Floral differences between the Baker Creek and Quesnel regions
have been noted There are differences in the bird populations also.
Western meadowlark and mountain bluebird occur along the river bottom,
tree swallow, cliff swallow, rough-winged swallow are conspicuous; in
the deciduous woods Magnolia warbler, water thrush and redstart are
abundant; the hermit thrush to a large extent is replaced by the olive-
backed thrush

Bouchie Lake: 1 1/2 miles long, 7/8 mile wide, lies in a
narrow valley six miles west of Quesnel and at an altitude approxi-
mately 500 feet higher. It drains into the Fraser River and is fed
by Bouchie Creek, the headwaters of which is Milburn Lake about two
miles to the southwest. Bouchie Lake is fairly deep with shoreward
shallows and a clay, sand and gravel bottom, except in several
marshy areas where this is overlaid with dessicated vegetation. On
the west side low hills, covered with mixed forest in which aspen
and western birch are prominent, rise in easy gradients. The summit
of’ one such hill comprises a wide flat of aspen and lodgepole pine
forest and some grasslands about 300 feet above the lake Here is
an abandoned homestead (Fig. 10) and in the distance Baldy Mountain
is prominent. Along the bottom of the hills a shoreline forest is
notable for the height, girth and straightness of the aspens that
form its chief constituent. It is notable also for the variety and
vigour of its shrub and ground flora that include highbush cran-
berry, Viburnum pauciflorum and Viburnum opulus, rose Rosa blanda,
thimble berry Rubus parviflorus, black twin-berry, soopolallie, wax-
berry, birch-leaf spirea Spiraea lucida, te ferns Athyrium Filix
femina, Dryopteris austriaca, D. Linneana Botrychium virginianum
and the following flowering plants: tiger lily Lilium parviflorun,
mitrewort Mitella nuda, twisted stalk Streptopus amplexifolius,

wild lily of the valley Maianthemum canadense, false ©

Solomon's seal Smilacina amplexicaulis and S. stellata, meadow rue
Thalictrum sp , bane berry Actaea rubra, wild sarsaparilla Aralia
nudicaulis, hound's tongue Cynoglossum boreale, enchanter's night-
shade Circaea alpina. bunchberry Cornus canadensis, blueberries
and kinnikinnick. Most of these were in flower during the cool,
moist days of June, and in late August the vivid coloured fruits

of many were equally conspicuous

At the upper end of the lake, along the north and northwest
side, flat meadowland is separated from the shore by a wooded
strip in which tall willows, some of them 10 to 12 inches in
diameter, predominate. To the west are open aspen woods and to
the east the deciduous growth merges with a stand of black spruce.
The soil in these damp hickets is deep and rich and a marginal
strip cleared several years ago has produced a rank vegetation of
tall fern, nettles and cow parsnip Heracleum lanatum, that concealed
much of the debris left by the clearing. Cow parsnip in mid-June
was 18 inches in height and in August, when the dead flower stalks

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