Pacific GREAT EASTERN RatnwAy BEtr.

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Blackwater District Surveys—A Fine Stock Country.

The stretch of country west of the Fraser and extending back for some
miles has been more or less burned over and is now wooded with popiar
and willow. In places the river benches are about half a mile wide and
are noted for their crop-producing features. A large area of land has been
surveyed in the vicinity of Blackwater and extends northward to link up
with the Chilako Valley surveys. Land in the Blackwater is largely level
and along the river to the westward the country is admirably suited to
stock-raising. At Pelican a good area has been surveyed. There are many
meadows in this vicinity and some highly successful stock-ranches. Cattle
feed all winter on the hills in the average season, but a certain amount of
hay is always kept in reserve. While grain is grown, there has been no
attempt made to market it on a large scale. The easiest route to the Upper
Blackwater country is by way of the road from Quesnel, the distance to
the Nazko River being about 60 miles.

Beaverly Creek Settlement.

Still farther north, and but 11 miles from Prince George by the main
road, the Land Settlement Board has surveyed several blocks in what is
known as the Beaverly Creek District. A good school is located in the
central part of this area and there is a modest settlement near by. Several
roads radiate from the main highway, so that practically all these tracts
are within convenient distance of a thoroughfare.

SOME PHASES OF SETTLEMENT.

The initial colonization. or settlement of a considerable portion of that
promising area of Central British Columbia now being opened up by the
Pacific Great Eastern Railway line dates from an unusually interesting and
romantic period.

Back in the primitive and more adventurous days of the early sixties
the hardy pioneers and intrepid fortune-seekers who panned the rich alluvial
bars and the myriad creeks and streams of the Upper Fraser made use of
the old Pemberton Trail from Howe Sound. Many a stirring tale has
been handed down of the picturesque horde of gold-hungry men who
followed the rugged Harrison—Lillooet Lake route and the famous Cariboo
Trail to reachethe land of their dreams. And to these same pioneers of
the sixties is due the credit of establishing the old-time ranches, as well as
the notable system of popular road-houses that sprang up along the main
artery of travel known as the Cariboo Road.

From this modest beginning—from those early farms and ranches,
largely maintained to grow food for the miners and the supplying of their
horses and numerous pack-trains, it was but a step to the founding of the
cattle industry. Emulating the example of the Harper Bros., who had
driven their stock into the Cariboo over the trail from Oregon, and who
had established the Gang Ranch, others engaged in the business. Gradually,
wherever available, the rich bottom lands along the Fraser were taken