40 TRANSACTIONS. 1906-7. 



their teachers, the sisters of the mission, all lining the bank to 

 welcome the fomider of the school, Sister Ward, from Montreal, 

 who accompanied us this far. This devoted woman first went into 

 that comitry forty years ago, where she was instrumental in 

 organizing several schools during a residence there of over thirty 

 years; and was at this time making a visit of inspection to them, 

 intending to return before the season closed, to the home of her 

 novitiate, the Convent of the Grey Nuns of Montreal. 



A few words may be appropriate here regarding the character 

 and appearance of the country, as we view it from this point. I 

 have mentioned, that the appearance of Fort Providence was 

 suggestive of the parish villages along the St. Lawrence. The 

 river, too, both in its size and clearness of the water, which lasts 

 till we reach the junction of the Liard, the appearance of the banks 

 and the hills beyond are so like what we behold on the lower St. 

 Lawrence, that we could almost fancy we were making a journey 

 between Montreal and Quebec. Another surprise awaits us in 

 the character of the soil, which is a rich alluvial deposit, very 

 similar in quality and appearance to that in the fertile belt of our 

 prairie provinces. 



I am now referring to the land along the river I had not an 

 opportunity of making any exploration inland. It may be that 

 much of the country is covered with muskeg, but notwithstanding 

 this, I am disposed to think that there are considerable areas 

 adapted for agriculture along the Mackenzie between Great Slave 

 lake and Fort Simpson. 



In the garden of the mission at Fort Providence, at the time 

 of our visit, namely, July 15, were found: — potatoes in flower, 

 peas fit for use, tomatoes, rhubarb, beats, cabbage, onions, etc., 

 while of fruits, were red currants, gooseberries, raspberries, saska- 

 toons and ripe strawberries, and more important still hard by 

 was a small field of wheat. The latter, I understood was sown on 

 the twentieth of May and at this date, less than two months after, 

 it was not only headed out, but the grain was fully formed and 

 was in the milk. I learned, subsequently, that on the return of 

 the steamer on the 28th of this month, the grain had been cut. 

 This exceedingly rapid growth seems incredible, and can only be 

 accounted for by the almost constant sunlight and heat, which 

 the latitude of the place affords. This coupled with the moisture, 

 from the frost, deep down in the soil, forces growth with hot-house 

 rapidity. 



