five days to cut a horse-trail through. There are small areas of good land and one
large meadow on the Tacla slope, while the lower part of Fall River traverses good
bottom land, now largely flooded by beaver-dams backing up the small streams
feeding Fall River.

Old Hogem was named by the miners of the seventies. Germansen, the dis-
coverer of the Germansen Creek diggings, was called “Old Hog’em” because he
charged $45 for a sack of flour ground at Williams Lake from frozen wheat, and
for other goods in proportion. When Germansen left another storekeeper came,
and his site is now known as New Hogem. A poet of the seventies expressed the
situation due to which the places were named as follows :—

“ Wihen Germansen first made his strike
On this old roaring river,

Old Hog’em sold his stock of goods
At quite a high old figure ;

But now, alas! Old Hog’em gone,
We sit around our camp-fires,

And muse on those once happy days,
For now we've got the vampires.”

OMINECA RIVER.

There are several trails from Tacla Lake to the Omineca River, one from the
Old Landing on the Old Fall River Trail and up Bates Creek via Sitleka Creek to
the river by old Omineca Creek; from Bulkley House, an abandoned Hudson’s Bay
Post at the head of the Tacla Lake; and a passable trail along the east side of the
lake to the Driftwood River, in the basin of which is a large area of good agricul-
tural land, lying in the Hazelton Land Recording Division, leaving it about twenty-
five miles from the site of Bulkley House to cross to the Omineca. This trail, leading
to the Ingenika, was originally a Sikanni foot-trail over which horses were taken
during the Ingenika excitement. It crosses numerous muskegs and early in the
season is almost impassable for pack-horses. At the summit are very large meadows
affording excellent feed. It was observed during the season that large high-altitude
meadows characterize all Omineca passes.

The Omineea is the largest tributary of the Finlay, which it enters about eleven
miles from the mouth, cutting through a rocky ridge of gneiss and mica-schist about
~seven miles in a straight line from its junction with the Finlay. Cutting through
this ridge the river runs through the Black Canyon, about a mile in length, and
navigable for canoes only at low water. Between this canyon and the Finlay the
Omineca is swift and shallow, having spread over a large area, with bars and small
islands on each side. It has average width of about three-quarters of a mile and
fall of about 8 feet to the mile. The river here runs for several miles through low
country exposed to inundations.

The Omineca takes its source in a small lake in the mountains at the eastern
border of the division. At the junction of the Ingenika and Police Trails, the
former from Tacla Lake via Driftwood Valley, the latter turning off at the Ingenika
ford across the Omineca River en route to Fort Grahame and Fort St. John, the
Omineca is a stream 60 feet in width and 15 inches deep at low water, and about
120 feet wide and 6 feet deep at flood. The upper valley is narrow, but beautiful.
being diversified by many small meadows and small patches of good land in the
loops of the winding stream. Tor sixteen miles this character is maintained. The
river becomes swift then, being doubled in volume by the confluence of the North
Fork. The main tributaries are the Stranger (or Mesilinka) River and the
Ooslinka River. Mr. Swannell estimates that the valley of the Omineca contains
80,000 acres of agricultural land; the Stranger River Valley, 40,000; and the
Ooslinka Valley, 20,000.

THE “BIG KETTLE.”

On the slope of a high serrated range to the west of the headwaters of the
Omineca is a huge glacier covering three square miles. Seven miles above the ford
where the Police and Ingenika Trails cross, the Police Trail leaves the river and

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