Mr. McConnell’s report gives us occasional comprehensive glimpses of the territory on either side of the Mackenzie. He says that the surface of the country bordering the Mackenzie in the latitude of the Liard, on both the lower and higher levels, is usually more or less undulating, and is diversified by innumerable shallow lakes of all sizes, while a large proportion is underlaid by muskegs and marshes, covered with sphagnum or bog-moss, which remain frozen throughout the year. The higher lands and ridges separating the lakes and marshes are usually rather densely forested, chiefly with white spruce (_Picea alba_), the Banksian pine (_Pinus Banksiana_) and the aspen (_Populus tremuloides_). As to the basin of the lower Liard itself, Mr. McConnell mentions the following facts:—On his way down to the Mackenzie in 1887 he arrived at Fort Liard, fifteen miles below the mouth of the Nelson, on July 29. In the reach from the Nelson to Fort Liard, the river is generally wide and filled with sandbars and wooded islands. It is bordered in many places with wide alluvial flats, covered with tall, straight cotton wood, large spruce and canoe birch. Its valley is wide and shallow and lined with gently sloping, spruce-clad banks. On some of the flats the Indians have built houses, and fenced in small plots for farming purposes, for which the greater part of this section of the district seems well adapted. Mr. McConnell passed one small Indian farm about thirteen miles below the mouth of the Nelson, and another one at the mouth of Fishing creek, a few miles above Fort Liard, while others were noticed in the lower part of the river. FORT LIARD AND ITS ENVIRONMENT. Fort Liard is situated on a fertile flat, part of which has been cultivated for years with unfailing success. Wheat and barley are grown here year after year, while potatoes, cabbages, turnips, and other vegetables are raised without the least difficulty. At the time of Mr. McConnell’s visit, August 1, “all the crops were well advanced and in good condition; the barley was just turning colour, and the potatoes were almost large enough to eat. There is no reason, either climatic or otherwise, why the whole country bordering the Liard, from Beaver river to near its mouth, should not, when needed, support an agricultural community.” Mr. McConnell climbed one of the mountains near Fort Liard to a height of three thousand feet and “obtained an extensive view from the summit, over the plains to the eastward. The country in that direction rises gradually from the river in easy undulations, and appears to culminate at a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles in a low plateau through which Black river has cut a wide gap. A dense forest, relieved in places by gleaming lakes and light green marshes, stretches to the horizon.”