River. The Manual wasn't available until May 1st and in the months that remained work was frequently interrupted by prairie fires and was further retarded by the Fenian "raid" in the fall. By the end of 1872, however, a large block had been subdivided in the Red River Plain and at two points the surveyors had advanced beyond the western boundary of the province as it was defined at that time. In the south they worked their way along the trail which ran parallel to the boundary, in the well-wooded area explored by Palliser behind Pembina Mountain; and in the north they followed the route initially proposed for the Canadian Pacific Railway, from the Portage Plains northwestwards between Riding Mountain and Lake Manitoba.

In the following year (1873) the subdivision of lands in the North West Territory was begun in earnest. This time the surveyors followed the North Branch of the Saskatchewan Trail and spread south from here to cover much of the parkland belt between Shoal Lake and the Assiniboine (FigurelO). In fact, the Lands Branch was overly optimistic in its estimate of the amount of land required, and uncertain as to the direction of future settlement. Many of the townships surveyed were occupied only many years later; others were never settled as they were too heavily wooded:

The policy of the government in surveying

lands to the northwest [of Winnipeg] reflected the

prevailing attitude that the lands most likely to be settled would follow the ‘willow prairie’ of Palliser and Hind. On the other hand, the ‘true prairie', partly on account of its light soil and because it was timberless, would not be favorable for

colonization. 7

In 1874-75 a few more townships were surveyed, but in distinctly marginal areas, amongst the sand hills north of the Assiniboine and on the southern flanks of Hiding Mountain. In both cases much of the land surveyed, although initially opened to settlement, was subsequently reserved for forestry purposes.

Actually, very little land was subdivided anywhere

By Section, Township and Range

Boundary Commission Cookhouse on Turtle Mountain, in 1873. (Manitoba Archives)

in Western Canada in 1874-78. After the major thrust of 1873 it was deemed inadvisable to incur further heaVy expenditures of this kind "until the route of the Pacific Railway to and across the Province of Manitoba should be determined". 3 There was, moreover, little need to extend the limits of the subdivided area. A general depression in commercial affairs and plagues of grasshoppers had curbed the enthusiasms of pioneers, and the Surveyor General was led to observe annually that the surplus of townships already subdivided rendered any increase in the supply unnecessary.

In 1879 there was little to be done within the Province of Manitoba and the attention of the surveyors was turned once more to the North West. Lands were laid out between Rock Lake and Turtle Mountain, Pelican Lake and the Assiniboine, Clear Lake and Birtle. By 1880 the Survey had developed a fair "head of steam", and the number of townships subdivided in that year exceeded that of 1872, in spite of the fact that conditions were unfavourable for surveying on account of wet weather and bad roads. 9 As a result of the poor conditions, and because of excessive optimism on the part of particular surveyors, there was an unusually large number of incompleted contracts that year. In this way certain townships which should have been subdivided in 1879 were still closed to homesteading, and as some of these were located in well-settled areas the delay was most inconvenient. The year 1880 is noteworthy also in that during the course of that season the surveyors first penetrated the Souris Plains (Figure 10).

As the railway was advanced westwards, the subdivision of Southwest Manitoba was more or less cempleted by the close of 1881. Most of the surveyors were now working beyond the new provincial boundary. Vast areas were surveyed along the Main Line in 1882, and again in 1883, when the railway reached the Rockies. The middle of the decade, however, was marked by another cut-back in subdivision everywhere in the West. Many millions of acres had been surveyed

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