EXPLANATORY PREFACE

Tue Cassiar Land District occupies the north-west
section of British Columbia and has an area of about
one hundred thousand square miles. It is bounded
to south and east by the Range, Cariboo and Peace
River Land Districts, to the north by the Yukon
and to the west by the Alaskan “Panhandle,” a
strip of American territory that separates it from
the Pacific Ocean. There are comparatively settled
districts lying both to north and south; but the
Cassiar, in common with the adjacent sections of
the Yukon Territory and north-eastern British
Columbia, is known only to seekers of mineral, fur
and big game. The rugged nature of the country
and the lack of a sufficient incentive toward its
development have so far combined to prevent the
encroachments of the civilized world.

There is no literature about the Cassiar, unless one
admits as such the reports of government officials
and mining engineers. Large tracts of it are still
unmapped or but vaguely indicated, and even the
Indians display ignorance concerning certain dis-
tricts. Dr. George Mercer Dawson’s report of 1887
(Geological Survey of Canada) is still recognized as

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