36 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS.

The surface is, for the most part, timbered. Poplar predominates; small willow
and birch are found, and there is the usual percentage of spruce and pine. Groves
of spruce are found of size sufficient for milling purposes, but in no great quantity.
Meadows or open spaces are infrequent. A few small ones were noted, but, generally
speaking, the clearing of the land from timber would not be attended with much
labour. Living streams of most excellent water are abundant, and small Jakes and
ponds are frequent.

The valley of the Stuart River possesses an advantageous position with relation
to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and offers many inducements to settlement.
From a point where the river leaves Stuart Lake at Fort St. James to the big bend
and head of swift water at Le Bras Creek, a distance of thirty-six miles as the crow
flies, there have been surveyed in Stuart River Valley, in round figures, 143,000 acres.
As before remarked, this surveyed area includes the valley of the Necoslie River,
which tends to widen the strip of good land lying on the north bank of the Stuart.

In 1918 a tract of 61,350 acres upon either side of Stuart River, south and east
of Fort St. James, at the east end of Stuart Lake, was subdivided for returned soldier
settlement. A detailed report upon this area is published, and is included in the
report of the Survey Branch for 1918. The elevation of Stuart Lake is 2,200 feet.
A small sawmill is operated on the north shore of Stuart Lake, about six miles from
Fort St. James. The rate in 1918 was $35 per 1,000 feet B.M.

Tue Sruarr River.

_ The Stuart River, from where it leaves the lake, with the exception of an
obstruction at the first canyon tyo miles below, an obstruction which is easily over-
come, to Le Bras Creek, about forty miles by river, is an extremely slow-flowing
“regular” river, averaging fully S00 feet in width, and in many cases exceeding
this. The current does not reach two miles an hour. Over this distance of the
river, small steamers, carrying probably a maximum load of 25 tons, could operate
for five or six months in the year with the greatest ease. ,

Approaching Le Bras Creek, where the river takes a bend from its former course
of east to almost south, the current becomes swifter, and something more than half-
way from this point to the junction with the Nechako River, at a point known
locally as Chinlak, a bad rapid occurs.

J. H. Gray, B.C.L.8., said: “I had occasion not long ago to associate myself
with a report made by a practical man to the Hon. Commissioner of Works upon
the water-stretch extending from the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway opposite the
mouth of Stuart River, and up that stream northerly for 200 miles into the North
Takla Lake, and, although the water is swift on this portion of the Stuart, he was
of opinion that this Chinlak Rapid was the only serious obstruction to navigation
on the stream, and this could be made easily passable for small steamers at an
inconsiderable outlay. The distance from Le Bras Creek, or quiet water on the
Stuart, to the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, through an easy country, for the most
part adapted for settlement, is approximately twelve miles.”

WEST OF STUART LAKE,

A. W. Harvey, who made surveys at Whitefish Lake and in the country near
the west end of Stuart Lake, said: ‘ Whitefish Lake is about four miles long and
is surrounded by steep rocky hills, excepting narrow valleys at the east and west
ends. The country is similar to that of Beaver River, sandy loam in the benches
and black loam in the creek-bottoms, and timbered light with spruce, pine, and poplar.
The north shore of Whitefish Lake is very steep and rocky and sparsely timbered
with large fir. The south side is not so precipitous, and is heavily timbered with
spruce and balsam.