CHAPTER XV.

Stock Raising.

Method of the Chapter-Cypress Hills-General Description, Altitude, Wood, Water, Grass-Value for Summer Pasture-Winter Pasture North of the Hills-Shelter in the Coulées-Plain North of the Hills-Its Description and CharacterBow River and Cypress Hills Compared-Summer Pasture Everywhere-Enumeration of Localities-All Equally Valuable-Ponies can Winter Anywhere-The Reason of This-Prairie Grass real Hay in Winter-Why Canadian Horses Die-How to Remedy This-Mr. Mackenzie's Opinion-Canadian Horses must be Fed-Cattle Succeed Well as they are always Grass Fed-Ponies use the Hoof; Cattle the Nose to Procure their Food in Winter-When Cattle must be Fed-Incidents on the Prairie in Winter-Mr. Selwyn's Testimony-Dr. Dawson's Testimony-Wild Cattle Winter out-Winter Shelter a Necessity-Other Locations as Good as Bow River-Country West of Cypress Hills-Hand Hills as They are Now-Description of the Hills-The "Store "-Country West of Sounding Lake-Tail CreekRemains of Former Fights-Bow River Country-Natural Hay-Country Better Suited for Pasture than Farming-Description of the District-Root Crops easily Raised for Cattle Feed-Winter Storms Never do Harm if Food is Abundant-Sheep Raising-Keeping Hogs, easily Fattened-Animals easily Fattened in the NorthIllustrations of this Fact-Riga Exports Hides and Tallow-Our Plains of same Character as Russian Ones-Food Abundant Everywhere—An Irish Delegate's Views on Stock Raising-Mr. Spence's Opinions Regarding the same Matter-Testimony of Settlers Regarding Cold.

STOCK raising being one of the principal occupations of future settlers in the southwestern part of the territories, I shall introduce the subject by describing the country in detail in that connection. No other place possesses so many advantages as the Cypress Hills, and these I will describe first.

CYPRESS HILLS.

The Cypress Hills may be described as a plateau, or a series of plateaux, extending about 100 miles from east to west. At the eastern end they rise abruptly from the plain to the height of 400 feet, but at the northwestern extremity they were found 2,000 feet above the plain north of Fort Walsh. At the "Head of the Mountain," the

western end of the hills, they are at least 1,500 feet higher than at the eastern end. By the readings of my aneroid they fall off from 1,500 to 2,000 feet in less than ten miles, by going north from any point of the western half of the hills. They are at most twenty-five miles wide at the eastern end, and beyond Fort Walsh they become so narrow that often the plateau is little over a mile in width. On the south, instead of abruptly falling off towards the plain, they gradually merge into it, so that it was only by sending a man fifteen miles to the south that I was sure we were on the southern edge of the hills, thirty miles east of Fort Walsh. The aneroid reading showed an elevation at their base of fifty feet more than the altitude of their eastern end.

The top of the hills may be characterized as a series of plateaux, gradually becoming more elevated as you proceed westward, and the coulées or narrow valleys separating these plateaux becoming correspondingly deeper. These latter are the sources of the streams which flow into the Saskatchewan on the one hand, and into the Missouri on the other. It was no uncommon occurrence to find water less than 100 yards apart in these coulées flowing in opposite directions.

Wood is abundant in all the coulées, which penetrate the hills on the east, north, and west sides, but only west of Fort Walsh that is it found inside the margin of the plateau itself. On the south, as far as my observation extended, wood is scarce, and it is only in the deeper recesses of the hills that any is to be seen. Along the eastern and northern slopes no wood was met with, except poplar of two species, small birch, and ash-leaved maple. On the southeast side, near East End Post, a few coulées were seen filled with fine groves of spruce, and amongst these the usual plants of the cedar-swamp were abundant. Twelve miles west of the eastern end we came on a deep

