74 TALLISER ON THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. [Feb. 27, 1860. 



dary line, whicli passed over a level, arid, sandy plain, inwhicli they 

 could rarely procure water except from occasional swamps ; while 

 these were brackish and their neighbourhood barren of grass. He 

 then crossed the mountains, and reports that his efforts to find a 

 route practicable for horses, from Edmonton westwards, across the 

 Eocky Mountains as far as the longitude of Fort Colville, and entirely 

 within British territory, have been perfectly successful. In addition 

 to this he travelled 50 miles farther until he reached the camp of 

 the United States Boundary Commissioners, in long. 119° 30'. 



Mr. Sullivan describes the mountains immediately to the north of 

 the boundary line as capable of being penetrated in many directions, 

 since they do not assume impracticable shapes. The highest of 

 them does not exceed 2000 feet, many do not deserve to be called 

 mountains at all, and their gently sloping sides, with wide valleys 

 between them, seem to offer facilities for roads in many ways. 



Sir Roderick Murchison, v.p.r.g.s., said, he held in his hand a letter from 

 Dr. Hector, who, it would be remembered, explored all the most difficult parts 

 of the Rocky Mountains in former years, and who, in the present expedition, 

 was directed by his chief to force his way across the northernmost point of the 

 Rocky chain to Thompson Valley, with the view of connecting the country 

 of the Saskatchewan with British Columbia. Dr. Hector was not defeated in 

 his object by the height of the tracks he had to traverse, but he met with 

 such dense and impenetrable forests that, without a large force to cut down the 

 wood, he found it impossible to get through, and he was consequently obliged 

 to turn southward, and rejoin Captain Palliser at Fort Colville. In his 

 letter he expressed the utmost confidence, when an expedition was sent to 

 ascertain the real source of the Thompson and of the tributaries of the Fraser on 

 the one hand, and of the Great Columbia River on the other, that vast sources 

 of auriferous wealth would be opened out which were now unknown. It was of 

 deep importance to consider what was to become of the population which was 

 about to inhabit British Columbia ? That country, though so auriferous, was 

 of such a configuration — the valleys were so narrow, the rivers so rapid, and 

 the mountains so steep — that it was not probable that it could sustain a large 

 population. While this was an objection applicable to the Fraser River 

 district, Dr. Hector spoke of the great breadth of the river courses or eastern 

 tributaries of the Columbia, which he descended, and of the richness of the 

 valley of the Columbia itself. 



Mr. J. A. Roebuck, m.p., said that, looking upon the question as a politi- 

 cian, he viewed with extreme interest all that the geographers told us, because 

 it had long been a dream of his that the English name, race, language, reli- 

 gion, and customs were destined to traverse the continent of America north 

 of the boundary -line between our own and the i)OSsessions of the United 

 States. Hearing now that a hne of transit had been discovered through the 

 Rocky Mountains, he saw that his dream was likely to be fulfilled, and that 

 there lay before us a great field for British enterprise and colonization. He 

 believed we should live to see the time when the continent will be traversed 

 by a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific in British territory. When that 

 day had arrived, what an enormous influence the English name will have 

 acquired ! The region north of the boundary-line was as large as the territory 

 which belonged to the United States, and was not only habitable, but really 

 in parts a pleasant and fertile country, with a climate possessing all the soft- 



