The long midsummer days in latitude 52 deg gave many working hours, but
with frequent stops to prospect the banks we rarely floated more than
twenty miles per day. An occasional flock of ducks and geese were
disturbed as our boat approached and bank beaver houses were
frequently passed, but few of the animals were seen during the
daytime. Tying the boat to a tree at night we would go ashore to camp
among the trees where after dinner pipes were smoked in the glow of a
great camp fire. Only a fossil hunter or a desert traveler can fully
appreciate the luxury of abundant wood and running water. In the
stillness of the night the underworld was alive and many little feet
rustled the leaves where daylight disclosed no sound. Then the beaver
and muskrat swam up to investigate this new intruder, while from the
tree-tops came the constant query, "Who! Who!"
For seventy miles the country is thickly wooded with pine and poplar,
the stately spruce trees silhouetted against the sky adding a charm to
the ever changing scene. Nature has also been kind to the treeless
regions beyond, for underneath the fertile prairie, veins of good
lignite coal of varying thickness are successively cut by the river.
In many places these are worked in the river banks during winter. One
vein of excellent quality is eighteen feet thick, although usually
they are much thinner. The government right has been taken to mine
most of this coal outcropping along the river.
[Illustration: Fig.
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