The first information we obtained as to the agricultural possibilities of Athabaska basin came from explorers and travellers passing through the most northern portion of it on their way to Peace river, Great Slave lake and the Mackenzie via the old canoe route by Methye portage and the Clearwater. In more recent years, particularly since the inauguration of steamboat communication along the long navigable stretches of the Athabaska and Mackenzie, the favourite route to the far northwest has been down the Athabaska from Athabaska, and, as is only natural, our knowledge of the resources of the country has increased greatly. Sir Alexander Mackenzie, as far back as 1787, saw at a trading station of Peter Pond, on Elk or Athabaska river, “as fine a kitchen garden as he ever saw in Canada.” It might be explained here, that in the spring of 1778, a number of the Saskatchewan traders put their goods into a common stock, and placed Mr. Peter Pond in charge of them, directing him to proceed to the Athabaska and trade with the Indians. He took the present Hudson’s Bay Company’s route, by Cumberland House, Frog portage, Ile à la Crosse, and on to Methye portage and down Clearwater river to the forks of the Athabaska. Here he built a house, and in the spring of 1779 planted garden seeds. As a general thing, at the early trading posts, agriculture of any kind, even the making of gardens, was neglected, and, rightly or wrongly, the officials of the Hudson’s Bay Company got the credit of discouraging such ventures. If this had ever actually been the settled policy of the company, it was officially abandoned some time previous to the year 1826, for, writing in the year mentioned at Chipewyan (north latitude 58° 40′) of improvements in the country, the RESULT OF JUDICIOUS ARRANGEMENTS then recently effected by the directors of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Sir John Franklin writes:—“They (the directors) have also directed, where the soil will allow, a portion of the ground to be cultivated for the growth of culinary vegetables at each of their establishments, and I witnessed the good effect of this order, even at this advanced post, where the ground is rocky; the tables of the officers being supplied daily, and those of the men frequently, with potatoes and barley. Such luxuries were very rarely found beyond Cumberland House on the route that we travelled during my former journey.” Sir John Franklin also mentioned a phenomenon which has a considerable bearing upon the agricultural possibilities of this country, namely the quick change from winter to summer and the rapid growth of vegetation. He wrote of the advent of spring at Chipewyan in 1827:—