horseshoe of twenty-five miles; and from the head of the canyon to Finlay Forks there is another good stretch of water. The Peace river here cuts through the Butler range, the most easterly range of the Rockies.

The climate is excellent. In winter chinook winds break up the cold snaps. The extreme minimum last winter was 45 below on two nights. In summer, the maximum sometimes rises over 90. One peculiarity is that during winter there are no winds excepting the warm chinooks. The country generally is well wooded. Many streams are unexcelled for fly-fishing. At Moberly Lake (15 miles south) trout very often scale more than 35 pounds.

The "town" consists of the Honourable Company's buildings, postoffice, telegraph, police offices and the freighter. Close in are several homesteaders. There is also a meteorological station, deputy mining recorder's post and hydrometric station.

During the summer business is brisk, for usually there are government geological parties in the field, tourists passing through and trappers going outside to "blow in their wads." In winter things are somewhat dull, for there are not enough Indians to keep business steady. Then it is that the violin, gramophone and H.B.C. library are called on to relieve ennui in the evenings, for there is no theatre nearer than Edmonton.

For industrial possibilities, Hudson's Hope undoubtedly occupies a strategic position. It is known that extensive bodies of the hardest soft coal in the world are in the immediate vicinity, but owing to lack of transport facilities they have not been worked to any extent.

Some gold is found forty miles west on Branham Flat and a few outfits will be in this summer to work there.

A marvellous mountain of copper and silver was reported up north some two years ago, but for some reason or another nothing definite has transpired regarding it.

For the past three years government geologists have been examining the vicinity for oil possibilities and their reports have been so good as to lead one or two drilling outfits this way.

Although all grains and vegetables grow here to perfection the agricultural aspect of the country is not to be enthused over, for the arable land is along the river bank only. A cattle ranch has started on the south fork of the Halfway river.

It should be added that the river invariably opens for navigation the first week in May. This year the spring was early—bluebirds and robins on the 8th of April, geese on the 12th, with poplars in bud.

Discovery and Exploration of the Yukon (Pelly) River
By ROBERT CAMPBELL, F.R.G.S.
(Former H.B.C. Chief Factor)

NOTE—Sir George Simpson expressed his satisfaction regarding these explorations in a letter to Mr. Campbell, the author, and spoke of the arrangement made by H.B.C. with Russia for a great stretch of Alaskan territory. The letter follows:

Red River Settlement,
16th June, 1839.

To R. Campbell, Esq.,
Fort Halkett.

Dear Sir:

I have much pleasure in acknowledging receipt of your letter of 17th September, and have to express my entire satisfaction with your management in the recent voyage down the Pelly or Stickine river, bearing ample evidence that the confidence reposed in you was well placed.

I was always of the opinion that the Pelly and Stickine rivers were identical, but many of my friends in this country thought differently. You have at length, however, set the question at rest, and your writing the note to our gentlemen on the coast was very judicious.

I last winter concluded an arrangement for the Company with Baron Wrangle, acting on behalf of the Russian-American Company, by which we become possessed of the whole of the Russian mainland territory (for a term of ten years) up to Cape Spencer. By that means we become possessed of their establishment situated on Point Highfield, entrance of Stickine river, immediately, and have access to the interior country through all the rivers falling into the Pacific to the southward of Cape Spencer.

This arrangement renders it unnecessary for us now to extend our operations from the east side of the mountains or Mackenzie river, as we can settle that country from the Pacific with greater facility and at less expense.

Your services will now therefore be required to push our discoveries in the country situated on the Peel and Colville rivers and I am quite sure you will distinguish yourself as much in that quarter as you have latterly done on the west side of the mountains.

With best wishes, believe me,

Very truly yours,
(Signed) GEORGE SIMPSON.

The Yukon is the largest river that flows from the American continent into the Pacific ocean. Rising as the Pelly in the Rocky Mountains on the northern frontier of British Columbia, it maintains a westerly direction for several hundred miles.

It crosses the 141st meridian, which forms the eastern boundary of Alaska, and holding a northwest course for more than six hundred miles, it is joined by the Porcupine river from the north. Up to this point it is called the Pelly, but for the remaining 1200 miles of its course to its embouchure in Behring Sea it is known as the Yukon.

After the failure of previous efforts to establish a Hudson's Bay Company's trading post at Dease's Lake, I volunteered my services for that purpose; and in the spring of 1839, after overcoming many difficulties, I succeeded in my mission, and then crossed over the mountains to the west side, where I struck the source of a rapid river, which I ascertained from the hordes of Indians I met to be the Stikene (afterwards the great highway to the northern gold fields of British Columbia), a discovery which caused no small commotion and surprise at the time among H.B.C. men, especially from the fact that a young man with only a half-breed and two Indian lads had effected what had baffled well-equipped parties under prominent and experienced Hudson's Bay officers from both sides of the mountains. This led to part of the coast being leased by the Company from the Russian government.

On returning to Dease's Lake, we passed a winter of constant danger from the savage Russian Indians and of much suffering from starvation. We were dependent for subsistence on what animals we could catch, and, failing that, on "tripe de roche." We were at one time reduced to such dire straits that we were obliged to eat our parchment windows, and our last meal before abandoning Dease's Lake, on 8th May, 1839, consisted of the lacing of our snowshoes.

In the spring of 1840 I was appointed by Sir George Simpson to explore the north branch of the Liard river to its source, and to cross the Rocky Mountains and try to find any river flowing westward, especially the headwaters of the Colville, the mouth of which was in the Arctic ocean, discovered by Dease and Simpson.

In pursuance of these instructions I left Fort Halkett in May with a canoe and seven men, among them my trusty Indians, Lapie and Kitza, and the interpreter Hoole. After ascending the stream some hundreds of miles, far into the mountains, we entered a beautiful lake, which I named Frances lake, in honor of Lady Simpson. The river thus far is rather serpentine, with a swift current, and is flanked on both sides by chains of mountains, which rise to a higher altitude in the background. The country is well wooded with poplar, spruce, pine, fir and birch. Game and fur-bearing animals are abundant, especially beaver, on the meat of which, with moose, deer, geese and ducks, we generally lived.

The mountain trout are very fine and plentiful, and are easily taken with a hook and any bait. About five miles farther on the lake