Toxes, both alive and dead, are shipped mainly to Edmonton. In the district are
to be found bear, wolf, beaver, otter, marten, moose, and deer. The Rockies are
full of caribou, moose, and bear. The Indians, the Beaver stock, are tepee Indians
and meat-eaters.. They pack out from the posts at Fort St. John and Hudson Hope,
their requirements being mainly tea and tobacco, for they depend upon their skill
in hunting for their food. One band of Beaver Indians killed fifty-four moose in
1912.

The fur industry, like other frontier industries, will, of course. play out in time,
but at present the country from Fort George north is about the best fur country left
to the Anciente and Honourable Companie and their latter-day rivals, Revillon Freres.
Wolves are a pest. The last season in which they were plentiful over 200 horses
were killed by them in the country contiguous to Fort St. John. Rabbits are gener-
ally numerous, but, as in lower British Columbia, they have their seasons, and with
the periodic disappearance of the rabbit there is usually a descent from the north
by wolves and coyotes. On the prairies north and south of the Peace are immense
quantities of prairie-chickens, and grouse are plentiful all over the country. Fish
abound. Enormous quantities of pike and pickerel are found in most of the Jakes
of the Peace River section, their presence probably accounting for the absence of
salmon, as there is no impediment to the salmon ascending the rivers from the lower
Mackenzie, which is profuse with salmon. The pike, or jache fish, as it is locally
known, is a fierce glutton and would prevent salmon-spawn from maturing. These
fish, averaging 4 Jb. and upwards, smoke and dry as well as salmon, which could
not be introduced without exterminating the pike and pickerel. Besides these fish
are whitefish in Moberly and Swan Lakes, trout of all kinds. even the scaled Arctic
trout, ling, and grayling. Wild ducks are plentiful on some of the ponds of the
plateau during the summer, especially to the east of the North Pine River.

CLIMATE.

J. A. Macdonell, C.E., who made an exploratory survey in the Peace River Block,
took observations, mostly at Fort St. John, during the years 1905 and 1906, covering
the period from May ist, 1905, to July 15th, 1906. He says:

“Tn the month of May the thermometer registered as the greatest degree of
heat at 1.30 p.m., 78 degrees; during the month of June, 72 degrees; during the
month of July, S4 degrees on one day only; during the month of August, 78 degrees
on two days only; during the month of September, 70 degrees on one day only;
during the month of October 56 degrees on one day only; all of these being
registered above zero, and being for the summer of 1905.

“During the month of November it registered 3 below at 7 a.m.; on the 29th it
registered 24 below at 5 a.m., and on the 30th 20 below at 7 a.m.

“On December 1st it registered 20 below at 6.30 a.m.; from the 2nd to the 6th
it registered from 40 below to 4 above; from the 6th to the Sth it registered from
6 below to 6 above; from the Sth to the 19th it registered an average of about 16
above; on the 19th it registered from 4 to 5 below; on the 20th it registered 8 degrees
below; on the 21st it registered 10 degrees below; from the 21st to the 29th it aver-
aged about 20 degrees above; on the 29th it registered 10 degrees below; on the 29th,
30th, and 31st it averaged about 5 degrees below.

“On January ist, 1906, it registered 3 above; from the 1st to the 11th it aver-
aged about 25 degrees aboye; on the 11th it registered 17 degrees below; on the 12th,
16 below; from the 12th to the 25th it ayeraged about 30 degrees below; from the
26th until February Ist it averaged about 30 degrees above zero,

“On February 4th it registered 10 degrees below; on the 5th, 6 degrees above ;
from the 5th to the 10th it averaged about 15 above; from the 18th it averaged from
10 above and 5 below and 12 below, and 15 and 27 above (seems a little mixed),
alternating above and below the zero-point for the balance of the month.

“During the month of March the temperature alternated between 42 above as
the highest registered temperature to 18 below as the lowest registered temperature ;
during the month of April the highest registered temperature was 72 degrees, which
occurred upon one day only; during the month of May the highest registered tem-

o”