"About forty miles above the mouth of the Pelly River there is an extensive flat on both sides of the Lewes. The soil here is poor and sandy, with small open timber. At Pelly River there is a flat of considerable extent on which the ruins of Fort Selkirk stand. It is covered with a small growth of poplar and some spruce. The soil is a gravelly loam of about eight inches in depth. This flat extends up the river for some miles, but is all covered thickly with timber except a small piece around the site of the fort.
"I think ten townships or 360 square miles, would be a very liberal estimate of all the places mentioned along the river. This gives us 230,400 acres, or, say 1,000 farms. The available lands on the affluence of the rivers would probably double this, or give 2,000 farms in that part of our territory, but on most of the farms the returns would be meager. Without the discovery and development of large mineral wealth, it is not likely that the slender agricultural resources of the country will ever attract attention. In the event of such discovery however, some of the land might be used for the production of vegetable food for the miners, but even in that case with the transport facilities which the district commands it is very doubtful if it could compete successfully with the South and East.
"The amount of timber fit for use in building and manufacturing in the district along the river is not at all important. There is a large extent of forest which would yield firewood and timber for use in mines, but for the manufacture of lumber there is very little. The great bulk of the timber in the district suitable for manufacturing the lumber is to be found on the islands in the river. On them the soil is warmer and richer, the sun's rays striking the surface for a much longer time and more directly than on the banks.
"To estimate the quantity of timber in the vicinity of the river, I would say that one-fourth of the area I have given as agricultural land would be a fair conjecture, but it must be borne in mind that there is not more than a square mile or so of that in any one place, and most of the timber would be small and poor.
"It may be said that the country might furnish much timber, which, though not fit to be classed as merchantable, would meet many other requirements of the only industry the country is ever likely to have, viz., mining."
Surveyor Ogilvie's official report on the fauna of the Klondike district is in the main as follows:
"The principal furs procured in the district are the silver, gray and black fox, the number of which bears a greater ratio to the number of red foxes than in any other part of the country. The red fox is very common, and a species called the blue, is very abundant near the coast. Marten, or sable, are also numerous, as are lynx, but otter are scarce, and beaver almost unknown. It is probable that the value of gray and black fox skins taken out of the country more than equals in value all the other furs.
Indian Packers Fording a River