Of
Canada’s

— Explorer's

By CHARLES HALLOCK, M. G. S.

ATED TO THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

OF WASHINGTON, D. C,

WASHINGTON; D. C.:
Gisson Bros., PRINTERS AND BooKBINDERS.
1901,

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Dro ROBERT BEE Ma Deke ReaGasS:

One of
Canada’s
Explorers

By CHARLES HALLOCK, M. G. S.

DEDICATED TO THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

OF WASHINGTON, D. C.

ee ————

WASHINGTON, D. C.?
Gisson Bros., PRINTERS AND BOOKBINDERS.
19OT.

PREEPACE:

The object of this pamphlet is to set before the Geo-
graphic Societies of the Old and New Worlds the compre-
hensive work which has been accomplished. during the past
forty-five years by the indefatigable subject of this sketch,
whose innate modesty has hitherto kept him from exploiting
his own remarkable achievements, which cover well-nigh
one-half of this Northern Continent. /vat justitia.

CoE

WASHINGTON,

february, 1901.

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One of Canada’s Explorers.

By CHARLES (HIALLOCKs My Bas;

Editor Forest and Stream:

For thirty years I have known Dr. Robt Bell, F. R. S., of
the Geological Survey of Canada. To his personal canvass
Forest and Stream is largely indebted for its early prestige
and strength in the New Dominion. This month he is start-
ing out on his forty-third year of continuous field work in
British North America, his destination being the Great Slave
Lake in the Mackenzie River Basin, N. W. T., lat. 63 de-
grees, of which he is to make a topographical and geological
survey. The lake is 300 miles long and 3,o00 miles off,
though now accessible a large part of the way from Ottawa
by rail and steamboat.

Although fifty-seven years of age, and exposed all these
years to the rigors of high latitudes, he writes me that he is in
perfect health and vigor, and able to get about as well as ever.
This fact he attributes to a knowledge of how to take care of
himself. ‘* No matter how tired I am,” he says, ‘‘I see that
I always have a comfortable and dry bed of brush or some
substitute every night. I always dry my clothes, or change
to dry ones, if I can have a change, and do not go without
more meals than I can help.” He has always followed the
simplest methods in his out-of-door life, carrying no impedi-
menta in the shape of camp furniture; his habit being to ‘‘ go
light” and live off the country. Where fish or game was not
to be had, he has subsisted on the plain common food of the

5 ONE OF CANADA’S EXPLORERS.

voyageur, and taken no alcoholic drinks. He is up to all
sorts of expedients in emergencies, and does not believe in
‘‘accidents”’ and misadventures ; and has never had any, be-
cause he knows how to avoid them. Old campaigners of this
ilk never think of exploiting their sufferings and hairbreadth
escapes as evidences of heroism worthy of plaudit. On the
contrary, they would be mortified to admit them. * * *
Quite likely these recitals might impress the home members
of travel clubs, but to my own mind, to glory in what one has
suffered through inexperience or awkwardness would seem to
be about as sensible as to boast how many rod tips a man had
broken in a season on a salmon stream, as evidence of prowess
in handling big fish. * * *

Already the published reports of Dr. Bell alone comprise
more than 1go titles on a great variety of scientific subjects, yet
so quietly and unostentatiously have his duties been performed
that the public is not cognizant of them, nor perhaps ever heard
of him, while plaudits attend the high roller who has com-
passed the earth in eighty days, or perchance outlined a rapid
transit trip to Mars or the moon. Meanwhile, immense geo-
graphical areas have been mapped and charted and districted
and divided into Territories and Provinces and settled, which
had been almost ¢erra ¢ncognita until this indomitable sur-
veyor first set foot on them. And up to present date no abstract
of these researches has ever been published. Modesty or pre-
occupation has intervened, though he has been often im-
portuned. “But at last I have procured from him the sub-
joined enumeration, which reads like Revelation, and for
which I am sure you will congratulate me and your numerous
readers.

