders 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company pas- 

 sed through it, either on their way 

 southward from Moose Factory to 

 the Great Lakes, or westward from 

 York Factory to the plains of the 

 Saskatchewan or the forests of the 

 Athabasca valley. No attempt has 

 yet been made to develop any other 

 industry but the fur trade, and con- 

 sequently, though not at all the 

 most remote, it is one of the least 

 known parts of Canada. 



Population Meagre. 

 It is very sparsely populated, the 

 total number of people in it, accord- 

 ing to the last census, being 3,009, 

 about 9 of whom are white fur trad- 

 ers, while 3,000 are Indians belong- 

 ing to the Cree and Ojibway tribes 

 who live by hunting and fishing, 

 though a few of the more civilized 

 have small gardens in which they 

 grow potatoes. The above popula- 

 tion gives an average of one per- 

 son, man, woman, or child, to every 

 fifty square miles of country. 



Like most of northern Canada, it 

 is a country of slight relief, with 

 ' few prominent hills. The highest 

 land, with an elevation of about 

 1,500 feet above the sea, lies in its 

 south-western portion, in North 

 Latitude 52° and West Longtitude 

 92°, and from this high land as a 

 centre the streams radiate in all di- 

 rections, northward, southward, 

 eastward, and westward, but no 



matter in what direction they start, 

 their waters eventually reach Hud- 

 son Bay. The main rivers, beauti- 

 ful large streams, are as follows 

 with their respective length : Albany 

 610 miles, Attawapiskat 465 miles, 

 Wenisk 400 miles, Severn 420 miles, 

 and English or Winnipeg 330 miles, 

 the latter of which drains a portion ' 

 of the district south-westward into 

 Lake Winnipeg before its waters 

 are carried by the Nelson River in- 

 to Hudson Bav. 



The district naturally divides it- 

 self into two portions, namely a Lit- 

 toral portion, which adjoins Hudson 

 Bay and extends 100 miles or more 

 inland from it, with a total area of 

 60,000 square miles, and an Interior 

 Upland portion, including the high- 

 er land already mentioned, with a 

 total area of 90,000 square miles, or 

 nearly 60,000,000 acres. 



The Interior Upland Country is 

 underlain by old Archean rocks, 

 chiefly red and gray gneissic gran- 

 ites. • Their surface is undulating or 

 lumpy, with few level areas of any 

 considerable extent, but at the same 

 time the crests of the lumps or un- 

 dulations are low and rarely rise in- 

 to hills with heights which would 

 need to be expressed in hundreds of 

 feet. 



Agricultural Soil. 



This rocky Interior Upland may 

 again be divided into two main sub- 

 divisions, a Northern and a South- 

 ern, though sufficient information is 

 not available to determine their re- 

 lative areas. The Northern sub- 

 division comprises that portion 

 which has an average slope north- 

 ward and north-eastward, and is 

 drained into Hudson Bay. On it 

 the underlying granite is mostly 

 covered by a mantle of recent hard- 

 pan or sandy clay containing an 

 abundance of boulders. Doubtless 

 this covering is thinner on the hills 

 than in the valleys, but nevertheless 

 the rocks of the hills are usually 

 hidden, while the deeper depressions 

 in the original rocky surface are 



