FINLAY JUNCTION TO DESERTERS’ CANYON.

A. W. Harvey, who made surveys in the Finlay Valley in 1912, did not go beyond
Deserters’ Canyon, about 100 miles above Finlay Junction. The river narrows at this
canyon and for five miles is confined to one channel, when it widens again and runs
swiftly, having a fall of from 414 to 5 feet to the mile between the canyon and Fort
Grahame, thirty-five miles below. The river-valley is about four miles and a half
wide at Deserters’ Canyon, and extends northward in the general direction of
N. 30° W. for about sixty or seventy miles, the land, as far as could be seen from
the top of a mountain ascended to the east of the valley, having the same general
appearance, low flats at the river, reaching to benches extending back to the hills.
Just above the canyon on the west, and separated from the main range by a harrow
valley, a precipitous bare mountain of white limestone rises sharply to a height of
1,500 feet above the flat, and is visible a long way down the river.

At the canyon the river is only 100 feet in width, and cuts through an exceed-
ingly hard conglomerate rock. At low water it is easily navigated by canoes, and,
if cleared, could be navigated by steamers. From five miles below the canyon to
Fort Grahame the river is wide and islands are numerous. Below Fort Grahame the
water is not as swift, having a fall from there to the mouth, about sixty-five miles,
of abcut 8% feet to the mile.

A great part of the country has been burnt over. Originally the valley was
heavily timbered, but now only strips remain which escaped the general fire. Near
the junction with the Parsnip on the east side is a large flat of good land containing
about 5,000 acres, consisting of heavy clay loam and sandy loam, timbered with
spruce, pine, and poplar, partly burned. On the west side a large flat extends to
the Omineca River, which enters from the west about eleven miles from the mouth.

Describing the valley generally, Mr. Harvey said: ‘“ About five miles in a
straight line from its mouth the Finlay approaches close to the foot-hills of the
Rocky Mountains, on the east side of the valley, and continues close to these moun-
tains as far as the mouth of the Ospika River, which enters from the east about a
mile aboye the mouth of the Omineca. I ascended both these rivers for a short
distance on my way down. For a distance of twelve miles from the mouth the
Finlay is very wide and broken up with islands and sandbars, but above the mouth
of the Ospika it is confined to one channel for about twenty miles, and is nearly
straight, benches varying in height from 100 to 850 feet following the course of the
river, leaving a low river-flat averaging about half a mile in width. «The valley is
about six miles in width, generally flat from the top of the bench to the mountains
on both sides, timbered with pine, spruce, and poplar, and the land is good.

“All this part of the valley has been swept by fire. About twenty miles above
the mouth of the Ospika the benches become lower, the upper one being about 150:
feet in height, and they also lie farther from the river, the low flat from this point
for eight miles up-being from one to two miles in width.

* Above this point also the river widens and is full of bars and islands, having
in places an extreme width between sloughs of over a mile. These islands, and also
the low flat along the river, are heavily timbered with spruce and cottonwood, the
soil being a heavy black and clay loam. On the western side of the Finlay, as far
as the mouth of Ruby Creek, at a distance of about fifty miles from its mouth, the
land is rough, the bench rising from the river to a height of 100 to 200 feet. This
bench has an average width of about two miles. Between the mouth of Ruby Creek
and the mouth of the Ingenika, a distance of about thirty-five miles, there is very
little land of any value on the west side of the river.

“On the eastern side of the valley the land consists of a low flat about a mile
in width, heavily timbered, a bench about 150 feet high, from one to two miles wide,
and a higher bench 800 to 350 feet above the river, extending to the foot of the
Rocky Mountains, with a width of from two to three miles. Both these are lightly
timbered with pine and poplar; the soil is generally good sandy loam, and light clay
loam in places.”

During the Klondike rush, when many journeyed from Edmonton across northern
British Columbia, the trail used crossed the Finlay above Deserters’ Canyon, and

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