Beginning in 1857, as a youth of fifteen, under the late Sir
W. E. Logan, Director of the Geological Survey, he served for
the first three years as assistant to the principal members of the
staff, and has continued as the head of parties in the same work
ever since. Commencing on the east side of the continent, his

ONE OF CANADA'S EXPLORERS. 9

surveys comprise the Gaspé Peninsula from Percé to Rimouski,
and from the St. Lawrence to the Baie des Chaleurs, and
thence to Quebec, the eastern townships, the Saguenay and
Lake St. John region, the north shore of the Gulf of St. Law-
rence, the west coast and the interior of Newfoundland and
parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He has coasted
all around the Labrador peninsula, from the Saguenay, via
Bellisle, its eastern or Atlantic coast, its northern coast, which
forms the south side of Hudson Strait, and its western coast,
which is the east side of Hudson and James’ bays, besides some
of the islands lying far off this coast. Dr. Bell has computed
the area of the Labrador peninsula to be 560,000 square En-
glish statute miles, or considerably more than the combined
areas of Great Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium
and Holland.

In 1897 our friend made a survey of most of the southern
coast of the great [sland of Baffinland, opposite to Greenland,
and which is only exceeded in size by this ice-covered island,
and by Australia—being 1,000 miles in length. Besides sur-
veying its southern coast, he made an exploration of the in-
terior, as far as the large lakes, only one of which had ever
before been seen by a white man.

He has visited some of the large islands at the north end of
Hudson Bay, that great inland sea of our continent, which he
described more than twenty years ago as the Mediterranean of
North Ameriea. He has in different years explored and, in
fact, surveyed the whole east coast of Hudson Bay, except a
few miles in the north part, from the Strait south to the head
of James’ Bay, also parts of the west coast of this inland sea
from Marble Island to Moose Factory, at its southern extrem-
ity. Instrumental, or, in some cases, good track-surveys have
been made by him of the rivers flowing into James Bay from
the southeast, south, southwest and west. ‘The largest of these
is the Noddaway—a bigger stream than the Ottawa, and which
drains an area exceeding that of England. The great west

IO ONE OF CANADA’S EXPLORERS.

branch of the Noddaway had no recognized name, and by
common consent it has been called Bell River, in honor of the
man who first called attention to its existence and made an in-
strumental survey of its entire course. In connection with this
work, he also surveyed a chain of lakes from the Waswanipi
to the Rupert River, and mapped out the whole of this great
region heretofore a blank.

The other principal rivers mentioned as flowing into James’
Bay are the Moose and its larger branches (Mattagami, Missi-
naibi, etc.), the Albany to its source and its branches (Kena-
gami, Kabinakagami, Ogoké, etc.), the Attawapiskat—the next
river north of the Albany, 400 miles long and as large as the
Rhine.

Further north he has done the Hayes, Steel and Hill rivers,
Oxford Lake, Knee Lake, etc , as well as the whole of the Nel-
son—one of the great rivers of the world—which drains the
continent west to the Rocky Mountains, besides some of its
tributary streams, also the Great and Little Churchill rivers.

Coming back to more southern latitudes, his geological
work comprises the Ottawa River from its mouth to its ex-
treme source, including surveys of the Gatineau, the Upper
Ottawa and some of the streams east of Lake Temiscaming,
the Montreal River and the country to the north and south of
it, the country north of Lake Huron to the watershed, Lake
Nipissing and Mattawa River, the French, Spanish, Missisagi
and White rivers to their sources: Blind, Thessalon and Gar-
den rivers, also Lake Temagami, Lady Evelyn and surround-
ing lakes; Temagami and Sturgeon rivers; and all the geo-
graphical as well as geological features in the Sudbury mining
district. He had visited every square mile of the several
islands of the Manitoulin chain before any township surveys
had been made or a single settler had gone there. His purely
geological labors comprise the western or lake peninsula of
Ontario, while on the north side of Lake Superior, besides
the geological work, he surveyed nearly all the rivers, Nipigon

