country also. I have little doubt, judging from the gold indications met
with in the hurried explorations, that if easier and cheaper communica-
tion was opened up paying gold districts would be discovered.”

UPPER FINLAY VALLEY.

Fort Grahame, a Hudson’s Bay Company’s post, is located on Finlay
River about 65 miles above Finlay Forks. In 1914 F. C. Swannell
started from here on an exploration of the Finlay and Ingenika Valleys,
and cruised an area of about 5,000 square miles between latitudes 56° 30’
and 57° 45’ westward from the Rockies to longitude 126° 30’. The region
is mountainous, about 400 square miles being considered agricultural
land. Average elevation of main river-valleys is between 2,200 and 3,000
feet, mountains rising 3,000 feet higher, and higher ranges with glacier-
bearing peaks exceeding 10,000 feet. He found in this 5,000-mile area
a scant population of a dozen prospectors and a couple of small nomadic

LOOKING UP MOBERLY PASS, PEACE RIVER DISTRICT.

bands of Sikanni Indians. No attempt at agriculture had been made,
except a little desultory gardening at Fort Grahame. The Finlay Valley,
however, as far north as 57° 30’ contains probably the largest compact area
of excellent land remaining unexploited in British Columbia, and both
soil and climate render it particularly desirable for settlement. Its
present remoteness and consequent difficulty and expense of obtaining
supplies is the chief drawback. A railway touching Peace River and a
steamboat on the Upper Peace, Parsnip, and Finlay would make the
whole of the Finlay-Parsnip Valley readily accessible. Steamers now
run on Peace River in summer to Hudson Hope, near where the canyon,
25 miles long, bars navigation. From the canyon to Finlay Forks the
Peace River is good, excepting two short rapids, the Parle Pas and
Finlay. On Finlay River there is no obstruction for 170 miles, excepting
Deserters Canyon, 35 miles above Fort Grahame and 100 miles from
Finlay Forks.

Thirty-two.