41

markets of the world. In this region there is said to be about 1,000,000 acres
of actual prairie land and by the summer of 1916 practically all of this had

already been taken up in homesteads, leaving only the partly or wholly wooded '

country for the future homesteader.

In the basin of Athabaska river agricultural communities are growing about
Lesser Slave lake, Athabaska, lac la Biche, and McMurray, all of which except
McMurray are already served by railways. Most of this country is, however, a
forested region, the percentage of prairie being much smaller than in the Peace
River country, consequently development will be much slower. The crops grown
in these localities are mainly vegetables,and the hardier grains, just as in the
Edmonton district. Mixed farming is generally practised throughout the whole
district, but, as in the Peace River country, only a small proportion of the total
available is as yet taken up.

Farming and ranching operations on a small scale are being undertaken by
the Roman Catholic Mission on Salt plain (Plate VI), a few miles west of Fort
Smith. In this region there are several thousand acres of prairie or partly open
country covered with a variety of fodder grasses, making an excellent range
for horses and cattle. It originally formed a part of the range of the wood
buffalo, but is now overrun by the horses of the residents of Fitzgerald and Fort
Smith, which winter out on the plain. The Mission in 1916 had about 100° head
of cattle and a few horses, and ground has been broken on which a variety of
vegetables, barley, and oats have been successfully grown.

CLIMATE

Since the basin of Mackenzie river extends over about 17 degree’ of latitude
its climate is necessarily of such variety that it cannot be discussed satisfactorily
in a general way. The summer climate of the Mackenzie basin, however, is not
so much governed by lat‘tude as the winter climate, for the isotherms for summer
run in a northwesterly direction almost parallel to the length of the basin
indicating a uniformity of temperature in that direction. The 55 degrees summer
isotherm, for example, runs from Kenora on lake of the Woods northwesterly
to the east of lake Winnipeg and thence through the east end of lake Atha-
baska, the middle of Great Slave lake, and the west end of Great Bear lake
to Good Hope on the Arctic circle where it swings west into the mountains.
The isotherms for the year, however, show a closer coincidence with the lines
of latitude and indicate a decrease in temperature with an increase in latitude
This is due not so much to lower extremes of temperature in the northern
latitudes as to a longer period of low temperatures in those regions throughout
the year. The high latitude of, for example, Simpson at the mouth of Liard

river, means a long cold winter and a short but warm summer. It involves also,
however, a great increase in the amount of possible sunshine during the importani

growing period from May 15 to August 15, Compared with Ottawa, Simpson
has an average of three hours more sunlight daily for the summer months, which
means about eighteen days of additional sunshine during the three months when
sunshine is most important.

In general it may be said that any ‘point in the Mackenzie basin has a
milder climate than any corresponding point of the same latitude in northern
Manitoba, Ontario, or Quebec, probably because it is farther removed from
the chilling influence'of the large body of water, frozen for a great part of

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