ONE OF CANADA’S EXPLORERS. Wwe

Lake, the uppermost of the Great Lakes of the St. Lawrence ;
Nipigon River, Long Lake and Pic River, and the country
northward of these to the Albany, and most of the thirteen
rivers flowing into Lake Nipigon, together with their lakes.
Westward of Lake Superior he has explored all the wooded
country to the prairies and made the first passably good map
of the Lake of the Woods (published in 1881). In the north-
ern parts these extended operations included Minnietaki Lake,
Lonely Lake (100 miles long), and Lake St. Joseph or Osna-
burgh Lake, nearly as large, the English River and its chain
of lakes, Shoal Lake and Red Lake, and its river. The in-
ternational boundary line was examined geologically from
Lake Superior westward to Lake of the Woods, including
Rainy Lake and River.

A track survey was made of most of the shores of Lake
Winnipeg ; Lake Manitoba and the boat route from it to Lake
Winnipeg were explored, as well as the ‘*‘ mountains” along
the west side of the Winnipeg Basin, and a _ track-survey,
showing the details of the course of Red River from Winni-
peg City to the lake of the same name. Further west the
Assinniboine, Swan and Qu’Appelle rivers were explored, as
well as considerable portions of the North and South Sas-
katchewan, also the prairie region between these streams, and
thence southward to Montana. Two routes were explored
from the North Saskatchewan to Clearwater River, and a
good track-survey made of Lac la Biche and its river to the
Athabasca, as well as of this stream itself all the way to Atha-
basca Lake, and of the waters around its western extremity,
Lac la Loche, Clear Lake and Isle a la Crosse Lake, Beaver
River, Green Lake and the route thence to Prince Albert.

The above enumeration Dr. Bell has put down hastily from
memory, but it does not by any means mention all the geologi-
cal and topographical work which has been personally accom-
plished by him. He is also fairly entitled to credit for addi-
tional work performed under his immediate superintendence

12 ONE OF CANADA’S EXPLORERS.

by field assistants whom he has trained and specially equipped
for each particular survey. Some of these which we recall
are the Megiskun and Waswanipi rivers and connected lakes,
a route south from Lake Mistassini toward Lake St. John,
God’s Lake, Island Lake, various rivers on the east side of
Lake Winnipeg, Pine River from Cross Lake on Nelson River
westward to Moose Lake and the Saskatchewan, and this river
itself, two routes from this stream northward to Reindeer Lake,
this large lake itself; Wollaston Like and route thence to
Athabasca Lake, this lake and the chain of lakes forming the
upper Churchill River, Black Sturgeon Lake and River, Cat
Lake and River. with the connected lakes, the Abitibi River
and numerous other important features in various regions.

Dr. Bell was on all the steamship expeditions sent out by the
Canadian Government to Hudson Straitand Bay. In addition
to his duties as geologist and naturalist, he was medical off-
cer on the Weptune and A/ert expeditions, but on the Deana
expedition of 1897 he was obliged to leave the ship in order to
make his surveys by means of a yacht and boat, so that it be-
came necessary to take out another medical man.

At the close of his field operations in 188o, he sailed by the
Hudson’s Bay Company’s barque Oceax Nymph, from York
Factory, on the west side of the bay, to London, and had a
long and very stormy voyage. He has passed through Hud.
son Strait nine different times, and having studied the naviga-
bility of these waters is considered an authority on this subject.

On account of the length of time he has devoted to the work,
together with the fact that the expenses were defrayed by the
Government, and witha great capacity for physical endurance,
Dr. Bell has been enabled to accomplish a greater amount of
geographical and geological work than any other man in
America, or probably in any other country. As most of this
work was in heretofore unknown regions without many dis-
tinctive names, he has been obliged to give a vast number of
such names asa necessity for the sake of identification and de-

ONE OF CANADA’S EXPLORERS. 13

scription. Mr. George Johnson, the official Dominion statis-
tician, who has paid great attention to this matter, calls him
the principal place-name father of Canada.

