REMARKS.

West Lynne...... Have had no sickness.

We have had perfect health here.
The climate is exceedingly healthy.
The climate is very healthy.

The climate is very healthy

The climate is exceedingly healthy.
The climate is healthy.

The country is decidedly good for health

There is no sickness at all.

The climate is healthy.

Had forty-seven years of good health.
I cannot complain of the climate at all.
The climate is very healthy.

There is no sickness.

The climate is quite healthy.

The climate is quite healthy.
My family has never been sick.
The climate is extremely healthy.

CHAPTER XI.

Natural Products of the Soil.

Comparison of Floras-Peace River Flora Compared with that of Ontario-Forest Flora -Flora of the Prairies-List of Species-"Sugar Maple"-Syrup from the BirchWild Plums-Cherries-Service Berries-Their Value-Berries in Pemmican-How Pemmican is Made-Berries for Breakfast-Strawberries-Currants and Gooseberries -Black Currants very Valuable-High Bush Cranberries-Raspberries of Many Species-Jam from the Cloud Berry-Common Cranberries-Blueberries-Wild Sarsaparilla-Silver Berry-Buffalo Berry-Beautiful and Valuable Shrubs-Wild Hops-Hazel Nuts-Flowers and Shrubs at Brandon-Their Beauty and UtilityStrawberries at Brandon-Shrubs of the Prairie-Moose Mountain Flowers- Flowers at the Sand Hills and Flat Creek-Line of C. P. R.-Pipestone Creek-Flowers of the Plain-Great Souris Plain-Acres of Lilies-Gardens of the Prairie-Roses Fill the Air with Perfume-Flowers at Moose Jaw Creek-Flowers of the Cypress Hills— Wild Lupines Covering Square Miles-Mushrooms, their Great Value and Enormous Size and Numbers-Mushrooms over 200 Miles of Country-Lycoperdons (Puffballs) not Poisonous-Flora at Long Lake, Lilies, Anemones, Pentstemons, Potentillas and many Others-Common Poplar a Remedy for Intermittent Fever.

HAVING spent a number of years in exploring the interior plains, and every season having made large collections of the flora, I am able to state what the actual products of the soil are. As every variety of soil and situation changes the flora, an enumeration of the species of each particular district would be necessary to enable a person capable of judging to form a proper estimate of the relation of that particular district, to another well-known one. In writing of the Peace River Flora in 1877, and calling the attention to the climate of that district, I gave lists of the plants collected at certain points on that river, and compared them with those of Belleville, Ontario. The latter city being in Lat. 44°, while the most southern part of the Peace River country was north of Lat. 56°, or 840 miles north of Belleville. As the difference in Longitude is about 43°, the direct distance in a northwest line is close upon 2,250 miles.

The collections referred to were made by myself in 1875, and were as exhaustive as time would permit. It is wellknown, however, that the commoner plants are the typical ones of a district, and these were the species observed by me. The localities mentioned are Hudson's Hope, in Lat. 56° 12' whence Peace River issues from the Rocky Mountains; St. John's, 60 miles to the east; Dunvegan, 120 miles lower down; Fort Vermilion, 300 miles further down and in Lat. 58° 24'. The others were made at Little Red River, 100 miles to the east, and the last at the western end of Lake Athabasca, in Lat. 58° 42'.

In the column under Quebec I place species not found at Belleville, but that belong to a cooler and possibly a moister region. The only species that show any signs of a boreal tendency are those in this column. Of all those obtained at Vermilion only two fell into this column namely, Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus Crista-galli), and the Northern High Bush Cranberry (Viburnum pauciflorum). The features prominent in the whole region were a richness in the soil, and a rankness in the vegetation, never seen in Ontario.

Last summer I spent in the forest country west of Lake Winnipegoosis, and found about the same proportion of species which indicated coolness and moisture, and a larger percentage of eastern forms.

The true prairie flora is altogether distinct from that of the forest, but along every stream, in the prairie, forest species are still numerous, so that an indiscriminate collection from any part of the plains is no indication of its true character.

A better knowledge of the southwest will show that large areas must remain permanent pasture, as there are tracts where the plants indicate not an arctic but a mountain flora, hence being too elevated for agriculture. The more prominent of these areas are the Cypress Hills, and the elevated country that constitutes the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains, lying between Forts McLeod and Calgarry. As I purpose treating of the grasses when speaking of the great pastures, I shall now give a list of all other species of plants which have an economic value.

Sascatoom of the Indian, La Poire of the French Half-breed, and the
June Berry of the Canadian.