92 GEORGE BRYCE : OUTLINES OF 
Indian tribes bringing their furs to the mouth of the river on the bay. By canoe and 
portage Lake Athabasca was reached by this route, which gave immediate communica- 
tion with Mackenzie River to the Arctic Sea; with Great Slave Lake and Great Fish 
or Back River to the north-east; and with Peace River to the west. This last river 
afforded a pass through the Rocky Mountains to New Caledonia, flowing as it does 
through the Rockies from their western side, and connecting there by portages with the 
Fraser and Columbia Rivers of the Pacific slope. 
(2) The second avenue to Rupert's Land was, by leaving Hudson Bay at York 
Factory, ascending Nelson River, and reaching Lake Winnipeg, which has three great 
tributaries : (1) Winnipeg River, which bears toward the lake the waters of Lake of the 
Woods, Rainy Lake and River, and other streams from a point within forty miles of Lake 
Superior ; (2) Red River, which runs from the very sources of the Mississippi northward 
and receives the Assiniboine, one of whose tributaries, the Souris, approaches the Missouri 
at its head waters, and whose main body comes hundreds of miles from the western 
prairies ; (3) the Saskatchewan, the “mighty rapid river” as its name implies, which 
drains, with its two branches, above the forks, a vast country, reaching to the Rocky 
Mountains. The wide region thus drained, consisting of the three geological areas—the 
Laurentian, the Prairie country, and the Rocky Mountain and Pacific slope—owing to its 
numberless lakes and interlacing rivers, afforded, even in its wild and unimproved condi- 
tion, wonderful means of communication for the explorer. 
C. 
The Fur-Trading Companies Promoted, sometimes for their own purposes, and at times for the 
advancement of geographical knowledge, the Exploration of this Domain. 
(1) The French fur-traders, to whom belongs the glory of exploring the Upper Lakes 
and the Mississippi, discovered, by way of Lake Superior, the Winnipeg River branch of 
this communication, and to them belongs the honour of finding, by this route, the Red, 
Assiniboine, Upper Missouri, and Saskatchewan Rivers, even to the Rocky Mountains. 
(2) The original Hudson’s Bay Company, leaving the sea, by the northern route and 
also by Nelson River, in 1774 established themselves on the Saskatchewan, and by the 
year 1800 held numerous points in Rupert’s Land. 
(3) The North-West Company of Montreal, which had, by its still independent 
traders, carried on trade from the Upper Lakes, even to Lake Athabasca, from the year 
1766, became, in the year 1787, a strong company, so that,in a generation, its posts 
stretched from Montreal to Columbia River on the Pacific, and the men in its employ 
numbered five thousand. 
(4) The X Y Company, or New North-West Company, to which belonged Sir Alexander 
Mackenzie and the Hon. Edward Ellice, was an offshoot of the North-West Company, 
and, beginning in 1796, it continued till 1804. It erected posts by the side of those of the 
North-West Company, so that, about the year 1800, there were points where a Hudson’s 
Bay, a North-Wester, and an X Y Fort stood side by side. 
(5) The Astor Fur HP of New York, begun in 1810, only lasted a few years, 
