FORT ST. JAMES TO FORT McLEOD.

The trail north-easterly from Fort St. James to Fort McLeod is 82
miles long. Leaving Stuart Lake the ground rises gradually to a low
divide, about 2,600 feet in altitude. In the first few miles the trail passes
through some fine open meadows, with black loam soil, free from stones,
on which hay is cut by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Between these
meadows are low sandy ridges covered with jack-pine and here and there
a few poplar. The soil is too dry for cultivation and too high above the
stream-levels to irrigate. Beyond and running to Carrier Lake the
country improves and is undulating. Soil is moist sandy loam, in most
places free from stones, and covered with poplar, small spruce, and
willow, between which is a luxuriant growth of peavine, fireweed, and

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SCENE FROM A HILL TO THE NORTH-EAST OF TREMBLEUR LAKE.

grasses. At the south of Carrier Lake the hills rising from the lake are
not very steep nor very high and are composed of a sandy loam soil on
a gravel subsoil. This grows good grass and peavine and affords good
agricultural land. Timber is chiefly poplar, with a few scattered spruce-
trees. To the north of the lake the hills are rolling and covered with
second growth of jack-pine and spruce, not of commercial size. For the
next 2 or 3 miles beyond Carrier Lake along the trail the country is fit
for agriculture, with light sandy loam soil easily cleared. Beyond is the
valley of Salmon River, the trail following over a sandy jack-pine flat,
with poor stony soil. The valley, 60 feet below the flat, about a quarter

Eleven.