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[From The Cinadux Rbcobd of Science, Vol. II., No. 3.]

Our Noeth-West Praikies, their Origin and their

Forests.

;

By A. T. Drummond.

The origin of <iur North-West prairies may be traced to
two causes, one long since removed, the other still operating.
During the pre-glacial and glacial periods, the inequalities
of the surface over vast tracts of the country in our North-
Wcst were tilled up by clays and gravels, and more or less
levelled. These clays were, to some extent, subsequently
re-arranged underwater, and at the same time new material,
chiefly gravels, sands and sandy loam, was deposited. Then
these extensive tj-acts were gradually upheaved above the
level of the water or were left dry by the fall in the water
through the diminution in the sources of supply, or by the
greater facilities aiforded for rapid drainage. There had
been previous upheavals during the drift period, and there
were traces of resulting vegetation. The second cause, then,
or immediately previously, came into play, and consisted in
the annual growth and decay, for long periods of time, of
grasses, sedges and aquatic plants generally, over extensive
areas in the shallower waters and along the shallow lake
margins, each year forming a deposit there on the lake bot-
tom and gradually thus increasing the encroachments of the
land upon the water.

There is strong evidence which seems to point to the fact
that about the close of the drift period, or immediately after
it, when the glaciers, probablj^ were slowly retreating, the
central portions of the continent formed the bed of a vast
fresh watei- inland sea, of which Lakes Winnipeg, Manitoba
and WinnijiOgosis, are now the mere remnants. The outlet
of this sea to the ocean was probably at that time by way of
the Mississipi Valley. Into this sea the glaciers from the

1 11508

146

Canadian Record of Science.

• • •

« • » •

• ♦

• •••

Rocky Mountains and from the country north and east of
the Saskatchewan, perhaps for long periods of time, flowed,
and huge icebergs freighted with boulders, debris and earth
were continuously floated oft' to w^end their way at the will of
windu and currenU. It was not the first time during the drift
pei'iod that this part of the country had been under water.
The resemblance to the Polar Seas of to-day was probably
very striking, except in these points that the icebergs
would be more deeply sunken, for the water was fresh, and
that this inland sea was more vast, covering not merely our
North-West prairies, but extending probably as far south
as Iowa and Illinois. Boulders were thus scattered at ran-
dom over the bottom of the sea hundreds of miles away from
their point of origin. Huge masses were carried enormous
distances. Dr. George Dawson mentions one of the Huro-
nian quartizite, lying near the Waterton River, which mea-
sured forty-two feet long, forty feet broad and twenty feet
high, and which must have come from east of Lake "Winni-
peg or the Red River.

The very uniform nature of the deposits over very great
areas would indicate quiet waters, at least in later periods of
the occurrence of this inland sea, probably ending, as the
land rose, in the creation of vaou marshes, like the existing
great grass swamps at Wostbourne, and on the Boyne River
in Manitoba, but on an immense scale. The successive an-
nual growth and decay of sedges and grasses in these marshes
gave rise to deposits of vegetable loam which have gone on
increasing since the rise of the land to its present level, by
the annual decay of the ordinary prairie grasses, and per-
haps of forest trees. The elevation which took place in the
land was greatest at the Rocky Mountains and the diff'erent
steppes between these mountains and the eastern limits of
the prairie, would seem to indicate different stages or inter-
vals in the elevation dui-ing which the various sandhills and
stretches of sand at the extended edges of these steppes have
been formed. The contraction in the area of this inland
ocean took place from the Rocky Mountains eastward, so
that the present Province of Manitoba east of the Duck,
Riding and Pembina Mountains, is the most recently formed

Our KorthrWest Prairies.

147

as well as the lowest in level. Between the mouth of the
Saskatchewan at Grand Eapids and the Assiniboine Kiver
between Portage la Pj-airie and Winnipeg and thence to the
United States boundary line, there is nf)t ranch dift'erence
in level, as the following heights above the sea indicate :

Lake Winnipeg 710 feet.

St. Martin's Lake 737 "

Lake Manitoba 752 "

River Assiniboine, near Baie St. Paul 766 "

Lake Winnipegosis 770 "

Cedar Lake, near Gi-and Rapids, on the

Saskatchewan 770 "

This comparatively level area occupies a stretch of
country 330 miles in length by an average of 150 miles in
breadth.

Lakes Winuipegosis and Manitoba, and St. Martin's and
Water Hen Lakes, are mere shallow depressions on the sui*-
face of the prairie. The two first named lakes are each
over a hundred miles in length, but increase in depth so
gradually that at the narrows where they nearly unite,
Winuipegosis has only six feet of water at 2,000 feet from
the shore, whilst Lake Manitoba, at a mile from the shore,
shows a depth of only three feet. St. Martin's Lake, again,
has only eight feet, and Water Hen Lake an average of three
feet of water. Lake Winnipeg is deeper, being an average
of forty feet to sixty feet, with a somewhat uniformly level
bottom, but it is relatively very shallow for a lake of its great
extent. Its eastern shores form here the western limits so
far as observable, of the great eozoic rocks, and were also,
no doubt, the eastern shore of the great inland sea.

