as one of their chain of posts. During the winter of 1905-6 the Royal North-West
Mounted Police maintained a detachment that had been employed in cutting out the
Police Trail at the post. Generally there are quite a number of Indians camped in
their tepees here, and frequently groups ride in for supplies.

Fort St. John is in Township 88 of the Peace River Block. It is expected that
a telegraph service will be extended to there from Beaverlodge, Alberta, with which
point a mail service is carried on. The wagon-road from Dunvegan reaches the
post, passing through sections 19, 30, 31, and 82. The Mounted Police in 1905 graded
this road up to the banks of the Peace in Section 19, but it is yet too steep for
practical use. Pack-trails lead to Pouce Coupe Prairie, and to Moberly Lake and
Pine Pass via the South Pine River. The Police Trail from Dunvegan to Fort
Grahame and the Skeena branches from the Dunyegan wagon-road in Section 30 and
runs north-westerly. The trails are comparatively poor. That to Pouce Coupe is
continued from there as a road without bridges or culverts to a connection with the
Saskatoon Lake system of roads. The White Man’s Trail, an accentuated Indian
trail, runs from Pouce Coupe to Moberly, and a poor trail from there to Hudson
Hope. There are also two difficult trails on either side of the Peace between Hudson
Hope and Fort St. John.

ROADS AND TRAILS.

The road extending to Fort St. John from Peace River Crossing and Dunvegan
was built by the Dominion Government in the days of the Klondike rush—the days
of hardship and death for many who essayed the “* Edmonton route” to the Yukon.
The Mounted Police have done some work on it, extending it as a track over the
plateau, and have marked a trail from it to Fort Grahame and beyond. This trail
bears north-west from Fort St. John and strikes the Halfway River about halfway
up. This river and a tributary are followed for some distance, and the trail then
strikes across the plateau to the headwaters of the Ottertail, which are followed up
through the Laurier Pass, through the Rocky Mountains to the valley of the Finlay
and to Fort Grahame. For the most part, the route has been along an old Indian
trail between these two points, which has been recut and cleared out. This trail
continues from Fort Grahame to Fort Connelly, on Bear Lake, and thence to
Hazelton.

PLATEAU NORTH OF THE RIVER.

To open up the northern plateau a road is required from the eastern boundary
on the line of the trail from Dunvegan to Fort St. John and the upper waters of
the Halfway River. This would cross level plateau, open prairie for the most part,
some parts lightly brushed. From this road a fair grade is possible to the Peace
opposite the Peace end of the Pouce Coupe Central Road, construction of which was
begun in 1913. At the North Pine River there is a gorge 900 feet deep to cross.
On the river-bottom the old Indian trail branches, one branch running up the valley
to a point opposite Fish Creek, the outlet of Charlie Lake, which is twenty-one miles
up the North Pine from the Peace River. The crossing here is about 400 feet, with
gravel bottom. To the plateau the route follows a mile and a half up Fish Creek
and turns southerly up a long draw. It runs on the plateau past the south end of
Charlie Lake to Cache Creek, crossing this deep valley, and striking south-westerly
to leave the plateau and cross the Halfway River, a gorge similar to the North Pine.
Cache Creek Valley rises rapidly from the Peace to the plateau-level. The Halfway
River is about 250 feet wide at low water and swells to 850 feet at high water.
From here to Hudson Hope it crosses low benches and flats over fairly level country,
crossing Red River, two large creeks, and one cut-bank. From Hudson Hope to Fort
St. John, sixty miles, the mail route, is a much travelled section. The Halfway
Crossing is difficult and dangerous; several drowning accidents have occurred there.

MAIL ROAD FROM EDSON.

The mail road from Bdson via Grande Prairie, Saskatoon Lake, and Beaver-
lodge enters British Columbia at Borden’s, at the south end of Swan Lake, in Town-
ship 26, in the neighbourhood of which two tracts have been surveyed reaching to

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