at the former post,
and Mr. Ross the Crees at Wahpooskow, both adjustments, by a
coincidence, being made on the same day.

This completed the Treaty of 1899, known as No. 8, the most
important of all since the Great Treaty of 1876.

The work of the Commission being now over, its members prepared
to leave the country. Messrs. Ross and McKenna set out for Athabasca
Landing, whilst Mr. Laird accompanied us to Pelican Rapids, but left
us there and pushed on, like the others, for home.

There were, of course, many Indians who did not or could not turn
up at the various treaty points that year, viz., the Beavers of St.
John, the Crees of Sturgeon Lake, the Slaves of Hay River, who should
have come to Vermilion, and the Dog-Ribs, Yellow-Knives, Slaves,
and Chipewyans, who should have been treated with at Fort Resolution,
on Great Slave Lake.

Accordingly, a special commission was issued to Mr. J. A. Macrae,
of the Indian Office in Ottawa, who met the Indians the following
year at the points named, and in May, June, and July, secured
the adhesion of over 1,200 souls, making, with subsequent adhesions,
a total of 3,568 souls to the 30th June, 1906.

The largest numbers were at Forts Resolution, Vermilion, Fond
du Lac, and Lesser Slave Lake, the latter ranking fourth in
the list. Of course, there are still to be treated with the
Indians of the Mackenzie River and the Esquimaux of the Arctic
coast. But Treaty Eight covers the most valuable portions of
the Northern Anticlinal, though this is a conjecture, 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
Fort Providence, potatoes, turnips and barley ripened, and also
wheat when tried, though this, he thought, was uncertain. 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
parallel 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