THE EXTENSION OF THE PRAIRIES. 



405 



and we have now traced the extent of that vast con- 

 • flagration from Eed Eiver to the South Branch, and over 

 four degrees of latitude. The Eev. Henry Budd states 

 that in the autumn of 1857, north, south-east, and west 

 of the Nepowewin Mission the country appeared to be in 

 a blaze. The immediate banks of Long Creek, with the 

 exception of a narrow strip in the prairie south of the 

 (Ju'appelle, is the only part of the country in which we 

 have not yet recognised traces of last year's fire. The 

 annual extension of the prairie from this cause is very 

 remarkable. The limits of the wooded country are 

 becoming less year by year, and from the almost universal 

 prevalence of small aspen woods it appears that in former 

 times the wooded country extended beyond the Qu'- 

 appelle, or three or four degrees of latitude south of its 

 present limit. It must however be borne in mind that 

 the term wooded country south of the Saskatchewan is 

 applied to a region in which prairie or grassy areas pre- 

 dominate over the parts occupied by young aspen woods. 

 The southern limit of the wooded country is some dis- 

 tance north of the Touchwood Hills range, but there are 

 areas north and south of the Qu'appelle where the re- 

 mains of aspen forests of large dimensions exist, and 

 young forests are in rapid process of formation perhaps 

 soon to be destroyed by fire. 



This lameDtable destruction of forests is a great draw- 

 back to the country, and a serious obstacle to its future 

 progress. It appears to be beyond human power to 

 arrest the annual conflagrations as long as the Indians 

 hold the prairies and plains as their hunting grounds. Their 

 pretexts for " putting out fire" are so numerous, and their 

 characteristic indifference to the results which may follow 

 a conflagration in driving away or destroying the wild 

 animals, so thoroughly a part of their nature, that the 



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