Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-16

which will cross the Crank Trunk Pacific
in the neighborhood of Lake Abitibi. 1t
has already laid its tracks for about a
hundred and twenty miles, and it is now
within few miles Of the clay belt. It's
surveyors are working further northward
and they will continue their survey of the
line to James Bay.
Another project is the James Bay rail-
road to run from here, at Sudbury, to
about the same point and a third is the
Algoma Central railway, from the Canadian
500 to Hudsons bay. The Algoma Cen
trail was begun by +. II. Clergue, and Is
now the property of the Lake Superior Cor
porations TN American company which owns
vast properties about Sault Sainte Marie
Canada. The road has already been built
seventy-five miles from the 500. and II has
been graded for about ninety miles. 1t will
eventually cross the clay belt; and like the
other roads to the northward. will give that
region an outlet to the great lakes and to
Hudsons bay
If the clay belt turns out to be as rich
wheat country as is predicted 1t may be
that the wheat will go to Europe via Hud-
sons bay. The distance is much shorter
than by the lakes or further south along
the Atlantic, he chief difficulty being that
the straits which lead into Hudson bay are
open for vessels only about four months in
the year. This might perhaps be remedied
by larger steamers or ice breakers which
could penetrate the ice foes.
Climate.
The Canadians claim that they have as
good a climate as the United States. They
say their winters are not as bad as ours and
that the long, steady cold makes better
wheat and better men. / am told that the
counry grows warmer a hundred miles or
so north of the Great Lakes. The cold in
grasses until you reach the height OF lana
which divides the waters which flow into
the Great Lakes from those which flow INTO
HndSOn'S
ridge, the weather moderates all the way
down to Hudson'S bay.
The clay belt is just beyond the height of
land At midsummer It is as hot there as
In lower Canada or in the United States.
Everything grows faster than in the states,
for the days are fifteen or sixteen hours
long, owing to the high latitude, the sun
rising little after three and setting be-
ween S and 8. Wheat has been grown, L
am told, by the Hudson's Bay Companys
agents about James bay, and the people
here predict that the clay belt Will be one
of the wheat regions Of the future.
In talking the other night with man
who had been through this country, he
spoke of the. immense herds of CARIBOU
which roam there, saying that the existence
of these animals is an evidence or good
land, as they need rich vegetation to sup
port them The caribou are seen in
droves of hundreds and sometimes thou
sands. They have, he says, cut trails across
the country and the droyes are sometimes
so large that you can hear their rush as
they go by your camp at night Moose are
found in great numbers In the forests
farther south. They are browsers rather
than grass eaters, their necks being so
short, that they have to get down on their
knees when they eat grass.
The Ontario government is now planning
to open up the clay belt to settlement. 1t
will give one hundred and sixty acres free
to settlers on certain conditions and they
can buy a hundred and sixty acres more at
so cents an acre. I am told that some
tracts have already been taken, but these
are along the streams which give an outlet
to the south No real colonizing or settling
can be done until the railroads have opened
up the country.
It is different in the Rainy river region
and in the Thunder bay districts. They lie
across the way from Minnesota and are al
ready accessible by the Canadian racine
and the Canadian Northern railroads:
AS to the colonization of the clay belt it
self one should take all the statements con-
corning II with a grain of salt. Much of the
land is probably good, but the cutting OH or
one hundred and sixty acres OF trees 10
make a farm is an enormous undressing,
and without it can be done for the timber
upon 1t the pioneers expected will not
speedily appear.
Vast Areas of Swamps and Rocks.
Much of the country between here and
the height of land is, barring the timber,
not worth ten cents an acre. I rode all
the Canadian Pacific line to Cobalt, on the
Ontario government railway, which has re-
Gently been put through. The road winds
its way in and out among lakes. sloughs
and swamps. The country Is covered win
pine and hardwood, and Is SO cut up by
water that you can go almost all over u
In a canoe Even along the railroad II is
so swampy and boggy that the telegraph
poles have to be propped up. and outside
the swamps 1t is so rocky that deep holes
cannot be made. In such places great pics
of rock are built up about the poles TO
support them.
Some of the country is made up OF hogs
known as muskeg. This Is "a bottomless
swamp covered with a thin coating of vege-
tation, through which one sinks down rs
though in q quickSand, and II not speeauy
rescued is liable to drown Hunters IN
travelling over it have to jump from roof
to root, making their way by means Of the
trees that grow here and there. there IS
said to be much muskeg in the region of
Hudson's bay, and almost everywhere
throughout this north land / am told
1t can be drained, and that, in this case.
country somewhat like that or northwest
ern Ohio. which was once known as the
Black Swamp, may be produced. This
might be possibility in the clay belt, but
1t certainly would not be SO in the region
passed through on account of the rocks.
This great clay belt Is just about on the
roof Of the North American continent. Ii
is near the dividing Of the waters and on
the Hudsonts bay slope. There are seven
are about three hundred miles long. ana
II is well watered throughout. The streams
on this side OF the ridge flow down Into the
great lakes, and little west OF Lake Su-
perior to the Gulf Of Mexico. On the other
side they now Into. Hudeou's oAy - ~