Farm LANDS AND NATURAL RESOURCES. 17

gravelly on the side-hills. While it is dry away from the lakes and streams,
good well-water can be had at moderate depth in most places. There are
many meadows and streams are usually deep below the uplands.

Rose Lake Settlement Area.

In the vicinity of Rose Lake the Government has a settlement area
comprising about 40 lots of 160 acres.‘ A road from Williams Lake and
150-Mile leads to Harpers Camp, an hydraulic-mining centre on Horsefly
River, where there is a post-office, store, and hotel. In the neighbourhood
of Moffat Creek the best land lies in small scattered areas, principally on
benches with medium sandy soil. This section is range and stock land
rather than agricultural.

Around Soda Creek.

Soda Creek, an old village, where steamers from Prince George met
the freighters and stages before the advent of the railway, has a road south
that connects with several ranches on benches near the Fraser, notably
those of Hargreaves and Hoops. Some 7 miles north of Soda Creek is
McLeese Lake, near which a number of pre-emptions are held, mostly on
the flats and hillsides. The surveys on the Fraser are on rolling benches
well above the river.

Beaver Valley—Peavine Ridge.

From Soda Creek and McAllister roads run to Beaver Valley and
surveyed areas on the plateau to the west and at its headwaters. ‘This is
principally rolling land and where cultivated produces good garden-truck
and crops. Much of this area is on what is known locally as Peavine Ridge,
the southerly part of the tract holding a number of lakes. There are settlers
in this area who have produced excellent crops on a small scale and some
stock is ranged as well.

Beaver Lake Settlement.

In Beaver Valley and along the Beedy, draining northward to Quesnel
River, there are some good benches near the chain of lakes drained by the
creek, and at Beaver Lake is an old ranch established in the early days of
Cariboo gold-mining. The valley and bench lands have excellent soil, the
fertility being indicated by. the luxuriant wild vegetation. Beaver Lake is
the centre for a thriving farming and stock-raising population and has
hotel accommodation, store, and post-office. A road leads from here to
Hydraulic and Quesnel Forks.

Alexandria Land Settlement Area—Australian Ranch.

At Alexandria, where there are post-office, store, and school facilities,
there is another comparatively small but active stock-raising settlement.
Cuisson Creek has some good meadows and tracts of excellent loam soil,
and on nearing the Fraser River flows through a wide bench known as
Alexandria Flats, which has been settled and well cultivated for years.
Some fine ranches are held in this section, supplied by irrigation. East of