108 SANDFOED FLEMING ON 



idea may be formed of the difficulties the foot-sore travellers overcame. The jouruey 

 itself was hazardous from first to last ; it required the greatest nerve and courage. The 

 travellers, for part of the way, were dependent on the Indians for food, which consisted 

 of dried fish, berries and roots. Except on the upper section of the river, previously 

 visited by Mackenzie, none of the tribes on the route had ever before seen the face of a 

 white man, and caution and prudence were necessary to avoid awakening Indian enmity. 

 The undertaking was bravely and successfully accomplished ; and it is no little owing to 

 Simon Fraser and his associate discoverers, Messrs. Stuart and Quesuel, of the North- 

 West Company, that the country north of the 49th parallel is at this date British territory. 

 Mr. Fraser remained in the service of the company for some years after the discovery 

 of the river which has been named in his honor. On his retirement from his position, 

 he was offered a knighthood, but the honour was declined, owing to his narrow circum- 

 stances. He died at St. Andrews, above Montreal, at the age of eighty-nine, very poor, 

 and leaving no provision for his family.' Such was the fate of this daring explorer, who 

 was so largely instrumental in securing the British foothold on the Pacific coast, without 

 which the Dominion of Canada would have been shut in on the west by the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



(3) Traveh and Discoveries of Mr. David Thompson, 1790-1811. 



David Thompson, whose explorations were undertaken early in the century, was a 

 Welshman ; he was born in ITVO, and educated at the grey coat school, London. He 

 entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1789 ; and proceeded to Fort Churchill, 

 where he remained five years. For the succeeding nine years of his life on this continent 

 he was engaged making surveys of the rivers Nelson, Churchill, Saskatchewan and their 

 tributaries, frequently visiting York Factory during that period. Having completed his 

 engagement with the Hudson's Bay Company, he joined the North-West Company, in 

 1797, when he went to the G-rand Portage near Lake Superior. Following his duties 

 as astronomer and geographer to the company, for a number of years he was present with 

 the Mandan Indians in Missouri, at Lac La Biche, Lake Athabasca, the Rocky Mountains 

 and nearly all the stations of the company throughout the vast territory. 



In 1800, Mr. Thompson entered the Rocky Mountains in latitude 51°, probably in 

 the vicinity of the same pass as that followed by the Canadian Pacific Railway. He 

 descended one of the northern branches of the Columbia, which he called McGillivray 

 River. He was, however, driven back by Indians, and compelled to recross the mountains. 



In 1807, Mr. Thompson was again in the Rocky Mountains and was the first to go 

 through what is known as Howes Pass, by which route he reached the Columbia. He 

 ascended that river to the Columbia Lakes and built Fort Kootenay. In 1808, he des- 

 cended River Kootenay to Kootenay Lake where he entered into trade relations with the 

 Flathead Indians. He returned by another route to Fort Kootenay, descended the 

 Columbia to Blackberry River, and recrossed the mountains by the Howes Pass. He then 



' Three descendants of Simon Fraser survive : liis daughter, IMiss Catherine Harriet Fraser, who resides in 

 Cornwall, and her two brothers, William, who lives in Hamilton, and Roderick, at present in St. Andrews, 

 County of Stormont. 



