the southern boundary of the Dominion Block, and are shown on Pre-emptors’ Map
No. 5, Peace River Sheet. The British Columbia Government began construction of
a road from this point in 1918 through the Pouce Coupe Prairie to the Peace River
near the mouth of the Kiskatinaw River. This road runs north-westerly for a few
miles, then due north over a gently rolling country to a point near the mouth of
Bazette Creek, where it enters the Pouce Coupe Prairie proper. The route for this
road was chosen by the settlers from Bazette Creek north, acting through a
committee. The length of this road will be about fifty miles.

SOUTH OF THE PEACE.

The country south of the Peace is not provided with a road yet, only trails. The 3

White Man’s Trail crosses to the South Pine River, and has branches to Moberly
Lake and Hudson Hope and to Fort St. John. A trail from it reaches to the South
Pine at the southern boundary of the Dominion Block, and continues by that valley
to Pine Pass and Fort McLeod. Farels Creek, along which this trail runs to the
South Pine, crossing the Park Creek Prairie on the way from the Kiskatinaw, is a
small, narrow stream, cut down deep at the lower end. The plateau falls gradually
down to it. The South Pine River at the crossing is 400 feet wide, with water too
deep to ford. Late in the season there is a ford four miles and a half below. There
is a fairly good trail up Moberly River, which is reached by the White Man’s Trail
at the lower end of Moberly Lake. ;

The trail from Pine Pass and Fort McLeod runs north-east to some lots surveyed
for pre-emption at the head of Moberly River, shown*on Pre-emptors’ Map No. 5,
Peace River Sheet, rising very steeply to the plateau 1,200 feet above the South Pine.
The group of lots are on good land. ‘There is good land for four miles above Moberly
Lake, and then the good land is found in patches. It is three miles from the western
boundary of the block to the head of Moberly Lake. The trail follows its upper
shore and continues along Moberly River to Fort St. John. Moberly River is about
100 feet wide, swift, 2 feet deep in the rapids, and can be forded at most places. The

water is of a light-brown colour. The banks are low, resembling those of eastern —

rivers. The trail is about forty miles long, with good grades, crossing one low hill.
The trail from the South Pine Forks to Fort St. John is over the best bed in the
country, an ancient river-channel with dry gravel benches, almost the only grayel
to be seen in the country. At the Fort St. John end, however, it is too close to the
South Pine, crossing six large creeks.

POUCE COUPE PRAIRIE.

The south-eastern corner of the Dominion Block and the adjoining land to the
south-east of it contains a great amount of good agricultural land. It is for the most
part an open prairie, known as the Pouce Coupe.

The district takes its name from an Indian chief, Pouce Coupé, ‘ eut-thumb,”
whose hunting-ground it was. It has long been a favourite hunting-place for the
Indians from the plains, and here they wintered their horses while they spent the
winter hunting and trapping in the mountains to the west. The snowfall is said to
be light, and the wind keeps the side-hills bare, giving winter grazing. The trees
and bushes present a scrubby appearance, indicating a severe winter, but plant-life,
grasses, etc., which have a summer’s growth, bear strong evidence of the fertility of
the soil and the warmth of summer.

The Pouce Coupe Prairie is an extension into British Columbia of the prairie
lands of Alberta, and is a great, open, rolling prairie, some twenty-five miles wide
by thirty-five miles long. The prairie land lies immediately west of the British

Columbia boundary, the northern edge reaching to within ten miles of the Peace °

River. It is bounded on the west by the Mud River and on the east by the Pouce
Coupe River—the d’Echafaud of Dr. G. M. Dawson's report. The general elevation
is about 2,400 feet. The prairie is almost free from brush and is covered with a
great growth of wild hay.

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