Among some information as to the fertility of Mackenzie basin communicated in writing to the committee by Mr. Frank Oliver of Edmonton was the following:—Berries of various kinds were the only considerable natural food product of Mackenzie river country. They were plentiful in their season throughout the whole of the wooded region which extended to within one hundred miles of the Arctic coast. The blueberry was the most plentiful and was found throughout the whole region. It resembled the huckleberry of the east. The blackberry and mossberry come next in quantity in the far north. The former was not the blackberry of Ontario, and the latter somewhat resembled the strawberry. From Liard river south to the Saskatchewan, the raspberry, strawberry, Saskatoon berry, gooseberry, high and low bush cranberry, chokeberry, and black and red currants flourished as well, besides numerous minor varieties of berries. In some years berries were much more plentiful than in others. In plentiful years they formed an important item of the Indians’ food. There was every reason to believe that the varieties found there which were cultivated profitably in other countries could be as satisfactorily cultivated there, at least from the 61st parallel southward, between the main streams of the Mackenzie and Rocky mountains. Mr. Oliver explained that the information communicated was chiefly acquired from Murdock McLeod, of Edmonton, who spent the years 1862-63 and part of 1864 in the Hudson’s Bay Company service at Fort Anderson, since abandoned, east of the Mackenzie and about eighty miles up Anderson river from Arctic coast. In the summer of 1863 he accompanied an expedition undertaken on behalf of the Smithsonian Institute, along the Arctic coast from the mouth of Mackenzie to that of Coppermine river. In 1865 he was at Fort Liard. Mr. McLeod stated that in the summer of 1865, while in the Hudson’s Bay employ, at Fort Liard, latitude 59¾°, he sowed about three acres of wheat on May 26; this was in the stook on August 1. It was good grain, though somewhat smutty, and had not been frosted; barley sowed at the same time did equally well, also potatoes. During several summers’ residence at Fort Liard, Mr. McLeod never saw summer frost. He also stated that at Fort Simpson, in latitude 62½° wheat, barley and potatoes had done well. This was borne out by the statement of Reverend Mr. Spendlove, missionary at Fort Simpson, except that in 1887 the barley was frosted. PROFESSOR MACOUN’S TESTIMONY.