296 Our North Land. 



comes even earlier than in Manitoba. Grass begins to grow green, 

 and many varieties of trees to bud out, the first week in April. Some 

 little cultivation has been carried on. Potatoes are annually grown ; 

 they are usually fit for use by the first of July, and are ' harvested 

 before the end of September. Wheat has been tried and found to do 

 well. Oats do exceptionally well, and in 1878 two successive crops 

 ripened before the frosts came. The second of course was a " vol- 

 unteer crop." Squashes, cucumbers and other tender vegetables can 

 be grown successfully. Cattle and horses are wintered with ease in 

 this section ; but, as in Manitoba, they require to be stabled and fed 

 during the winter months. 



The Skeena opens during the last week in April, and ice forms 

 over it during the last week in December. It is generally highest 

 in July, and is lowest immediately after the ice goes out. Its vast 

 volume of water is supplied from the melting snow on the mountains. 

 The snow-fall is from five to ten feet on the lower Skeena, but in 

 the neighbourhood of the Forks it does not exceed an average depth 

 of three feet. Above the Forks it is less than two feet, being less 

 throughout than in any location for a long distance south of it. Upon 

 the whole, the general characteristics of the climate are much the 

 same as those of Manitoba. 



On the Watsonkwa River, which joins the Skeena from the 

 south-eastward at the Forks, there is a magnificent valley throughout 

 its entire length. It is partly prairie and sustains a magnificent 

 growth of grass. 



I have thus far scarcely referred to the Indian population of the 

 Skeena region. The coast Indians of British Columbia generally 

 claim the country along the rivers to the head of canoe navigation. 

 Following this rule, they stretch much further inland on the Skeena 

 than elsewhere. The Indians of the Forks speak the same language 

 with the Tshimsians of the coast, with but slight dialectal difference ; 

 while those of the Ahwilgate and Kyahwilgate villages, a few miles 

 up the Watsonkwa, are people of the Tinneh or Carrier stock. 

 Dialects of the Tshimsian are spoken for about eighty miles above 

 the Forks on the line of the river, and up the Babine River to the 

 Canon. The people of the Kispayox village on the river of the same 



