1890. Planted seed April 30; reaped barley, omitted; first ice in river October 15; ice set fast November 14. Potatoes are generally harvested about September 20. The ice generally breaks up in the river about May 1. BETWEEN THE LIARD AND THE PEACE. “On the west side of Liard and East Branch rivers it is not very far to the mountains, consequently the area of land which might be utilized agriculturally is not very extensive on that side. On the east the same character of surface holds I believe from the Liard southward to the Peace watershed, high dry ridges with many intervening swamps and lakes, many of the swamps being very extensive. This is as the Indians and one or two white men who have made journeys into it have said of it. The soil is generally of fair quality, some of it good. On my return from Sikanni Chief river to Peace river I found the same general characteristics, ridges with swamps between. I am afraid the elevation above the sea level along this route (the average reading of the barometer being about 27.00 inches while I was on it) is too high to allow farming in the sense in which we understand it. On the streams flowing into the Peace, there is much prairie, but it is confined mainly to the immediate valleys of the streams; much of it is springy and wet, evidently the water from the adjacent swamps percolating through. The soil is all good, and if the climatic conditions were suitable, a very large percentage of good country would be found in this section. Many of the swamps could be drained as the natural facilities for drainage are good. Although it was in October I passed over it I witnessed no severe frosts, very little ice being visible anywhere, and the flora giving no evidence of having been much injured by the frosts. In the prairies along the creeks, the grasses and plants are generally of as luxuriant growth as in places much farther south and east. The grass was generally long and meadow-like, but as we approached Peace river it became more like true prairie grass, until extensive areas of true prairie were passed over along the tributaries of Peace river. “The weather for some days previous to my arrival at Nelson (September 15) had been showery and unsettled; this culminated on September 16 in a very heavy rainfall which changed to snow on September 17 and 18. This was damp and stuck to and loaded the trees in the forest to such an extent that the weight broke thousands of them. The snowstorm appears to have been local, as I afterwards learned that it had not extended to Peace river nor more than one hundred miles south from Nelson. The weather cleared on September 19.”