Germansen, and Tom Creeks grew cabbage, turnips, lettuce, onions, etc.,
with good results. With transportation it is anticipated that not only
an area large in the aggregate could be formed, but the companies who
expended considerable money to develop claims, but were forced to
abandon work by the great expense and difficulty of getting in supplies,
would resume. Mr. Valleau said: “ All that the district needs is com-
munication to make it one of the best of districts either for mining or as
a place for home-seekers. The Omineca, with its rich deposits of gold,
coal, timber, rich lands, water-powers, magnificent scenery, and good
hunting and fishing, would not long remain the terra incognita it is
to-day with advent of a railway.”

OSILINKA AND MESILINKA RIVERS.

The Osilinka and Mesilinka Rivers are the main aftluents of the
Omineca River. The Osilinka gains about 25 miles up and is separated
from the Omineca by a high unexplored mountain area. Mr. Swannell,
B.C.L.S., estimated that the valley, which is well timbered, holds about
20,000 acres which could be cultivated. The Mesilinka, which joins about
5 miles lower down, and averages about 100 feet in width and 7 feet in
depth and running about 5 miles an hour, has about 40,000 acres of
agricultural land in its valley. The river has numerous rapids, but only
one canyon, about a mile from the mouth. Between Osilinka and
Mesilinka Rivers are mountains reaching 5,000 to 6,000 feet. The
Mesilinka River often splits into several channels and has anany bars
covered with piles of driftwood.

The Police Trail crosses from the Upper Omineca by a mountain
pass to Tutizzi Lake and Tutizika River, a tributary, and thence follows
down the Mesilinka to a point about 24 miles from Fort Grahame, when
the river sweeps south-eastward to the Omineca and the trail crosses
north-eastward via Factor Ross Creek to Fort Grahame. The pass from
Omineca River to Tutizzi Lake, 4,000 feet, is choked with huge boulders
alternative with patches of muskeg, and on either side are high broken
glacier-bearing mountains 7,000 feet high. At the head of Tutizzi Lake
is a small area of meadow and bottom, but no land of value is found
along the lake. In Mesilinka Valley the land, excepting a narrow strip
of river-bottom, is sandy to gravelly. To the south the country rises in
benches mostly burnt clean. The valley narrows after turning south-
ward, the easterly limit being a high rounded range dividing it from the
Finlay Valley. Here and there are patches of good bottom and some
large benches, but no compact area of good land. There are no meadows.

Throughout the Omineca region surveyors and explorers agree that
summer frosts are absent until late in September in the sanadhs Wicca of
average altitude of 2,200 feet. The fertility of the soil is vouched for by
a luxuriant natural growth, especially noticeable in the sub-irrigated
cottonwood river-bottoms. Climate does not vary much over the whole
region. Winter is severe, but weather generally bright and bracing.

Twenty-six.