A glance at the latest “Railway Map of the Dominion of Canada,” published by the Department of the Interior, will show that the surveyed, and consequently fully-explored, part of the province of Alberta extends considerably farther north than do the lines which mark the northernmost limit of the surveyed territory in Saskatchewan. The areas of arable land in Northern Alberta are admittedly so extensive and important, and there has been such a large accumulation of evidence as to the latent agricultural wealth of the actual agricultural experiments in this most promising region, that, with the object of enabling the reader the more readily to follow the text, and to assist him in locating the geographical points mentioned, it has been deemed advisable to divide the material referring to arable lands and agriculture in this territory into two separate chapters, corresponding with two divisions of the area immediately under review. The country readily lends itself to such a division; in fact, invites it. The region west of the 114th meridian has long been known and designated as “Peace river country,” and possesses characteristics, and to some extent, a history quite its own. The remaining or eastern half of the territory, at least as far north as the lower reach of Peace river, is the main basin of the Athabaska and, as such, will be treated as a distinct area in the present chapter, the one immediately following to be devoted to the subject of the arable lands and agricultural possibilities of Peace river country.