THE
UNEXPLOITED WEST
A COMPILATION
of all of the authentic information available
at the present time as to the
Natural Resources of the Unexploited Regions
of
NORTHERN CANADA
By
Major ERNEST J. CHAMBERS, Corps of Guides
Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod
Published under the direction of
F. C. C. LYNCH
Superintendent of the Railway Lands Branch
Department of the Interior
Hon. W. J. ROCHE, Minister
OTTAWA
Printed by J. de L. TACHE, Printer to the King’s Most
Excellent Majesty
1914
Department of the Interior,
Ottawa, September 19, 1913.
Honourable W. J. Roche,
Minister of the Interior,
Ottawa.
Sir,—I have the honour to transmit herewith the manuscript of a compilationof all available information on the Unexploited West by Major Ernest J. Chambers,Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. This work, which was undertaken byMajor Chambers under instructions from this Department, is drawn from allknown sources. The information contained herein covers the whole of the unexploitedportions of Canada, west of Hudson bay, and it is intended to fill agrowing demand for complete information regarding this territory.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
F. C. C. Lynch,
Superintendent of Railway Lands.
PREFACE.
The stream of immigration steadily flowing westward in ever-increasingvolume is rapidly exhausting the reserves of vacant land in that part of the Canadianwest which used to be known, to the detriment of the territory farther to thenorth, as “The Fertile Belt.”
Already settlement has overflowed the northern frontier of the “belt ofsupposed limited fertility” and many thousands of acres of agricultural land havebe