Mr. McConnell, before the Senate committee of 1907, explained that his exploratory work in Peace river country had been mostly along the streams. He had, however, been over quite a bit of the tableland. He had nearly always gone back from the river quite a bit, twenty or thirty and forty miles in places. From Lesser Slave lake he started on foot with a couple of men packing, and went through all the country between Lesser Slave lake and Big Knife lake, a distance of about one hundred and fifty miles. His mission was specially to look for minerals, but, of course, he was supposed to keep his eyes open for anything. As to the extent of land suitable for cultivation in Peace river country, Mr. McConnell said there are aspen ridges all through that country which may be good, but they are separated by muskegs everywhere, except on the table prairie. These muskegs occur with solid ground in between them, and in those places aspens grow, and where those poplars are found the land is nearly always good. But the poplars do not grow to any size. The aspen is not on the prairie; it is on the wooded country, in between the muskegs. Besides there are occasional patches of prairie at Fort Vermilion, following Peace river down, and also Grande prairie. There is no large continuous prairie thirty miles from Edmonton towards the north. There are occasional patches of prairie tableland with only small areas of bottom land. The tableland decreases in height as going northward. Farther down the Vermilion the prairie begins again. At Fort Vermilion the country is not so much subject to frost as in the higher land. Wheat has been grown there a great number of years. In the valley of the river the low land on each side is fertile. There is no great quantity of it on either bank. There are just these flats. Taking the aggregate it is a large quantity because it is a tremendously long river. The valley is probably a mile wide on both sides of the river.
Grande prairie, in upper Peace country, which is
is probably the largest area of open country, and there is a prairie following Peace river about twenty-five miles. That disappears going down Peace river, and the country is wooded and partly muskeg as far as Fort Vermilion. Then there is another small prairie area. Taking the upper stretches of the country, northward forty miles from the river, the country is partly muskeg. Travelling across it with horses, one would run into a muskeg every couple of miles, and there are ridges only a few feet higher than the muskegs, and they are nearly always covered with poplar, and those ridges seem to be fairly good agricultural land. But they are always separated by these muskeg lands. This muskeg is very deep. Mr. McConnell had had horses go down in it. Along all the streams there is a certain amount of good land. There are a great many streams in that country, and in the aggregate the amount of water is large.