EXPEDITIONS TO PACIFIC. 125 



writer of this paper, from information obtaiucd at Edmoutou aud British Columbia in 

 1872, can testify that Mr. O'B. was not a creation of f^uicy, but that he existed in the flesh. 

 At the elbow- of MeLeod River, Baptiste deserted, but the journey was persevered 

 in. The travellers experienced great ditliculties, and suffered the hardships incident to a 

 journey through that rugged country ; possibly the obstacles would not have been found 

 so trying to men experienced in backwoods life. Th -y continued on the trail of the 

 travellers of the previous year, and on June 29th reached Jaspar House. On July 

 ITth they were at the Yellow Head pass. Occasionally they lost the trail, but the intel- 

 ligence of the Assiniboine invariably regained it. 



They had no definite ol)jective point in British Columbia, and had considered it 

 advisable to follow the route taken by the Canadians, as the trace of it was not w-holly 

 obliterated. At Tête-Jaune-Cache it led them to the southw^ard, where the timber became 

 heavier, the obstruction greater, and the route more difficult to lollow^ Finally they 

 arrived at the spot where the Canadians had made rafts to descend the Thompson, and 

 from this ;^oiut they were compelled to proceed over untrodden ground. 



They could not retreat or leave th(^ deep valley they had entered, so they continued 

 to follow the river. Their hardships and great privations now really commenced, and 

 except for the indomitable spirit which sustained thena, and the resources of the Assini- 

 boine, they must have succumbed. Those familiar with their published narrative, may 

 remember their account of the headless Indian sitting upright as a mummy, with a 

 tattered blanket, by the dead ashes of a fire, with the bones of a horse and a few utensils 

 beside him.' The sight came upon them all as a painful warning of what might be their 

 own fate, a slow death by starvation. They were, however, sustained by the hope that 

 they would ultimately reach some settlement. Soon afterwards they were disheartened 

 by the one hand of the Assiniboine becoming disabled. The woman took her husband's 

 place in cutting out the way. They passed the first three weeks of August in the struggle 

 to advance, worn out wàth fatigue, weak from want of food, and with the prospect 

 before them of death by hunger. They killed their two horses one after the other to 

 supply their Avant. Pressing forward day by day, on August 18th they came on 

 the traces of human beings. Some bushes had recently been cut, a few "blazed" trees 

 succeeded, and they met some Indians w^ho gave them food. Their prowess in eating 

 astonished even the Indians, who are not given to surprise at feats of this description. 



Finally they reached Kamloops, and for some days the whole party could think of 

 nothing but eating. From Kamloops they found their way to New Westminster and 

 Victoria. They returned to the mainland and passed up to Lilloet, Quesnel and Eichfield, 

 to visit the Cariboo gold-diggings. 



Lord Milton and Dr. Cheadle returned to England by the way of California, Panama 

 and New York. A narrative of their adventures appeared in 1865, " The North-West 

 Passage by Land," which has passed throirgh several editions. 



' Tlie reader is referred to Dr. Granl'.s book, Ocean to Oeeaii, ji. 27.5, where tlie roconl is made of tl.e burial of 

 tlicse remains, June ôth, 1872. The head was found I.jO yards up the bank of llie river. Tlie skull was brought to 

 Ottawa, and was lost in the fire of the Canadian Pacific Railway offices in the following year. 



