. The knowledge obtainable
about the fertile areas of the hinterlands of a vast unsurveyed
country like this, though not very ample, was no doubt trustworthy
as far as it went.

Trappers and traders are confined to the water, as a rule, and see
little land away from the shores of streams and lakes. The only
people who, through their employments, knew the interior well were
the Indians and half-breed hunters. It was the statements of these,
therefore, and of the few prosperous farmers and stockmen scattered
here and there, which afforded us our only reliable knowledge.

The most extensive prairies adjacent to the Upper Peace River
are those to the north already described. The nearest on the
south side are the prairies of Spirit River, a small stream which
divides several townships of first-class black, loamy soil, well
wooded in parts, but with considerable prairie. The nearest farmer
and rancher to Dunvegan, Mr. C. Brymner, who had lived for ten
years on Spirit River, told me that during seven of these, though
frost had touched his grain, particularly in June, it had done
little serious harm. It was a fine hay country, he said, even the
ridge hay being good, and therefore a good region for cattle, he
himself having at the time over a hundred head, which fed out late
in the fall and very early in the spring, owing to the Chinook
winds, which enter the region and temper its climate. Southeast
of Fort St. John there is a considerable area known as Pooscapee's
Prairie, getting its name from an old Indian chief, and which was
well spoken of, but which we did not see.

A much more extensive open country, however, is the Grand Prairie,
to the south-west of the Crossing, which connects with the Spirit
River country, and is drained by the Smoky River and its branches,
and by its tributary, the Wapiti. There is no dispute as to whether
this should or should not be called a prairie country. As a matter
of fact, it is an extensive district suitable for immediate
cultivation, and containing, as well, valuable timber for lumber,
fencing and building.

The first inquiry the intending immigrant makes is about frost.
At the Dunvegan and St. Augustine Mission farms, on the river bank
above the Landing, Father Busson told me that White Russian and
Red Fyfe wheat had been raised since 1881, and during all these
years it had never been seriously injured, whilst the yield has
reached as high as thirty-five bushels to the acre. Seeding