PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. I7 



The Natural Resources of the Country Between Winnipeg and 

 Hudson's Bay: Our Northern Outlet. By Lieut. -Col. T. C. 



SCOBLE. 



(Read December 5, 1896.) 



The area draining into Lake Winnipeg embraces 432,000 square miles, and 

 includes the valleys of the Red, Winnipeg and Nelson Rivers, the overflows of Lakes 

 Dauphin, Manitoba and Winnipegosis, and nineteen tributary rivers. The area of 

 the Red River Valley alone is nearly 42,000 square miles, of which 7,000 square miles 

 afe within the Province of Manitoba, and constitute the home of the famous wheat 

 known to commerce as '" No. i Manitoba hard." The only impediment to navi- 

 gation on the lower Red River is at St. Andrew's Rapids, where there is a fall of 

 about fifteen feet, distributed over ten miles of the river, and this could be easily 

 overcome by dredging. North-western Ontario, being the height of land, drain^ 

 through the Winnipeg River into the lake at its south-eastern extremity, and the 

 Great Saskatchewan, with its 1,513 miles of navigable channels, enters at the north- 

 western extremity. Lake Winnipeg is 270 miles in length and 72 miles in breadth, 

 from east to v/est, at the mouth of the Great Saskatchewan, its area being 9,400 

 square miles, or 2,070 miles larger than Lake Ontario. The precise elevation above 

 sea level, Col. Scoble considers not yet determined, as authorities disagree. The 

 average depth is from 42 to 90 feet, and there are few obstructions to navigation. 



So far only two industries have been developed, those of lumbering and fishing. 

 The spruce lumber cut annually in the Lake Winnipeg district amounts to about ten 

 millions of feet, board measure; value, $170,000. The fisheries in 1894 yielded 

 5,443,780 pounds, valued at $188,014. The Inspector of Fisheries was quoted with 

 regard to the inexhaustible supply of whitefish and sturgeon in these waters. 



The geological formation is Laurentian on the east side and Devonian on the 

 west side of th« lake, showing that' the dividing line between the two systems', is 

 covered by its waters. In some of the islands the two systems are in juxtaposition. 

 On Black Island there is a most valuable deposit of soft brown hematite iron ore, 

 yielding from 44 to 62 per cent, of metallic iron to the ton. Gold and silver are also 

 found on the same island, with several other minerals of economic value. At Berens 

 River and other points red hematite iron ore exists in vast quantities, and gold had 

 been discovered on Bad Throat River and at Pipestone Lake on the Upper Nelson 

 River. Beyond Lake Winnipeg north and eastward the whole country is intersected 

 by lakes and waterways existing in the depressions in the Laurentian formation. 

 The falls and rapids of the Nelson River were described in detail. 



The boat route over which the Hudson Bay Company carried its traffic for over 

 a century was next described, and the curious phenomenon of two rivers, one 

 flowing east and the other flowing west from a narrow height of land only twenty- 

 nine yards in width, was commented upon. Then the lecturer pointed out that the 

 difficulties to be encountered in improving either of the two routes before described 

 ■might be overcome by crossing the height of land to Molson's Lake. By this route 

 out of a distance of 681 1-2 miles from Winnipeg to Hudson Bay, only fifty-seven 

 miles would need any improvement to secure continuous- seven-foot navigation, and 

 of this distance only ten and a half miles would require canalling. Eight dams and 

 thirty-four locks were all he estimated as being necessary in order to overcome the 

 descent. No " locking up " would be required to get over the height of land, and 

 the whole drainage area of the Winnipeg basin could be employed if necessary to 

 develop the system. A mineral belt, similar to that of the upper Lake Superior 

 system, crosses the country, and promises well to explorers. 



