226 CAPT. R. W. TORRENS' JOURNEY TO FORT SIMPSON. [June 25, 1860. 



The Chairman said that ho was sure they would all participate in the 

 sentiments which Mr. Petherick had so forcibly, succinctly, and ably ex- 

 pressed. Every geographer who had turned his attention to the subject of the 

 discovery of the Sources of the Nile, well knew the difficulties that would 

 attend the explorations of Captains Speke and Grant, when they arrived at 

 the north end of Lake Nyanza, and in reaching those portions of the Nile to 

 which no traveller of any nation had as yet ever penetrated. It was in order to 

 render assistance to these gallant men in this the most difficult portion of their 

 journey, where they would have to pass through a country inhabited by hostile 

 and dangerous tribes, that Mr. Petherick had offered his services. He was 

 willing to abandon his other occupations and to give up his time to meet his 

 felloAV-countrymen in this region of the interior. He had only to repeat the 

 expression of his admiration of the proposal, and he did most earnestly hope 

 that British geographers would, by their subscriptions, support this noble 

 enterprise. 



Tlie Papers read were : — 

 1 . Journey to Fort Simpson, Queen Charlotte Islands. By Captain 



E. W. TORRENS. 



Communicated by the Duke of Newcastle, f.r.g.s., H. M. Secretary for the 



Colonies. 



The country throngli which the Nass Eiver flows, like the whole 

 north-west coast of British Columbia, is one long-continued forma- 

 tion of slate, with frequent veins of crystallized quartz. Immense 

 mountains rise on either side, whose summits are covered with 

 eternal snows, and under one of these our first camp upon the Nass 

 was pitched. 



From the third Indian village (8th day) upwards, the character of 

 the country changes. 



Evidences of volcanic action at some remote period are mani- 

 fested in the blistered and discoloured appearance of the rocks ; 

 frequent veins of decomposed quartz occur, and bars of slateic 

 boulders, covered with a slimy vegetation, supersede the shifting 

 gravel bars of the lower river. 



The miners agreed in saying that the -geological formation of this 

 district was as auriferous in indications as any they had ever seen, 

 and they were very sanguine of results. 



At 110 miles from Fort Simpson we came to a point where the 

 river takes a rectangular turn, falling at the rate of from 10 to 12 

 feet per mile. Its waters are hurled furiously through the canon, 

 forming below the angle a whirlpool some 300 feet in circumference. 

 Upon its outer edge, and at intervals of a few moments, the waters 

 boil up from beneath as from a cauldron, raising the level of the 

 current several foet, and then bursting with a fury that carries 

 everything before it. 



