40 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS.

that all the root-crops and small fruits can be raised here without difficulty. These
Indians haye numbers of horses and some fine cattle, for which they have no trouble
in cutting sufficient wild hay of the finest quality. This hay they cut whenever
seems to them the most convenient; then they stack it up and in winter take it on
sleds, drawn by horses on the frozen lake, to their ranches.

Large TRACT OF AGRICULTURAL LAND.

“Of these lands on this north shore passed during the day, probably fifteen
miles of the shore, and as far back as could be seen—namely, to the hill-tops—is
the finest of agricultural lands, gently sloping to the lake, with a southern exposure,
excellent soil and already cleared, or so lightly wooded as to be very easily cleared.
(See Pre-emptors’ Map 8p, Bulkley Sheet.) These same conditions prevailed the
next day for another fifteen miles, making in all a large area of fine agricultural
land suitable for immediate settlement. The climate, of course, could only be learned
of from report and such indications as offered, but it would appear that the winter
is about five months, the snow is deep, the winter temperature cold, 80 degrees
below zero being common, but steady and the air dry. The summer temperature
is high, the air fairly dry, and with a good summer rainfall. Cattle and horses
winter without shelter, but require to be fed owing to the depth of snow.

“A short distance below Fort Babine is the Indian village of Natalkuz, larger
than Babine, on the southern end of a peninsula between two arms of the lake and
in the best of the agricultural land. There is a new Roman Catholic church and
what remains of the old Hudson’s Bay Company’s post, now abandoned. A con-
siderable portion of this peninsula is Indian reserve, but there remains much land
open for settlement.

A TRIBUTARY VALLEY.

“The second camp was made twenty-two miles south-east of old Fort Babine,
at the mouth of a creek entering from the south, which flows in a well-marked
valley, said by the Indians to connect with a series of beaver lakes, and connect over
a low pass through the Babine Mountains with another valley entering the Bulkley
Valley near Moricetown. The north shore of the lake towards its upper end becomes
rocky, agricultural land being entirely absent. The tree-growth consists of small
poplars and birch. The south-western shore of the main lake, and the southern
shore of the lake, after it takes its bend to the east, appears to be well wooded with
spruce of fair size.

BABINE-STUART PORTAGE AND BEAVER RIVER VALLEY.

“The portage between Babine and Stuart Lakes is twelve miles long from boat-
landing to boat-landing, but in portaging canoes they are put into a creek on the
Stuart Lake side of the divide, some two miles from the lake. Across this portage
is a good wagon-road, with the Hudson’s Bay Company’s warehouses at either end,
and the company maintains two men, with two pairs of horses and wagons, each
summer to handle freight. In passing the divide the wagon-road rises about 300
feet above Babine Lake and about 350 feet above Stuart Lake. At the head of the
lake a small stream, the Beaver River, enters from the south, flowing in a flat open
valley at least a mile wide, extending as far south as the eye could reach and said
to continue through to the west end of Fraser Lake. This valley contains some very
good land (see Pre-emptors’ Map 3c, Stuart Lake Sheet), is lightly timbered in
parts, and is admirably suited for immediate cultivation. The land on the portage
between the lakes for a width of five or six miles is excellent, although a small
portion on the summit is rather stony. As a rough estimate about two-thirds of it
is good agricultural land.”

A. W. Harvey, who made surveys on the Beaver River, says the river runs
into the southern extremity of Babine Lake. The valley is about two miles wide.
(See Pre-emptors’ Map 8c, Stuart Lake Sheet.) ‘The soil is chiefly sandy, but there