MAIN VALLEY OF THE NATION LAKES.

The main yalley of the Nation Lakes extends directly east and west for a
distance of about sixty miles, and with its tributary areas comprises, roughly,
300,000 acres, 85 per cent. of which is available for the various purposes of farming.
In considering the possible waste areas the same conditions prevail here as else-
where, that where three or four adjoining quarter-sections may carry a high
percentage of waste land, other and surrounding quarters will be entirely free.

The width of the valley varies considerably, and is narrowest along the lakes,
where the land at points is more or less rough, and even rugged where the hills
approach the lakes. Speaking of the lands as a whole, and particularly where
there are considerable areas, the surface of the ground is of an even character, as
a study of the contour will disclose, and is broken here and there by the cuts of the
larger creeks.

The Nation River drainage-basin is composed of four large lakes fed by numer-
ous streams draining the network of smaller lakes behind. The two lower lakes, the
Nation Lakes proper, are each about twenty miles long, connected by a river a mile
and a half long. They lie east and west; the two upper lakes. Indata and Tsayta,
are eight to twelve miles long, lying north and west respectively. As the connecting
rivers are shallow, swift, and narrow, intercommunication by steamboat is not prac-
ticable. The Nation River, which averages 200 feet in width, is very swift, the
upper twelve miles being a series of boulder-strewn rapids.

SOUTH-WESTERN BORDER OF THE DIVISION.

Taking the triangle with sides formed by the Manson Creek Trail on the east.
the parallel of 55° 30’ on the north, and the line of Tatla, Middle River, Tremblay,
and Stuart Lake as hypotenuse, we have an area of, roughly, 2,500 square miles, the
general level of this whole country being between 2,200 and 2,600 feet above sea-
level. The terrain is broken by many isolated mountain-ranges, the most important
one being along the east side of Tatla Lake, peaks of which run about 6,000 feet.
The Blanchet Range extends for fifteen miles between the North and West Arms of
Tatla Lake, and has several peaks 6,500 feet altitude. <A Jong flat-topped range runs
along to the north of the Nation Lakes, merging into the Onmineca Mountains proper.
Mount Pope (4,450 feet) and high isolated mountains in. the vicinity of Pinchi,
Tezzon, and Inzana Takes comprise most of the remaining mountains. Roughly
speaking, 20 per cent. of the triangle is high mountains, 30 per cent. ridges and hills,
10 per cent. lake, and the remainder undulating country.

This undulating area, with an average elevation of 2,500 feet, contains about
400 sections of good agricultural land, as far as cruised; the balance of the fiat
eountry being jack-pine flats more or less gravelly, and crossed by gravel moraine
ridges. The whole plateau country is well watered, there being a maze of small
lakes and connecting streams. Meadows and willow bottoms are fairly numerous,
but there is almost an entire absence of muskeg, the meadows, although often wet,
haying hard bottom almost invariably. The many lakes make this section of country
of great scenic beauty, the water being crystal clear, and the larger lakes having
mile after mile of fine pebbly beach.

About 300 square miles only of this triangular area carries the original heavy
timber, mostly spruce. with balsam predominating at the higher altitudes. The flat
country, once heavily timbered, has twice been burnt over during the last forty years.
Indeed, this section has suffered more from forest fires than any other part of British
Columbia. Much of the burnt area is now encumbered with dead and fallen timber
and young growth, while areas, once burnt clean, now carry a growth of jack-pine,
the only trace of the original spruce forest being a few burnt stumps, and scattered
clumps of timber along the watercourses.

The largest area under the original forest, outside of the mountains, lies in the
flat country between Lower Nation and Inzana Lakes. This forest is 75 per cent.
balsam and 25 per cent. spruce, and would seale 8,000 to 10,000 feet B.M. per acre.

Indications would tend to show that the whole district has been, until a com-

paratively short time ago, heavily timbered. Large areas have been deforested,

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