QQ ' THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Feb. 



luxuriance, -and the root-crops are certainly finer than any I have 

 ever seen in England. The pasturage is almost endless in extent, 

 and so nourishing that the horses turned out in the snow at 

 the commencement of winter, and then thin and in wretched 

 condition, when brought up in the following spring were exceed- 

 ingly fat, and fit to set out at once on the journey before them. 

 Coal-beds of large size exist on the Saskatchewan, Battle, and 

 Pembina Rivers. Clay iron-stone in large quantities was discovered 

 by Dr. Hector, and miners were engaged in washing gold in the 

 river above Edmonton during our stay there. Yet this glorious 

 country, estimated, I believe, by Dr. Hector at forty millions of 

 acres of the richest soil, is, from its isolated position, and from the 

 obstructions put in the way of settlement by the governing power, 

 left utterly neglected and useless, except for the support 

 of a few Indians, and the employes of the Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany. Could communication be established with Canada and 

 British Columbia, this district would, I imagine, become one of 

 the most valuable of the British possessions. After remaining 

 three weeks at Fort Edmonton for rest and preparation, the 

 travellers and their party set out on their journey across the 

 mountains, following the trail between Lake St. Anns and Jasper 

 House ; a day's journey on the road generally consisting of con- 

 tinual floundering through bogs, varied by plunges and jumps over 

 the timber lying strewn, crossed, and interlaced over the path, 

 and on every side. Between Lake St. Anns and the foot of the 

 mountains the forest is almost unbroken — a distance of nearly 

 three hundred miles. After the lapse of twenty-six days from 

 leaving Fort Edmonton, the travellers found themselves fairly in 

 the Rocky Mountains. They followed the course of the Athabasca 

 for some time, but afterwards followed the valley of the Myette, 

 and eventually reached the height of land so gradually that they 

 would hardly believe they had gained the water-shed of the 

 Pacific. A few days after, they struck the Fraser River, already 

 a stream of considerable size. From this point up to the almost 

 perpendicular sides of the narrow valley in which we were shut in, 

 this portion of our journey was the most harassing we had yet 

 experienced. The path lay almost entirely through water up to 

 the horse's girths, the only change being to swamps, embarrassed 

 with fallen timber of very large size. When we reached Moose 

 Lake, an expansion of the Fraser, about fifteen miles long, and two 

 or three wide, our difficulties increased. The trail along the beach 



