112 SANDFOED FLEMING ON 



motley gathering of voyageurs, soldiers, Indians and half-breeds. The De Meurou soldiers 

 represented uearl}' every country in Europe. Besides natives of Canada and the United 

 States, Mr. Cox saw men from the Sandwich Islands, two negroes and an East Indian 

 from Bengal. Proceeding by Sault St. Mary, French River and the Ottawa, Mr. Cox 

 reached Montreal on September 19th, five months and three days from the date of leaving 

 the Pacific coast. 



C7) Travels of Mr. D. W. Harmon, 1800—1819. 



Mr. Daniel William Harmon left Lachine on April 29th, 1800, in company with 

 several other officers, under an engagement of seven years service with the North-West 

 Company. They passed Sault St. Mary on May 30th, reached Grand Portage on .Tune 

 13th, and Lake Winnipeg on August 10th. In November he was at Swan River post ; 

 on October 23rd, 1801, he mentions having met Mr. William Henry at this place. From 

 1802 to 1807, Mr. Harmon was stationed at Fort Alexandria, Lac la Biche, Qu'Appelle, 

 Dauphin, Swan River, Rainy Lake, Bird Mountain and Cumberland House. In 1807 he 

 made a journey to Fort Duncan, on the north shore of Lake Nepigon, where he spent the 

 winter. In 1808 he set out for the far west, reached Lake Winnipeg on August 1st, Cum- 

 berland House on August 12th, and Fort Chipewyan on September 7th. He here met 

 Simon Fraser, on his return from the Pacific coast. The same year he reached Duuvegan 

 on Peace River. From 1809 to 1819, Mr. Harmon was engaged at various i)oints in the 

 Peace River region and in New Caledonia to the west of the Rocky Mountains. In 1810 

 we find him at Rocky Mountain Portage Fort ; in 1811, at Stuart Lake ; in 1813, at McLeod 

 Lake ; in 1814, at Fraser Lake. It does not appear that Mr. Harmon ever reached the 

 Pacific coast ; he however passed eight and a-half years on the western side of the Rocky 

 Mountains. The description of his travels and experience accords with the other expedi- 

 tious related in this paper. 



Mr. Harmon finally left McLeod Lake on May 8th, 1819, and arrived at Fort William, 

 Lake Superior, on August 18th, the same year, en route for Montreal. 



Harmon's Journal, published in 1820, furnishes an interesting narrative of a fur 

 trader's life in these early days. He gives a full and entertaining account of the Indian 

 tribes with which he came in contact on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. 



(8) The Travels of Mr. Alexander Ross, 1811—1825. 



Mr. Alexander Ross, one of the twenty-eight Canadians who landed at the mouth of 

 the Columbia in 1811, has related his adventures during the fifteen years he remained on 

 the Pacific coast, and given a narrative of his expedition across the continent. Mr. Ross was 

 in Upper Canada when he was invited by Mr. Alexander McKay, the senior partner, to join 

 the Pacific Fur Company, then being organized by Mr. Astor. He proceeded with several 

 Canadians to New York, and there embarked for the month of the Columbia, with thirty- 

 three different persons, all but three of whom were British subjects. Mr. Ross was present 

 when Astoria was established, and when David Thompson, of the North-West Company, 

 arrived there a few weeks later. He describes the circumstances which led, in the 

 following summer, to the breaking up of the Pacific Fur Company, and the transfer of the 



