206 A NOTE FROM THE FAR NORTH. 
true, did manage to fill up the blank in a wonderfully in- 
accurate way, just as they used to— 
“In Afric’s maps 
With savage pictures fill the gaps, 
And o’er inhabitable d 
PI h 
? 
want of towns.” 
en 
Even of the upper waters of the Fraser, Nasse, or Skena 
Rivers, no trustworthy chart existed. Much less could 
we expect those of the Pelly or Liard to be accurate. 
At Fort St. James, on Stuart’s Lake, latitute 54° 44’, 
longitude (approximate) 124° 48’, the unknown country 
may be said to begin. Here for the first time we notice 
the outlying peaks of another set of mountains, which 
completely fill the valley (a degree farther north) be- 
tween the Coast Range and the Rocky Mountains. 
These mountains, though known by name to geogra- 
phers, have always had their altitude underestimated. 
Near Stuart’s Lake they are as high as three thousand 
feet above the general level of the lakes. At Lake Tatleh 
they rise to five thousand feet. At Bear Lake, about lati- 
tude 56° 15’ N., they are from six thousand to eight thou- 
sand, and near Lake Toutah they rise often as high as ten 
thousand feet. These altitudes are only given as ubove 
the general, or lake levels. Add to them from three thou- 
sand to five thousand feet, and it will at once be seen that 
they attain no mean elevation above the sea level. Per- 
haps I can give no more just idea of the general features 
of the country around Lake Toutah, than to state that the 
land rises into a plateau, about 3,500 feet above the sea 
level. This plateau, lying between the Coast and Rocky 
Mountaii , is dotted over with peaks of the above-men- 
tioned heights. Sometimes neighboring peaks are joined 
by their bases; often one finds them completely isolated. 
Nature seems to have set at defiance all law and order, 
