TKEATY AT LESSEE SLAVE LAKE 67 



with the Indians of the Mackenzie Eiver and the Esquimaux 

 of the Arctic coast. But Treaty Eight covers the most valu- 

 able portions of the Northern Anticlinal, though this is a con- 

 jecture, as the resources of the lower Mackenzie Basin, and 

 even of the Barren Lands, are only now becoming known, 

 and may yet prove to be of great value. Bishop Grouard 

 told me that at their Mission at Eort Providence, potatoes, 

 turnips and barley ripened, and also wheat when tried, though 

 this, he thought, was imcertain. I have also heard Chief- 

 factor Camsell speak quite boastfully of his tomatoes at Fort 

 Simpson. As a matter of fact, little is known practically as- 

 to the bearing of the climate and long summer sunshine on 

 agriculture in the Mackenzie District. But be that region 

 what it may, there has been already ceded an empire in itself,, 

 extending, roughly speaking, from the 54th to the 60th paral- 

 lel of north latitude, and from the 106th to the 130th degree 

 of west longitude. In this domain there is ample room for 

 millions of people; and, as I must now return to the Half- 

 breed Commission on Lesser Slave Lake, I shall give, as we 

 go, as fair a picture as I can of its superficial features and 

 the inducements it offers to the immigrant. 



