THE COUNTRY AND ITS ABORIGINES

which are the headwaters of the Nechaco; Lakes Loring
and McAulay, whence issues the Bulkley River; Lakes
French and Fraser, Peters and Vowell, whose waters flow
into the Nechaco; Lakes Cambie, St. Mary’s, McLeod,
Bell, Turner, Nation, Quesnel and Chilco. The map will
show the respective position of each.

The chief streams, apart from the Fraser, are the
Nechaco, which, some sixty-five miles from its mouth,
receives the Stuart, which drains the lake of the same
name, together with Lakes Tatla and Tremblé, through
the Middle and the Thaché Rivers; the Blackwater, a
stream of minor importance, called West River by Sir
Alex. Mackenzie, who ascended its valley on his way to
the Pacific ; the Quesnel, which heads in the lake of the
same name, and the Chilcotin (more properly Tsilhkhoh),
which takes its source in the lake called Chilco by the
whites, and waters the finest part of the country. Bear
Lake and Babine Lake, with their outlets, as well as the
Bulkley, belong to the basin of the Skeena, which may be
said to form the north-western boundary of the district;
while the Parsnip and the Finlay, with their tributaries the
Pack, Nation, Omineca, etc., flow into the Arctic Ocean,
after having forced their way through the Rockies under
the name of Peace River.

Most of these lakes and rivers contain excellent fish, two
(sometimes three or more) kinds of trout, whitefish, land-
locked salmon, ling and a multitude of carpoides and other
inferior fish. A few sturgeon are occasionally caught in
Lake Stuart and outlet, but that fish is unknown in the
other basins. These sheets of water become also annually
the rendezvous of myriads of ducks, geese, and other
aquatic fowls, some of which, as the grebe, abound to such
an extent that, for a fortnight or so, they are daily taken
by the hundred in a single locality.

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