The location of ground transecta in relation to inventory dletricts is 
showo on Map ]. Aerial transects are shown on Man 2, A deserintion of 
Inventory Diatricte 1 through 20 is given in the 1943 report. Tewly-sanpled 
dlatricts are deseribed briefly below: 
Tistrict 21 (Usper Nelson} 
According to Harrison (1934), this dietrict contains 17,400 square miles, 
of which 1,440 1a water. Most of it is in the northern coniferous forest belt 
underlaid by pre-cambriao rock. Its topography la fairly level. FPoorly-drained 
miskez ocecuples & major portlon of the area. Solls are mainly peat and muck. 
Black spruce is the dominant tree, with poplar and jack pine on suitable sites. 
Deapite ite many lakes and muskeg ponds, waterfowl populations are uniformly 
Low throughout most of the district. Exceptions are two wideepreada of the 
Nelaon River, Gross Lake and Sipiwiesk Lake, which have mud-bottomed baya pro- 
viding excellent habitat for ducks. Another area having fair numbera of ducke, 
according to Conservation Cfficer Johnson, includes Waskik, Michigan, Lily, and | 
Muningware Lakes. 
Districts 1 through 21, together comrose the 41.7 percent of Manitoha 
which ist claseed by the Forest Service as accessible. The remainder of the 
Province (146,702 square miles} has an estimated T,cve agueare miles of 
permanent water. Most of this ares is muskeg or tundra. Both regions have 
thougands of potholes, ponds and streams as well ae inreée Jakee. The chief 
apparent difference between the muskeg and tundré@ is the presence or absence 
of trees, The National Topographic Series of mane (published in 1°47, and 
based on aerial photographs) shows the treeline as it is reproduced on Map 2, 
which also shows the 1949 coverage in the insecessible perte of Manitoba, The 
firet imprercion of this huge chunk of country between the Nelson River and 
Northwest Territories was that it is the lend of the barrea-ground caribou, 
not of waterfowl. Along Fudeon Bay were several large concentrations of ducke 
and geese, but where they nested is as yet undetermined. Inland, mile after 
mile# wes flown over hundreds cf water areas on which no duck could hide from 
view, without fighting more than a few widely-scattered individuals and with- 
out seeing any broods. Much exploratory work remains to be done in northern 
fanitoba, but present indications are that it it a wise policy to centralize 
the waterfow] eurvey in the future, ae in the past, around the smaller part 
of Manitcba south of 54° north latitude. 
Teta Collected, and srief Discugsion 
It is #stimated thst duck numbers improved approximately 60 percent in 
Manitoba this year ac compared tc last. The basis for this estimate is given 
below. The Inventory Districte lying within the main farm belt have been 
comeidered firet, then the hanitoba lowland, followed by the district includ- 
ing the Sarckatchewan River Delta, and finally the equtheastern-most district. 
Newly-explored arens are treated renarately. 
District L 
Considering all ground and weriel transects together, coverage totaled 
60.75 square miles which ie §.4 percent of the area of the district. Along 
eround trancects, §4 ducks” per square mile were tallied during the early May 
inventory. 
*Total ducke can be converted to total breeding palrs by dividing by 2.06, 
(This conversion figure varies reasonally, and from place to place, depending 
on species composition.) 
ck 
