In a delightful afternoon spent in rambling over this interesting neighbourhood, Mr. Mackenzie made out for me the site of the latter establishment, now in the midst of a dense thicket of nettles, shrubs, and saplings.  In this locality the antagonisms of old had full play—­not only those of the traders, but of the Indians—­and the river exhibited much more life and movement then than at the time of our visit.

In remote days a constant warfare had been kept up by the Crees on the river, who, just as they invaded the Blackfeet on the Saskatchewan, encroached here upon the Beavers—­at that time a brave, numerous and warlike tribe, but now decayed almost to extinction, the victims, it is said, of incestuous intercourse.  The Beavers had also an enemy in their congeners, the Chipewyans, the three nations seemingly dividing the great river between them.  But neither succeeded in giving a permanent name to it.  The Unjigah, its majestic and proper name, or the Tsa-hoo-dene-desay—­“The Beaver Indian River”—­or the Amiskoo eeinnu Sepe of the Crees, which has the same meaning, has not taken root in our maps.  The traditional peace made between its warring tribes gave it its name, the Riviere la Paix of the French, which we have adopted, and by this name the river will doubtless be known when the Indians, whose home it has been for ages, have disappeared.

On the 24th our work here was completed, and we took to our boats, which were to float us down to Vermilion and Athabasca Lake.  During our stay, however, I had noted all the information that could be gained respecting the Upper Peace as an agricultural region, some of which I have already given.  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.