coulée with many ramifying branches in which we found groves of spruce and poplar, and two fine creeks issuing from the western side of the valley, on each side of a marshy tract, less than 100 yards in extent, and flowing in opposite directions. Every few miles transverse valleys are seen sending their waters in both directions, and these constantly becoming deeper until the last one is reached at Fort Walsh, where the depression is 600 feet below the level of the plateau, and the stream heads to the north of the central or highest land and, therefore, drains the whole of the higher plateau. Cottonwood or Six Mile Coulée, farther east, and Medicine Coulée or Creek, the most northern tributary of the Missouri, do the same. Strong Current Creek drains the northeastern part, and the drainage of the northwestern is carried to the Saskatchewan by Maple Creek, a torrent which carries off the spring floods, but which was wholly without flowing water in August when we were on it. Twenty-five miles east of Fort Walsh spruce and pine (Pinus contorta) become prominent features, the latter always being found along the upper margin of the valley. West of Fort Walsh and near the "Head of the Mountain" this pine forms groves of many acres in extent, the trees ranging from four to twenty-four inches in diameter, those from six to twelve inches being the most abundant. This is the pine known in British Columbia as black or sugar pine, and is of little value for timber, although it is tall and straight.

Water, issuing from the hill sides in the form of brooks or springs, is very abundant and of the best quality, but ponds are scarcely ever met with on the plateau itself. Fish were seen in all the small brooks, but no trout were observed anywhere in the hills. Numerous bones of large fish were seen along the margin of a lake which extends many miles along the southern side of the hills, and which is the head of White Mud River, a tributary of the Milk River.

A careful examination of the flora causes me to conclude that the climate of the Cypress Hills is nowhere suited for the growth of cereals, except that of the eastern end for about twenty miles. The best soil was usually a black or reddish sandy loam, with a mixture of sand or quartzite gravel. Quartzite gravel is a very marked feature in the hills and on the plains extending south from them, and occurs very frequently both to the south and north of Fort Walsh, and also along the secondary slopes on the north side of the hills. All the land where it predominates is useless for agriculture, and makes poor pasture as regards quantity, but is of excellent quality. The southern plain extending from the hills as far as seen is very inferior in every sense, but being very much parched at this time (August 8th) may have appeared worse than it really is. This observation only applies to the tract having good soil, as those covered with gravel are useless.

The plateau west of Fort Walsh is almost a dead level, with generally a very fine soil, but so elevated and exposed to the cold winds from every quarter that the majority of the plants found there were identical with those of the Rocky Mountains, near Morleyville, over 4,000 feet above the sea.

The grasses and other forage plants of the hills were those peculiar to coolness and altitude, but were all highly nutritious, and almost identical with those found on the higher plateaux at Morleyville. In all the valleys and on the rich soils of the higher grounds the grass was tall enough for hay. No better summer pasture is to be found in all the wide North-West than exists on these hills, as the grass is always green, water of the best quality always abundant, and shelter from autumnal and winter storms always at hand. Wood in abundance for both house-building and fuel, and immense quantities of coal, near East End Post and on Medicine Coulée, at the western end, show that the future

of the country in these respects is provided for. The only drawback is the fact that owing to the greenness of the grass when the frost occurs, it becomes useless for winter pasture, even if the snow were not too deep. No person intending to keep cattle should leave out of his calculations the necessity of procuring hay for the winter. In the past, buffalo constantly wintered between the Cypress Hills and the South Saskatchewan, but never on the hills themselves, and from this fact and my own observations while crossing that region, I am under the impression that cattle can winter out north of the hills without food being provided for them. There will be no difficulty as regards storms, as many ravines and coulées with high, exposed hills extend throughout the plains. No wood, however, can be obtained north of the base of the hills. The pasturage of this region is identical with that on Bow River, and the climate seems just as dry, and I was informed that it felt the influence of the winter chinooks to some extent likewise.

The great plain lying north of the Cypress Hills and south of the Saskatchewan and between the two "Elbows" of that river, has a breadth at its widest part of about 80 miles, and from east to west of 140 miles. West of the trail leading from Fort Walsh to Battleford the country is very broken, rising into high hills either separated by coulées, in which there are dry water-courses or regular stream valleys, which connect with the main valley that extends east and west. All the streams coming from the hills to the west send their waters to the Saskatchewan by Maple Creek, a stream at this season with a wide bed but containing very little water. The streams entering the eastern end of the valley collect together and flow north into Island Lake, through a valley about three miles wide, covered with cactus, artemisia and various saline plants The soil of the hills and slopes west of the trail is excellent, but occasionally covered with quartzite gravel. That of the valleys is generally a whiteish clay