Mr. Charles Mair (“Through the Mackenzie Basin”, p. 91), estimates the prairie areas of upper Peace river at about half a million acres, “with much country in addition, which resembles Dauphin district in Manitoba, covered with willows and the like, which, if they can be pulled out by horse power, as is done there, will not be very expensive to clear.” Mr. Mair notes a wide and beautiful table-like prairie, begirt with aspens, at Peace point. Mr. Fred S. Lawrence explained to the Senate committee of 1907 that in the valley of Peace river, the bottoms of the river, the islands—and there are large islands in the river—and the points, are largely covered with a heavy growth of spruce, which grows to a large size. The largest he had ever measured was four feet four inches in diameter. A tree of that kind would carry its trunk well up, clear of branches for forty or fifty feet. Of course that is an unusual size, but timber three feet in diameter is common on the hills, and in the lower part of the bottoms. There is no oak, but there are spruce, birch and poplar. The poplars grow to a large size. The cottonwood often grows to four feet in diameter, and the poplar grows to a diameter of two feet. CHAPTER XIII. NORTHERN ALBERTA. Economic Minerals. Travellers, Explorers and Prospectors Describe the Country as a Veritable Store House of Mineral Wealth.—Gold Found in the Bars in Peace river.—Indications of Plentiful Supply of Iron.— Lignite Found in Abundance.—Historic Deposits of Salt.—The Famous Athabaska Tar Sands.—Their Commercial Value.— Indications of Petroleum.—Boring Experiments.—Natural Gas Under a Wide Area.—Travellers Use Natural Gas Jets to Boil their Camp Kettles. Northern Alberta, according to the reports of travellers, geological explorers and prospectors, is a veritable storehouse of mineral wealth, its natural richness in this respect including gold, iron, coal, gypsum, salt, sulphur, galena, natural gas, petroleum, tar sands or asphaltum, etc.