41

PACE cEulLWAB IR:

Reports by various Authorities on that Country.

Regarding the climate of the Peace River District, Mr. Cambie, on page 54 of the
report of 1880, says :—

“Climate is a subject on which it is difficult to form correct. conclusions from the
experience of one season; and the summer of 1879 having been an exceptionally cold
and wet one, renders it more than usually so. The following statement on the “crops,
etc., seen at the various Hudson’s Bay Co. posts throws a little light on the matter.

«At Fort St. James, July 5th-Sth, we found most kinds of garden vegetables and
barley, all looking well. On October 8th there was snow on the hills and adjacent
country, but none near the shores of Stuart Lake. The people at the Fort were busy
digging potatoes, other vegetables and grain having been housed some time previously.
A small herd of cattle and horses are kept here, hay for their sustenance during the
winter being cut in some of the natural meadows.

“Fort Macleod, July 14th-16th.—Here we saw some sickly-looking potatoes, the
vines of which had been frozen to the ground in June, a fine crop of peas and carrots,
with a few miserable onions. The soil of the garden is light and probably had not been
manured for a great many years. The latitude is only half a degree farther north than
Fort St. James, and the elevation 300 feet less, which should nearly compensate for the
difference in latitude, but the climate seems colder, more damp, and less suited for
agriculture, owing, probably, to its closer proximity to the Rocky Mountains. On
Oetober 2nd all the vegetables were housed and three inches of wet snow lay on the
ground. e

« Hudson’s Hope, July 27th-29th.—The soil in the garden is a good sandy loam,
and onions were very fine ; all other crops had been injured by a severe frost about May
15th ; beans were killed, so were the potato vines, but they had started afresh. A little
patch of wheat had been frozen, but had grown up again, and a few silk stalks were
forming ears; carrots and cabbage looked well. It was said that the frost in May was
confined to the valley, and did not extend to the plateau. Horses have wintered in the
open air for many years, but in the winter of 1875-76 twenty out of a band of twenty-
four perished on account of the deep snow. Returning there, September ]4th-16th, we
found that the potatoes had produced only a very poor crop, and the wheat had been
again frozen, while the grain was in the milk stage, rendering it useless.

“Fort St. John, July 30th.—The garden contained some good potatoes, onions and
turnips, and a negro named Daniel Williams had a small patch of excellent barley. On
September 12th the crops were all right, and excellent both as regards quantity and
quality. .
“Fort Dunvegan, August Ist-5th.—In the garden of the Fort were fine crops of
wheat, barley, potatoes, beets, cucumbers and squash ; while at the R. C. Mission, close
by, there were fine potatoes, onions, carrots, and a luxuriant but very backward crop
of wheat, a condition of things which Mr. Tessiar, the priest, explained to us had
resulted from a long drought, causing the grain to lie on the ground without sprouting
till some heavy rain occurred at the end of May. From August 28th to September 5th
the wheat of the Fort was cut, but the grain was uot perfectly ripe; that at the Mission
was injured by frost, and there was no hope of its ripening. Other crops had succeeded
well. é

“Lesser Slave Lake, August 20th. In the garden of the Fort were peas, beans,
turnips, carrots, potatoes and rhubarb, all looking well. And in the garden at the R. C.
Mission were the sume vegetables, also onions, cabbages, barley (good), with some very
fine wheat almost ripe and quite beyond the reach of any frost likely to occur at that
season. The success of these crops at an altitude of 1,800 feet above the sea, and,
therefore, nearly on the general level of the plateau east of the Rocky Mountains, 1s a
matter of some importauce, though the proximity of the lake may have influenced the

temperature.