The Liard District.
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.”
Mr. McConnell also states in his report that the valley depression for some distance below the fort is insignificant in size, and farther down disappears altogether, and the river undulates through a low, level plain, elevated only a few feet above its surface. Liard river is over a mile wide at its mouth.
A Mackenzie Valley Plateau.
Ten miles above the Blackwater, Mr. McConnell, in his descent of the Mackenzie in 1888, made a visit to a small plateau which there borders the river at a distance of three or four miles. The valley of the Mackenzie there has a depth of two hundred feet. After leaving it Mr. McConnell crossed a level plain which stretches eastwards to the foot of the plateau. This plain proved to be exceedingly wet and swampy, and most of the way across he was walking knee-deep through yielding moss or ice-cold water. It is partially wooded with small pine, spruce, aspen and tamarack, none of which had a diameter exceeding six inches. From the top of the plateau, the main range of Rocky mountains, which is here too far from the left bank of the river to be seen from the valley, came into sight to the west, while in an opposite direction a good view was obtained of the rocky range which borders the river to the east. The plain between these ranges, through which the river flows, has a width of sixty or seventy miles. It shows numerous lines of wooded heights running parallel with the river, but possesses no conspicuous elevations.
Mr. McConnell explains that rugged limestone ranges are visible along the reach below Fort Norman on both sides of the river, but seldom approach within thirty miles of each other. The plains between, and lower slopes of the mountains, are continuously clothed with forests of small spruce and aspen. The depression in which the river flows has a depth of from one to four hundred feet and a width of from two to three miles. River flats are seldom present, and the banks of the valley slope more or less steeply up from the edge of the water.
Mr. William Ogilvie’s Report.