Mr. A. Isbister, a native of the West, who had lived for three years in Mackenzie river district, but left that country when under twenty years of age, examined before the British parliamentary committee of 1857, stated that he had himself raised barley, oats and potatoes as far north as Fort Norman on Mackenzie river, upwards of a thousand miles from the United States boundary and near the Arctic circle. On the Liard, large crops could be raised, as the soil is better on that river, and wheat had been occasionally raised there. It was possible that settlement might extend to Great Bear lake. There would be sufficient territory in the north to make “a very large state indeed.” Asked if he thought that the whole country on Mackenzie river was all adapted to the wants of civilized man, Mr. Isbister remarked:—“The climate is very severe there, but the soil, so far as I have an opportunity of judging, is tolerably well adapted for cultivation. You can raise barley and potatoes very well indeed, without any risk whatsoever.” BARLEY ALWAYS RIPENED THERE. In the Dominion Government Pacific Railway report of 1878 it is stated (p. 333):—“Mr. Hardisty, late Chief Factor in charge of Fort Simpson in latitude 61·8°, informed Professor Macoun that barley always ripened there; that wheat was sure four times out of five. Melons if started under glass ripened well, frost seldom doing them much harm.” In the 1880 report Reverend D. M. Gordon is quoted (p. 102) as authority for the statement that “wheat is grown as far north as Fort Simpson.” In the report of 1878 (p. 333) it is also stated:—“Chief trader Macdougall, in 1875, said all kinds of grain and garden stuff always come to maturity at Fort Liard (latitude 60·25°).” In 1882 Doctor Bompas, the heroic Church of England Bishop of Mackenzie river, in the course of a report to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, wrote:—“The English schoolmaster at Simpson has made successful experiments of farming in that northern region, and through his energetic labours a good crop of barley was raised in the mission fields; also some wheat and potatoes, beans, pease, beet roots and other vegetables.” The evidence taken before the select committee of the Senate of Canada in 1888 as to agricultural possibilities in Mackenzie valley, excited general interest. MANY NATURAL PRAIRIES. The Right Reverend Isidore Clut, O.M.I., missionary Bishop of Arindele, whose diocese included Mackenzie basin, and whose name is still held with reverence throughout this country, examined before the Committee stated that in several places in the basin of the Mackenzie there were a great number of natural prairies, those with round hay and those with flat hay. The round hay, in certain places, grew from three to five feet in height. The flat hay was also very fine but a little shorter. It grew everywhere in the low and wet places.