5

Valley, from near Liard hot springs upstream to Watson Lake, includes
many other areas of promising land for agricultural purposes, and flourishing
gardens have long been grown at Lower Post.

The greater part of the region below an elevation of 4,500 feet is forest
covered. Hight species of trees are abundant: white spruce, black spruce,
alpine fir, balsam poplar, paper birch, trembling aspen, lodgepole pine, and
northern larch. The most widespread forest community to be seen along
the Alaska Highway is that of the white spruce, lodgepole pine, and aspen.
A chart prepared by Raup (1945) shows that much of the area between
Peace and Toad Rivers supports a forest cover of white spruce, alpine fir,
black spruce, and lodgepole pine. Balsam poplar abounds and flourishes
on the recent river flood plains and gravel bars. Larch is confined to the
muskegs, and the paper birch, though never plentiful, is widespread in
mixed stands. A few small areas of unsettled agricultural land in the
Peace River area consist of coppice or park-like areas in which patches of
open woods alternate with grassy, treeless tracts of varying extent.

Fur-bearing animals have been the source of important commerce in
northeastern British Columbia for a century and a half. The annual take
includes pelts of the bear (black, brown, and grizzly), coyote, wolf, wolverine,
lynx, fox (red, cross, and silver), skunk, ermine or weasel, beaver, marten,
otter, fisher, mink, and muskrat. Moose, caribou, mule deer, mountain
sheep, and mountain goat occur in varying numbers in selected ranges of
the region. Specific localities where big game is known to be abundant are
outlined by A. L. Rand (1944). His report mentions the presence of
Rocky Mountain elk in the Tuchodi Lake area.

Game birds that may be hunted in season include the Canada goose,
ducks, snipe, prairie chicken, ruffed grouse, spruce grouse, and ptarmigan.

Many of the larger lakes contain abundant lake trout, whitefish,
pickerel, pike, suckers, and ling. Peace River, because of its muddy
waters, furnishes only a few fish, principally ling and goldeyes, but Dolly
Varden and rainbow trout are plentiful in the clear, cold waters of its
tributary mountain streams. Arctic grayling abound in the smaller
tributary streams of the Liard, and inconnu, pickerel, and pike are occasion-
ally caught in its larger tributaries.

Peace River Canyon offers a good site for future water-power develop-
ment. The river flows through a canyon walled by high banks of sandstone
and shale, for about 18 miles, and the fall in this distance is said to be 270
feet. Numerous possible dam sites may be found along the Grand Canyon
of the Liard. but the distance to settled areas precludes their early utili-
zation.

The mineral resources of the region are described in Chapter VI.

HISTORY OF EXPLORATION

Alexander MacKenzie (1801) was the first white man to enter British
Columbia via the Peace River route. He established a fur-trading post at
the mouth of Smoky River in the autumn of 1792, and in May 1793 ascended
Peace Kiver and then the Parsnip. He followed the Pack River, McLeod
Lake, and Crooked River route south to Fraser River, then travelled west-
erly to the Pacific Coast by way of Westroad and Dean Rivers. In 1805,
Simon Fraser established fur-trading posts at Fort St. John, Hudson Hope,