Interior of British North America. 73 



biiia, 49° N. lat., on the Red River of the North, which flows 

 into Lake Winipeg, collected by Mr. R, Kennicott in September. 

 Mr. Murray records it from Hudsou^s Bay ; and Mr. Ross from 

 the Mackenzie. My specimen (' Ibis/ vol. iv. p. 6) I shot at 

 the summit of the " Boundary Pass " of the Rocky Mountains — 

 so named by me on account of its western end being in United 

 States territory, while the eastern is on the British side of the line. 

 It was on the 6th of September, when I was recrossing the 

 mountains from the Pacific side. The day previous having been 

 Sunday, I had remained encamped, as was my usual custom, 

 with my small party (which then consisted of only two Red 

 River half-breeds, a Cree Indian, and a dozen horses), in a 

 valley in the midst of the mountains. In fact, we had been driven 

 to halt sooner than we had intended on the Saturday afternoon, 

 on account of a severe storm of rain and wind ; and even if we 

 had wished, I do not think we could have travelled very well on 

 Sunday ; for the storm continued with much violence, and what 

 fell upon us as rain was heavy snow higher up on the mountains. 

 Next day, however (Monday), we made a start at 6 a.m., and 

 travelled up the course of a creek until ten o^clock, when we 

 halted for breakfast. Suspecting that we had a good day's 

 work before us, I delayed as little as possible ; so, repacking the 

 horses, we were under way again in less than an hour and a 

 half. After two or three miles we began a steep ascent, and 

 were soon on ground entirely covered with snow, in which the 

 tracks of some Kootonays, on whom I depended for guiding us 

 across the pass, were visible. Passing along the edge of a very 

 steep hill, it was as much as our horses or ourselves could do in 

 some places to keep our footing. We now descended, crossed a 

 thickly wooded gully, and then commenced the ascent to the 

 watershed through thick forests. The snow increased in depth 

 as we advanced, until on arriving at the crest it was two feet on 

 the level, and in places drifted to double that depth. It was 

 cold work trudging through the snow in thin kather mocassins, 

 without socks ; and, to make matters worse, it was blowing fresh, 

 with more snow falling thickly. However, on arriving at the 

 dividing ridge, with the assistance of the Indian, I unpacked the 

 horse with the instrument-boxes, and obtained a reading of the 

 barometer, which gave an altitude of 6030 feet. Packing up 