It has been proposed to lower the level of Lake Manitoba
by removing the obstructions in the channel through which
its waters are conducted by way of St. Martin's Lake to Lake
Winnipeg, and there is no doubt that ij this could be effected
to the extent of only a few feet, large tracts of country
would be reclaimed which around its margin are presently
more or less under water. The southern end of the lake is
now bounded by a narrow sand bank elevated a few feet

148

Canadian Record of SnieTice.

above the water. Inside of this are very considerable tracts
once forming a part of the lake and now more or less sub-
merged, but in which the process of growth and decay of
the grasses and aquatic plants and the resulting annual de-
posit of soil will eventually end in their reclamation from the
watei". This same process is going on in a large tract cov-
ering four or five townships about ten mi les to the westward
of Lake Manitoba, known as the Big Grass Marsh, as well
as in many other places in the province, and will, in coming
years, result in the formation of prairie land with a rich
covering of black vegetable loam.

The County of Essex in Ontario has a considerable ex-
tent of prairie land which was no doubt largely formed
under similar conditions of annual growth and decay, and
which in its origin points to a time when Lakes Erie and
St. Clair, were more intimately connected than they now
are. Long Point, Point Pel^e and Sandusky Harbour, all
on Lake Erie, are illustrations of prairies now in process of
formation. These prairies all have a fresh water origin.
Those south of Montreal, and extending beyond St. Johns
and St. Hyaciathe, are rather of marine origin, dating back
to the Ledaclay period, when the drift clays were re-assorted
under water and added to, and the land then elevated to its
pi'esent level.

Probably contemporaneous with the formation of the
prairies was the creation of the deep valleys of tho Assini-
boine and the Qu'Appelle Rivers. The valley of the Assini-
boine above Brandon has an average depth of towards 200
feet ; that of the Qu'Appelle is somewhat less. Their width
varies from half a mile to a mile. As the waters fell in the
prairie country to the east of Brandon, these rivers, which
appear to have been enormous streams with strong currents,
cut their way into the drift deposits of the upper steppe
gradually downward to the level of the lower steppe below
Brandon. Tho sources of supply for these streams may
have been in part the retreating glaciers, but were more
probably a greater rainfall than now and the general drain-
age of the country through which they ran. This country
must have been in its earlier days covered with grass

Our North- West Prairies.

149

marshes. The smaller river valleys as those of the Souris,
Cut Arm Creek and the Little Saskatchewan have probably
somewhat similar origins. A contributing cause in every
case has however no doubt been the annual spring freshets
which extend into the month of July in the larger rivers,
and which year by year carry dowr with them in their con-
stantly turbid watei'H large quantities of soil to the Red
Rivej'.

A writer in the February number of The Century, speak-
ing of the vast prairies of the valley of the Mississippi and
its tributaiy streams, tells us " This region was not origin-
ally wooded. This is proved not only h^ the story told by
the soil, but by the fact that though it was not without its
woodlands at its settlement, it has no characteristic trees.
All are derived either trom the Appalachian region or from
the west and north, ninety varieties coming from the east
and only nine or ten from the west and north. The great
prairie region has sought all the trees it possesses from ad-
Joining regions." This opinion probably expresses tlie gen-
erally prevailing impression of the relations of foi'est trees
to tlie pi'airies. And yet in regard to our Canadian pi-airies,
whether in the North-west or in Ontario and (Quebec, it is
not altogether correct. The subject is in some respects asso-
ciated with the early history of the pi-airies. Thei-e is no
doubt that when these prairies were in process of foi-mation,
when immense areas were in the condition of marsh in
which tall grasses were the leading feature, and when this
marsh was being gradually changed in its character to dry
l^and by the successive annual growth and decay of these
grasses, circumstances existed which rendered the growth
of forest trees impossible. Great tracts of country are still
in this condition. There are also many areas of great ex-
tent, as on the Pembina branch of the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way, around Gladstone and Westbourne on the Manitoba &
Northwestern Railway, and between Baie St. Paul and Lake
Manitoba, where, during the wet seasons — and these seem
periodically to follow each other for two and three yeai-s in
succession — very extensive tracts of magnificent ])rairie
land, which in other seasons are diy and capable of cultiva-

150

Canadian Record of Science.

tion, are practically under water for moat of the summer
months. Thus trees, which in dry seasons might spring up
in such stretches of country, would during the successive
wet seasons bo gradually killed. Wherever such conditions
have prevailed, whether in far distant or present times,
forests, for the time, could not be expected to appear.

