44.

plateau from Hudson’s Hope, though fertile, is for the most part thickly wooded as far as
Pine River, whiclr flows into the Peace about four miles below Fort St. John. Beyond
that, as far as Smoky River, there is a broadening expanse of cultivable land, partly
wooded and partly open, which, including ‘the Grande Prairie,’ is in some parts at
least 70 miles in width from north to south. There, bending with the river, the belt of
fertile soil continues for an average, it is said, of about 40 miles from the river, as far as
Fort Vermilion, and for a narrower belt from Vermilion to Lake Athabasca, East and
south of this belt, however, the greater portion of the country enclosed by Peace River
on the north and west, and Lesser Slave Lake and Athabasca River on the south and
east, is said to be broken by hills, lakes, streams and marshes that render it, to a great
degree, unfit for farming. This enclosure is one of the best hunting grounds for beaver
known to the Hudson’s Bay Company, 8,000 beaver skins having been received last year
at the Hudson’s Bay post at Lesser Slave Lake, taken almost entirely from this district.

“Tt would be difficult to form any reliable estimate of the area of arable lands in
this Peace River District, without much more careful examination than has yet been
made; but it is manifest that the extent of fertile soil is very great, the best of it
apparently being that which lies to the south of Peace River, including what is known
as ‘ La Grande Prairie.’

“ Kyen at the Hudson’s Bay Co.’s posts throughout this district, where most of the
vegetables and cereals grown in Ontario can be raised with success, the agents and half-
breeds are almost entirely dependent on their hunters for food. They could raise cattle
and crops very easily ; wild hay is plentiful in the vicinity of many of the forts; the
return of potatoes is frequently as high as 40 to 1; 25 kegs of potatoes at Dunvegan
have yielded 1,000 kegs ; and yet many of the Hudson’s Bay Co.’s agents depend for
their supply of food very largely on the labours of the Indian hunters that are attached
to the post.

“Wheat thrives and ripens at Hudson’s Hope, Fort St, John and Dutvegan, and
also at Lesser Slave Lake, which is on the level of the plateau, even although summer
frosts occur occasionally in June and sometimes even in July at those localities, while
this year there was frost at Dunvegan, as well as on the plateau to the north and south,
during the latter part of August.

“Horses are kept out all winter upon the plateau, even althongh the thermometer
sometimes falls to 50° below zero, being able to paw away the light snow, which averages
15 feet in depth, beneath which they find abundance of excellent grass. Cattle are
usually home-fed from the latter part of November to the middle of March, large
qnautities of hay being procured from the patches of meadow land found here and there
on the plateau, and, uo doubt, the hay crop could be indetinitely increased if seed were
only sown in suitable localities.

“The ice in the river at Fort Dunvegan, which usually forms about the first week
in December, has, during the past five years as shown by the Company’s journals, left
on the average about the 18th of April, that is several days before the average date of
the opening of navigation at Ottawa. The average date for planting potatoes, during
the same period, has been the 4th of May; the time for digging potatoes being usually
about the 23rd of September. =

_ ‘‘There are not sufficient data to institute a fair comparison between the Peace
River country and other fertile portions of the North-West. The soil seems as rich and
the herbige as luxuriant as in some of the districts that are already known to be
adinirably adapted to the growth of grain, but the fitness of the climate, however
probable, cannot yet be said to be definitely assured.

“Tn addition to its agricultural resources, this district appears to possess abundance
of coal, excellent specimens having been found, though in narrow seams, on Klk River
(a tributary of Smoky River), on Smoky River and on Peace River. There is abundance
of good timber, chiefly spruce, within easy access from the river, while the great facilities
for steam navigation afforded by the Peace River, and the large size of several of its
tributaries, furnish favourable means of communication throughout a large portion of
the district. ss

“Every traveller through the Peace River District is surprised at the mildness of
the climate. Although the winter is severe, yet the summer is
that usually enjoyed ten degrees further south in Ontario or
comfort of oppressively warm nights. There is
on the east and that on the west side of the R
drier and much warmer.”

, generally, as warm as
Quebec, without the dis-
a marked change between the climate
ocky Mountains, that on the east being