In his 1909 report, Inspector D. M. Howard, of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, referring to the northern section, wrote:—“In the northern part of the district, Chipewyan and Smith Landing, very little grain is grown. The Roman Catholic mission at Fort Smith have put in a small crop of about fifteen acres under oats and barley this year as an experiment. There are about thirty-five head of cattle all told in Chipewyan sub-district, but the stock is not very good, being too much inbred. The Hudson’s Bay Company brought in ten head of horses this year from Edmonton and the Roman Catholic mission brought four from Vermilion; this, with the three police horses, makes a total of about forty head.” During the winter of 1909 Sergt. R. W. Macleod, of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, made a patrol across country from Fort Vermilion to the mouth of Hay river on Great Slave lake. In his report (p. 178, Annual Report of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police for 1909), he states that from Fort Vermilion for about sixty miles the country is prairie with small poplar bluffs scattered over it, and the next twenty-five miles is mostly pine bush with here and there a small prairie, then on into Hay river at Horse track is prairie with poplar bluffs and willow scrub, a total distance of one hundred and ten miles from Fort Vermilion. In 1905 the government had a road cut out, corduroyed, and graded the entire distance suitable for a wagon road. Previous to that time an Indian pack trail was the only way to travel. The Hudson’s Bay Company and Revillon Brothers each built a sales shop and residence at the end of the wagon road on the south bank of Hay river, and have been doing business there in the winter only, for fur. There are no white people in the country closer than Fort Vermilion. The country between Hay river and Fort Vermilion is nearly ALL APPARENTLY SUITABLE FOR FARMING, with a splendid supply of wood and water. Hay river is about one hundred yards wide at the Horse trace (local name) and is fed by numerous muskegs to the north of Dunvegan on Peace river, and the southeast slope of the divide between Peace and Liard rivers. When Sergeant Macleod and his patrol were at Alexandra falls on January 29, they found that three small bands of Indian horses were wintering out on the portage, which is a prairie with poplar bluffs.