The question however arises whether, once the condition
of dry land was attained, did trees spread over the prairies
as they have elsewhere, andwhether subsequent causes may
not have prevailed in removing them. That certain trees
will freely grow on the prairies is proved by the frequent
bluffs of timber, especially to the north of the Assiniboine
and Qu'Appelle. These bluffs often occur in stretches of
miles in extent and often again are found isolated. North
of the Qu'Appelle they are so frequent as to give the coun-
try a park-like appearance and to render that country very
attractive for settlement. Beyond this point northward
they continue to occur until they finally merge into the true
forest j-egion which in this section extends from Lake Win-
nipeg westward to the sources of the Athabasca River, and
from between these localities northward to the exti'eme
limits of forest growth — including within this are a great
stretches of what should correctly be termed prairie coun-
try. On the prairies proper the prevailing trees are the
poplars, and only in the deep river valleys or skirting the
margins of the lakes and the smaller streams and on the
hills are the other trees of the prairies found in numbers.

It is quite true that the total number of species of trees
in our North-west is limited. Most of the Ontario and Que-
bec species do not range west of Lake Superior or Lake of
the Woods and probably Manitoba, west of the Eed River,
does not include more than sixteen species. Were thei-e,
however, forests in this part of Manitoba as there are in On-
tario and Quebec, this paucity ofspecies would probably not
be so marked. That there has been a time when the pre-
sent prairies of Manitoba and the North-west Territories
have been more or less under wood is extremely probable.
There seems no reason why the true forests should have
extended everywhere northwai-d, often covering, even there,

Our North' West Prairies.

151

what would be otherwise prairie, and should have left the
vast country to the nouth an open, more or less treeless,
plain. The deep valleys of the Assiniboine, Qu'Appelle and
other streams would seem to indicate a greater rainfall to
have at one time prevailed, and ti>is greater rainfall would
result from extended aieas of forest. It is not an argument
against this that the piairies with us can hardly be said to
have any characteristic trees. The vast forests to the north-
ward have none. It is not because trees will not grow, as
bluffs of timber are of frequent occurrence and wherever
tried, hardy trees, when properly protected, readily thrive.
Those who have observed the almost yearly occurrence in
almost every part of the prairie country of great fires, sweep-
ing sometimes over immense btrctches of country, and of
the destructive effects of forewt fires in Ontario and Quebec,
can readily suppose that such fires may have been an im-
portant factor in rendering the prairies largely treeless and
that, aided by the light rainfall and the dry atmosphere,
they have gradually widened the areas originally burned,
until these areas have attained their present extent. The
general flatness of the country and consequent exposure to
winds has contributed much to the rapid accomplishment of
this. In the country bordering the upper reaches of the
Peace and Athabasca Elvers and their tributaries theit ; i-e
at present large sti-etches of prairie land completely sur-
rounded by forest, and which suggest an origin resulting
fj'om forest fires. Prairie fires are almost invu-iably the
result of human agency, so that the present condition of
the prairies probably dates its origin within a compara-
tively recent period. Certainly these prairie fires now
prevent the encroachments of the forest upon the plain,
as otherwise these forests would in the natural order of
things extend themselves westward and southward if
allowed to do so. The same is true of the bluff's or
stretches of timber found growing in frequent places south
of the true forests, though even there the trees are of
relatively moderate size proving that these bluffs are of
comparatively recent or of very slow growth. There can
be no question that as prairie fires cease with the progress

152

Canadian Record of Science.

of cultivation of the land and with the enforcement of pre-
ventive hiWH, the tendency of these Htretchew of timber and
of the true forewts will bo tt) extend thomselveH further over
the prairie. In the meantime, the etfect of the abtienco of
timber is to create a drier climate by diminiwhin^ the rain-
fall, and on account of the general flatnoMw of the prairie by
exposing every object upon it to constant and unbroken,
drying winds. That there is, therefore, a general tendency
of trees to skirt the river banks can be readily understood,
as there they obtain that moister atmosphere which is
absent on the open prairie. Even irj the valleys of such
great streams as the Assiniboine and the Qu'Appelle, trees
are generally found on the southwestern or western sides,
the eastern being frequently bare, and this can only be
accounted for bj'^ the greater protection from drying winds
the western and southern banks have, and therelbro the
greater moisture in the soil there.

Again, or!y in the river valloys, on antl near the lake
mai'gins and on the hills or rising grounds are the forest
trees of the North-west completely represented, and it is
suggestive whether the trees there are not the relics of a
larger forest flora which more or less covered the whole
country. At present the cosmopolitan poplars are the chief
occupants of the plains, their very hardiness, however, con-
stituting them fitting pioneers of new forests some day to
appear.

T cannot help thinking that as the praii-ies become thickly
settled and protective laws are properly enforced, prairie
fires will largely cease and trees will have an oppoi'tunity
to extend their area of growth in ever}"^ direction. Further,
as cultivation increases and a drainage system is more gen-
erally carried out, summer trosts will largely disappear and
the climate become more suitable for forest trees as well as
grain. The extension of the forests will, no doubt, have its
effect in somewhat increasing the rainfall, but will also
afford breaks to the winds which now prevail. The general
effect must be a modification of the climate in some degree,
pi'obably rendering the atmosphere less dry and somewhat
moderating the cold in winter.

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