THE LEATHER OR YELLOW HEAD PASS. 197 



was not yet far enougli advanced, and the rivers 

 would be at their height, swollen by the melting of 

 the mountain snows. They assured us that many of 

 the streams were fierce and rocky torrents, ex- 

 ceedingly dangerous to cross, except when low in 

 the autumn, and that the country on the west of the 

 mountains, as far as it was known, was a region 

 rugged and inhospitable, everywhere covered with 

 impenetrable forest ; and even if we descended the 

 Eraser, instead of attempting to reach Cariboo, we 

 should find that river full of rapids and whirl- 

 pools, which had often proved fatal to the most 

 expert canoemen. This pass, known by the several 

 names of the Leather, Jasper House, Cowdung 

 Lake, and Yellow Head Pass, had been formerly 

 used by the voyageurs of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany as a portage from the Athabasca to the Eraser, 

 but had long been abandoned on account of the 

 numerous casualties which attended the navigation 

 of the latter river. 



We were able to learn but little of the country 

 on the west of the mountains, nor could we obtain 

 any certain information of the course which the 

 Canadian emigrants intended to follow. 



From Andre Cardinal, the French half-breed 

 who had guided the party across, we learned that 

 on reaching Tete Jaune's Cache, on the Fraser, at 

 the western part of the main ridge, the band divided, 

 part of them descending the Fraser in large rafts, 

 and the remainder turning south for the Thompson 

 River. Cardinal accompanied them until they reached 



