meadows being numerous and large. The general elevation, however—
3,000 to 3,500 feet—precludes the possibility of using this land for any
other than stock- or hay-raising purposes.

Manson River, which heads in Bald Mountain, the rolling summit
of which is crossed by the Manson Creek Trail, which runs north-westerly
from the east end of Lower Nation Lake to Manson Creek, drains a
generally mountainous area in a narrow timbered valley at altitude of
about 3,000 feet, and agricultural land is confined to the lower part, where
it merges into Parsnip River Valley. To the north the Wolverine Range
extends between it and Omineca River. Manson Creek, which ‘during
the early days, when some 2,000 placer-miners were engaged in the
region, was a mining centre with the usual stores, sawmills, and other
requirements of a mining centre, is now a small settlement with an
average population of about twenty people, including a postmaster and
sub-mining recorder.

THE OMINECA DISTRICT.

Omineca River, which came into prominence in the sixties, when
gold was found on one of the tributaries and about 2,000 miners flocked
in, drains through a complex mountain region in its upper part. It
joins Finlay River about 15 miles above Finlay Forks, being by far its
largest tributary. I*rom the mouth to Black Canyon, about 5 miles, the
river is shallow and current swift, the slope of the stream exceeding 10
feet per mile. Numerous gravel-bars and islands, covered in places by
huge drift-piles, obstruct the course and divide the stream into many
channels. Black Canyon, 114 miles long, 100 to 200 feet wide, has usually
vertical walls, in places over 150 feet high. It is navigable by canoe at
low water, but impassable at flood. From Black Canyon to Little
Canyon, about 30 miles, the river has grade of about 12 feet per mile.
From the head of rapid water to Germansen Landing, 12 miles, with
exception of a few small ripples, the current is easy, 2 to 3 miles an hour,
and navigable water extends thence to New Hogem, 23 miles—con-
siderably more by following the tortuous channel. At New Hogem a
granitic mountain area is reached, extending far into the, mountain
country, which covers a large region to the westward and north and for
some distance southward.

F. C. Swannell, who made a reconnaissance survey of Omineca in
1913, estimated that Omineca Valley held 80,000 acres, suitable for
agriculture, and its main tributaries, Oslinka and Mesilinka Valleys,
20,000 and 40,000 acres respectively. A.M. O. Gold, who made a forest
reconnaissance of the district, exploring 4,075 square miles from the
Nation Lakes Plateau on the south to Mesilinka River and the Police
Trail, thence to Fort Grahame on the north, westward from Finlay and
Parsnip Valleys to the waterway between Stuart Lake and Driftwood
River, estimated that 521,950 acres in this area may be classed as farming
land—not including the Nation Lakes basin or Finlay and Parsnip

Twenty-one.