More of the above work was done by canoes with Indian
and half-breed voyageurs than by any other method, but the
coasts of Hudson Bay, Lakes Superior, Winnipeg and Mani-
toba were explored by means of boats. His work on the
prairies and plains was all done before treaties had been made
with the Indians, before there were any mounted police, and
before the international boundary line was run—when horse-
stealing was considered a virtue and buffalo were abundant.
Under these circumstances he had many very exciting experi-
ences and adventures.

Before closing this brief outline of Dr. Bell’s career I might
add that any part of his time which was not required for actual
official work he utilized to study and graduate as a bachelor
of science, a doctor of medicine and master in surgery, to
study practical chemisty under Lord Playfair and others in
the old country, to travel in Europe in different years, and to be-
come a professor for five sessions in Queen’s University, which
conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. He is a fellow of
many learned societies, among them the Royal Society of
London, which is the highest distinction for scientists in the
British Empire.

While making his extraordinary record of geological and
topographical survey and exploration, Dr. Bell has had more
adventures and thrilling experiences and more hardships from
fatigue, wet and other discomforts, lack of provisions, etc., and
has seen more of the game and fish, the real wild Indians and
Eskimos and the Hudson’s Bay Company’s people of all ranks
than any other white man, or any Indian that ever lived. He
has improved his unequalled opportunities to map out the geo-
graphical distribution of the forest trees of Canada, has col-
lected the fork-lore of the various Indian tribes and of the Es-
quimos, has taken great numbers of photographs in the far-

14 ONE OF CANADA’S EXPLORERS.

away regions, and has made extensive zoological and botanical
collections and observations on a variety of subjects. He has
a rare genius for telling his experiences, and although he has
never written them out from his field notes, the original records
in his possession would fill many most entertaining and useful
volumes. As the author of this running biographical sketch
I am proud of the distinction of first making public this record
of marvelous achievements.

[The mere enumeration of his surveys and explorations,
covering forty-five years of time and extending over half a
continent, cannot convey to the mind any adequate con-
ception of the vast amount of geographical work which ‘has
been accomplished, especially as it was done in wild and little
known regions. ‘Think of the enormous labor, to say nothing
of the privations, hardships, and dangers involved in accom-
plishing any one of the many important undertakings which
have been incidently mentioned, as for example those of Lake
Nipigon, which is seventy miles across with numerous long
bays and large islands; Lake of the Woods almost equally
large; the Albany River, 600 miles long, with large branches
some of which were also surveyed; the Attawapiskat, 4oo
miles long; the basin of Moose River measuring about 300
miles in every direction and with an area greater than that of
England ; the Noddaway River and its branch, the Bell River,
both instrumentally surveyed, as well as other rivers and some
large lakes tributary to these and draining an area also as
large as England; the Churchill River, as large as the
Rhine; the Nelson, one of the five great rivers of North
America; Hayes River and its branches ; Winnipeg River and
some of its principal tributaries, including the English River
and Long Lake (100 miles) ; Great Slave Lake as long as
Lake Superior ; much of the shore line of Hudson Bay, which
is nearly half the size of the Mediterranean; part of Baffin-

ONE OF CANADA’S EXPLORERS. 15

land. We might say much more, but these references are
perhaps sufficient. They show a rare talent and ability for
carrying out geographical work ona large scale, which has
been of the greatest value to Canada and a most important
addition to the science of geography in general.

The regions in which Dr. Bell’s surveys have been carried
on lie for the most part far away from the headquarters of the
Survey at Ottawa, so that in order to reach them before
beginning each season’s work and to return again in the fall
generally required long journeys through uninhabited country.
Let the reader take a map of British North America and trace
the various surveys and explorations which have been men-
tioned and he will soon be convinced that the amount of work
which has been accomplished by one man is almost phe-
nomenal.

Besides his more distant explorations Dr. Bell has done
a large share of the regional or detailed geological work of the
Survey in such regions for instance as between the Great
Lakes of the St. Lawrence, the Manitoulin Islands, the
country north from the shores of Lakes Huron and Superior,
the Gaspé Peninsula, etc., etce.—C. H.]

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PAMPHLET BINDER

Syracuse, N. Y.
Stockton, Calif.

SMITHSONIAN INSTI

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