198 THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



the main branch of the North Thompson, having been 

 guided thither by a Shnshwap Indian from the Cache ; 

 and he further stated that, from a lofty eminence, they 

 had, like the Israelites of old, viewed the promised 

 land, the hills of Cariboo being visible in the far dis- 

 tance. But, in cross-examination, his answers proved 

 very contradictory and obscure. He acknowledged 

 that the Indian knew the gold country only by 

 vague report, and had never visited the region he 

 pointed out as the land they sought. And he was 

 uncertain whether the emigrants intended to try 

 and reach Cariboo direct, or steer for Fort Kamloops 

 on the Thompson. He furnished us, however, with a 

 rough outline of the road as far as he had gone, which, 

 except as to relative distances, proved tolerably correct. 



In addition to the large band which Andre Car- 

 dinal had guided across the mountains, another party 

 of five had left Edmonton late in the autumn of 

 the same year, 1862, with the intention of procuring 

 canoes at Tete Jaune's Cache, and descending the 

 Eraser to Eort George. 



Of the ultimate fate of any of these men, nothing 

 whatever was then known ; the only regular means of 

 communication between the eastern and western side 

 of the mountains being by the Company's brigade, 

 which goes every summer from Eort Dunvegan on 

 Great Slave Lake, by the Peace River Pass, to Eort 

 McLeod; and news brought by this party on their 

 return would not arrive until next year. 



With the exception of the Peace River Pass, which 

 lies far away to the north, all the other routes across 



