SCIENCE. Supplement. 



FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1885. 



THE CANADIAN PLAINS. 



The name Qu'Appelle, given to the river, 

 charming valley, and village in eastern Assiniboia, 

 long ago settled by half-breeds, and now one of 

 the most productive districts in the north-west, is 

 literally ' Who calls ? ' It is French for an old 

 Cree appellation, Kateepiva, referring to the curious 

 calling or talking noises heard there in winter 

 from beneath the ice. These sounds are most 

 noticeable among the deep coulees near Fort 

 Qu'Appelle, some fifteen miles north of the rail- 

 way station. The Crees had a separate name, 

 however, for the locahty of the Hudson Bay com- 

 pany's ti-ading fort, Kipdyikinik, meaning ' closed 

 gates,' and referring to an aboriginal fish-dam at 

 that point. The word 'Manitoba' (which is not 

 pronounced Manitoba) signifies ' spmt voices,' and 

 was given to the lake by the Indians on account of 

 the remarkable susceptibility to echoes possessed by 

 the flinty cliffs of its largest island, an echo to 

 all aboriginal minds being the mocking answer 

 of some mischievous spirit. 



Just west of Moose Jaw we rise to the top of 

 that great steppe called the Grand Coteau du Mis- 

 souri, which abruptly separates the drainage of 

 that river from the Saskatchewan's. It is a dry 

 plain, resembling more that of Dakota than any 

 thing seen farther east. It is probably true, as has 

 often been explained, that the reason why the 

 whole vaUeys of the Assiniboine, Qu'Appelle, and 

 lower Saskatchewan, are not covered with trees, 

 is, that they were annually burned over by the 

 Indians in signalling to one another, or as an aid 

 in guiding and chasing the buffalo. With the ex- 

 tinction of the bison, and the consequent disap- 

 pearance or concentration of the nomads, forests 

 would re-assert their sway were it not for the new 

 interference of white settlement. 



Upon these more arid uplands, tree-growth is 

 not to be expected, and seems never to have ex- 

 isted. Yet they are by no means as dry, nor as 

 barren, as those within the United States. Agri- 

 culture succeeds without irrigation all the way be- 

 tween Moose Jaw and the foot of the Rockies, 

 though only a few years ago that area was termed 

 a desert. The one drawback is early frost ; but 

 the people are learning how to diminish within 

 a practicable limit the danger from this source. 

 Grant's article in the Century for October, 1885, 



though as a whole inadequate and unsatisfactory, 

 discusses this point pretty weU, and shows (what 

 my own later observation bore out) that the rail- 

 way company's experimental farms produced 

 bountiful crops at intervals all the way from the 

 beginning of the Coteau to the crossing of the 

 South Saskatchewan. The geology of these up- 

 lands, and other physical characteristics, are weU 

 presented by Dawson, Hind, and other explorers, 

 whose reports have been printed by the Canadian 

 or English governments. Our Pacific railroad re- 

 ports hold much information and many pictures 

 as to the Coteau, which is not without its 

 beauty. 



The characteristic feature in the scenery which 

 constantly interrupts the monotony, and marks 

 another distinction from the ' American ' plains, 

 is the great number of lakes. They beghi, as seen 

 from the cars, with the Old Wives' lakes, — ex- 

 tensive bodies of water, into which flow several 

 considerable streams from the Cypress Hills, but 

 which have no outlet. These lakes, like most of 

 those which succeed them, are saline. The people 

 there will tell you that this is due to the potash 

 washed into them after prairie fires. It would be 

 easy to argue this out of existence, and show 

 that their salts are sulphates of sodium and mag- 

 nesium, together with certain chlorides, dissolved 

 out of the marly, cretaceous soil. In many of the 

 smaller lakes the efflorescence of these salts forms 

 a snowy beach, upon which the waters, blue as the 

 sky (or perhaps pale green when the reflection of the 

 azure sky mingles with the yellow bottom shining 

 through), break with a constantly refreshing rip- 

 ple ; and this ghttering strand is itself rimmed by 

 a line of richly red samphu-e, outlined with the 

 vivid emerald of grasses kept fresh by the moisture 

 for a narrow space between the water and the gray 

 plain. Sometimes, late in summer, the salty 

 ponds will partly dry, leaving muddy flats ex- 

 posed, where a close briUiant carpet of ripe sam- 

 phire, maroon in color, will overspread the whi- 

 tened mud ; while, m cases where tlie alkali is 

 excessive, no samphh-e grows, but the drying-up 

 of the lakelet leaves a wide area of gleaming- 

 salt, looking precisely like ice or crusted snow. 



The larger ponds are frequented by hosts of 

 herons, gulls, and wliite pelicans. I have no doubt 

 the last named breed there. The great expanse 

 of sedges, growing in fetid sulphurous mud around 

 its borders, gave the name Rush Lake to one of 

 the largest ponds seen ; but this is very unusual. 



