THE OTHER PASSES ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS. 199 



the Rocky Mountains, as yet known, lie south of the 

 Leather Pass, and lead to the valley of the Columbia. 

 The Kicking Horse Pass, Howse's Pass, the YermiKon 

 Pass, the Kananaski Pass, and the Kootanie Pass 

 were all explored by Captain Palliser's expedition, and 

 found to be practicable routes. But all these are 

 far to the south of the gold regions. The Athabasca 

 Pass, used occasionally by the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, strikes the Columbia Piver where it is joined by 

 the Canoe Piver, supposed to take its rise in Cariboo. 

 But the latter river, and the head waters of the north 

 branch of the Thompson, were entirely unexplored. 



Mr. Poss indee'd reached Canoe Piver in one 

 of his daring expeditions, but finding the country 

 covered with the densest forest, he turned back at 

 once. And Dr. Hector, who appears to have been 

 the most enterprising of all the members of Captain 

 Palliser's expedition, although he made a determined 

 attempt to reach the head waters of the North Thomp- 

 son from the sources of the North Saskatchewan, was 

 unable to get through. He encountered a forest- 

 growth so dense, and so encumbered with fallen 

 timber, that he had " neither time, men, nor provisions 

 to cope with it, and was nearly overtaken by the snows 

 of winter." He expected to be obliged to abandon his 

 horses, and was thankful to escape by turning south 

 to the more open region of the Columbia valley. 



We therefore determined to adhere to our original 

 design of taking the Leather Pass, following the emi- 

 grants' trail as far as might seem desirable, and then 

 trusting to our imperfect maps and the sagacity of our 



