OUR ALASKAN EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



THE LIARD RI\ ER REGION. 



J. STONE. 



The Liard, draining an immense basin to 

 the West of the Rocky mountains, and re- 

 ceiving numerous considerable tributaries 

 before crossing to the Eastern side has be- 

 come a large stream ere it penetrates the 

 range. 



The chief affluents are the Black (or Mud), 

 the Dease, the Francis, the Highland and 

 Coal rivers. The area drained by these 

 streams may be embraced as follows: From 

 56 to 62 N. Lat. and 126 15' to 132 W. 

 Lon. 



Dease river, rising in Dease lake, at an al- 

 titude of 2,660 feet, 58 30' N., 130 W., 

 flows East of North 170 miles. For the first 

 25 miles it is narrow and rapid, yet navigable 

 by small craft. Then follows a chain of lakes 

 through which the river flows, and here the 

 current is sluggish and the volume aug- 

 mented by the accession of several consider- 

 able tributaries. Here light-draft steamers 

 might easily make way. 



The entire system comprised in this Dease 

 drainage is well stocked with fish, notably 

 the pike, arctic grayling, trout, white, and 

 round fish. White fish are taken in autumn 

 just before the closing of the streams, and 

 furnish more of the food of the natives, prob- 

 ably, than all the other varieties combined. 



Near its source the Dease flows through 

 a narrow valley walled in by precipitous 

 ranges, but these widen more and more as 

 one descends, and long before the Liard is 

 reached the mountains have faded from 

 view, and the eye meets one wide expanse of 

 tangle and desolation, the muskegs of the 

 Northwest. 



The bed of the upper Dease is mostly 

 mud or sand and gravel, but quite a long 

 reach of its lower course passes over a bot- 

 tom of solid bed rock. Two short rapids one 

 and 6 miles from the mouth are dangerous; 

 the one from a mass of bowlders which ob- 

 struct the channel, the other from ledges of 

 slate which project like knife-edges from the 

 bottom, threatening to carve the boat of the 

 voyageur. Ours was slightly damaged, 

 though navigated by natives familiar with 

 the rapids. 



Spruce — the most important timber — bor- 

 ders the stream in places. This with aspen, 

 black pine, cottonwood, and small birch, 

 form the principal woods. Alder, of course, 

 abounds, with many varieties of willow. A 

 place known as " The Horse Ranch " pro- 

 duces abundant grass, and as many as 100 

 pack animals have wintered there comfort- 

 ably, feeding on these native grasses. 



A great variety of berries grow, some of 



them in great abundance, strawberries, 

 gooseberries, red raspberries, black, blue 

 and red currants, cranberries, and huckle- 

 berries are the chief, and the only ones made 

 use of by the natives. 



The Francis river rises in Francis lake on 

 the Northern borders of the Cassiar moun- 

 tains and after a rapid course of about 80 

 miles South Eastward discharges into the 

 Liard, which latter stream has its true 

 source quite near that of the Francis, but 

 farther West. Rising in the Northern ex- 

 tremity of the Cassiar mountains the Liard 

 laps with tributaries of the Yukon, and then 

 flows in a general course Southeast to its 

 junction with the Dease, receiving the Fran- 

 cis from the North on the way. From the 

 confluence of the Dease the Liard flows 

 East-Southeast to Hell's Gate, Highland and 

 Coal rivers pouring in from the North and 

 the Black from the South. Highland and 

 Coal rivers drain an extensive chain of 

 small lakes from 150 to 200 miles from the 

 Liard, and are easily navigable by canoes. 

 The Black from the South also drains some 

 considerable lakes and the beautiful range 

 Walker mountains. This whole region 

 North and South of the Liard is dotted with 

 lakes, some of them of considerable size. 



As one nears Hell's Gate the timber in- 

 creases in size. A tree 18 inches in diameter 

 on the Dease or upper Liard is rare, while 

 at one of our camps below Hell's Gate, 

 where I built my boat, spruce and cotton- 

 wood 36 inches in diameter were common, 

 some even reaching 40 inches. The lake 

 region embracing the country from Black 

 river to Hell's Gate is dotted all over with 

 Hot Springs To the presence of these is no 

 doubt due the luxuriant growth of grass 

 noted by McConnell in his explorations in 

 1887. Rising, many of them, on lands ele- 

 vated above the general level, their heated 

 waters flow down toward the river, dissolv- 

 ing the snows in winter and stimulating the 

 growth of vegetation at an earlier time than 

 is found in other neighboring regions. Even 

 in the severest weather the waters of some 

 of them reach the river unfrozen, others 

 forming ice cascades in many cases 100 feet 

 high, and gorgeous with all the tintings of 

 the rainbow. 



The Indians informed me that they could 

 boil meat in some of these thermal springs, 

 but I found none where this would have 

 been possible. Their waters are in many 

 cases highly charged with minerals, but of 

 what kinds and to what extent I was un- 

 able to determine. 



9 1 



