SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 77 



AGRICULTUEE, EASTERN SLOPE. 



The climate is too severe to permit agriculture ou the eastern slope, 

 and hence no special provisions will be required. 



GRAZING, BASTEEN SLOPE. 



A few hundred head of cattle have found range here at certain sea 

 sons of the year, but because of the small area of grass lands this 

 industry can not reach important proportions. A very simple system of 

 permits, perhaps restricted altogether to residents of the Indian reser- 

 vation, will suffice. 



LIQUOR, EASTERN SLOPE. 



The sale of liquor to the Indians has been prohibited in former 

 years within the area now reserved. They have hitherto been pro- 

 tected from whisky traders by the broad strip of rugged mountains, 

 into which the Indians rarely venture, for they are essentially plains- 

 men. But now that a mining population is to extend itself over the 

 mountain strip, in close proximity to the dwelling places of the Indians, 

 the sale of liquor to them will become easy unless a special regulation 

 is issued and enforced. The results to the Indians of an easy trade in 

 liquor do not require to be dwelt upon here. The matter was brought 

 to my attention by the head chief of the Blackfoot J^ation, who was and 

 is extremely anxious that action should be taken in the line indicated 

 above. 



WESTERN SLOPE. 



Tbe western slope of the Flathead Eeserve is more moist in climate 

 and more densely forested than the eastern slope. It includes part of the 

 head waters of the Stillwater Eiver, a tributary of the Flathead, and 

 nearly the whole drainage area of the North Fork of the latter stream. 

 The topography is less rugged and abrupt than that of the eastern slope, 

 except close to the continental divide, where the scenery is often grand 

 and beautiful to a most unusual degriee. 



THE FOREST, WESTERN SLOPE, 



The forest, composed chiefly of larch, western cedar, Douglas flr (red 

 fir), mountain white pine (silver pine), Engelmaun spruce, hemlock, 

 and cottonwoods, is in sharp contrast, both in size and richness, with 

 the forest of the eastern slope just described. In general character 

 of timber and in the uses of its trees it is not unlike the Priest Eiver 

 Eeserve, farther west, except that the forest is somewhat more dense. 

 In places the trees are conspicuously larger in size, but I am not suffi- 

 ciently familiar with the whole area to generalize with safety. The 

 descriptions of individual trees should, I believe, conform quite closely 

 to those of the Priest Eiver Eeserve, to which, accordingly, inquiries 

 are referred. 



FIRE, WESTERN SLOPE. 



Fire is gradually penetrating this most valuable timber region, and 

 it will continue to encroach mores and more rapidly until effective meas- 

 ures against it can be put in action. The difficulty of extinguishing 

 fires is greatly increased by the quantity of vegetable d6bris which 

 covers the soil and in which they sometimes smoulder for weeks, often 

 unbetrayed by even the slightest smok^,. 



