Lumbermen In Great Numbers
Winter In The Pine Regions Of Minnesota With Their Teams, And I Have
Never Heard Of Their Finding The Snow Too Deep To Prosecute Their
Labors.
I have known several winters when the snow at no time was over
six inches deep."
The Hon. H. H. Sibley, ex-delegate from Minnesota, in a letter dated
at Mendota says: "As our country is for the most part composed of
prairie, it is of course much exposed to the action of the winds. It
is, however, a peculiarity of our climate, that calms prevail during
the cold weather of the winter months; consequently, the snow does not
drift to anything like the extent experienced in New England or
northern New York. I have never believed that railroad communication
in this territory would be seriously impeded by the depth or drift of
snow, unless, perhaps, in the extreme northern portion of it." (See
Explorations and Surveys for the Pacific Railroad, I., 400.)
A few facts in regard to the people who live four or five hundred
miles to the north, will best illustrate the nature of the climate and
its adaptedness to agriculture.
It is common to say that settlements have not extended beyond Crow
Wing. This is only technically true. There is a settlement at Pembina,
where the dividing line between British America and the United States
crosses the Red River of the North. It didn't extend there from our
frontier, sure enough. If it extended from anywhere it must have been
from the north, or along the confines of that mystic region called
Rainy Lake.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 86 of 188
Words from 22661 to 22928
of 50597
