Canadian Forestry Journal, September, ipi6 



715 



Observations on a Hudson Bay Trip 



That some of the territory border- 

 ing Hudson and James Bay has been 

 badly swept by forest fires this year 

 is the word conveyed to the Cana- 

 dian Forestry Journal by l^ieut. 



Chas. McCarthy, Police Magistrate 

 of Elk Lake, Ontario. Lieut. Aic- 

 Carthy recently concluded an enter- 

 prising journey from Cochrane to 

 Hudson Bay in search of recruits. 

 He was highly successful, and 

 brought out fort3^-five. 



The journey to Moose Factory 

 took five days, the return journey 

 eight days. The route followed 

 was along the Ground Hog river, 

 past the junction of the Kapuska- 

 sing. into the Matagami, and thence 

 past the junction of the Missinabie 

 to the Moose River, which carried 

 the party to the Bay. 



Along the Little French river bad 

 fires were visible, and reports of In- 

 dians from other districts seemed 

 to indicate that large areas would 

 be burned over in 1916. Lieut. 

 McCarthy confirms the reports 

 of most other travelers pass- 

 ing along the same, route, that 

 the tree growth is heaviest at the 

 edges of rivers. Examination of 

 the interior of the country from tree 

 trops and high land showed no for- 

 ests of large size wood. A report 

 of Explorer La Duke to the effect 

 that beyond the range of vision, 

 some miles back from the rivers, the 

 forests again approached merchant- 

 able size, and that the small growth 

 in the muskeg immediately visible 

 was no indication of what the coun- 

 try held, was admitted by Lieut. 

 ^IcCarthy to be easily possible, as 

 he had not examined the interior. 



The officer mentioned seeing nu- 

 merous evidences of wholesale burn- 

 ing in past years. Fires had done 

 their utmost to clean out the coun- 

 trv for hundreds of miles ,and as the 



country was settled only by three 

 or four thousand Cree Indians, no 

 attempt had been made by any gov- 

 ernment to even educate the natives 

 in guarding against conflagra- 

 tions. The influence of the tribal 

 chiefs would prove of the highest 

 value in fire guarding, said Lieut. 

 McCarthy, and if the present leader 

 of the Crees at Moose Factory, 

 Chief Wemistagoosh, could be 

 placed on an annual honorarium of 

 a few hundred dollars, he could re- 

 duce fire risk better than a staff' of 

 imported rangers. The chief was 

 keenly aware of the great damage 

 done annually to the game haunts 

 bv fires. 



Lumbering Activities. 

 Says the Canadian official Labor 

 Gazette for August : "Most lumber- 

 ing districts reported continued ac- 

 tivity, although in Northern Ontario 

 considerable damage was done to 

 the industry through ruinous forest 

 fires which destroyed timber and 

 sawmills. At Newcastle, N.B., mills 

 were very active and provided a 

 great deal of work for unskilled la- 

 bour. In the St. John district, also, 

 active conditions prevailed. Que- 

 bec reported mills running to capa- 

 city, and on account of a late start 

 owing to high water likely to run 

 on well into the fall. At Three 

 Rivers mills were busy. At Prince 

 Albert, Sask., mills were running 

 day and night and were expected to 

 continue so until freeze-up. Ed- 

 monton reported aji increased de- 

 mand for all classes of finished lum- 

 ber and higher prices. At Fernie, 

 despite the difficulties of fires and 

 floods, the outlook was reported fa- 

 vourable. Post and pole dealers 

 reported the demand keeping up 

 well. New \\'estminster reported 

 mills active, with a good demand for 

 lumber and shinefles." 



