[ERMATINGER] YORK FACTORY EXPRESS JOURNAL 79 
Saturday, 28th.—Morning sharp frost, day fine and warm. People 
commence arranging and strapping their loads at 4 p.m. Cross over 
the property to be left and put it en cache. Return and haul up the boat 
and then start about 7 0o’clock—course easterly. Our road lies first 
thro’ woods and swamps along the banks of the river! and then we 
cross the Ist point of woods and encamp having travelled about 9 
miles. We found in the woods snow knee deep occasionally which 
caused us to put on our Pas d’ours. Two of our Iroquois who would 
not have carried snow shoes from the Boat Encampment, had I not 
insisted upon them having them, now found them very useful and were 
glad to put them on. A wolverine hovers about our camp and Mr. 
Douglas wounds him, but he escapes. 
Sunday, 29th.—Fine clear weather. Resume our journey at 4 a.m. 
Our track commences on the Battures? over which we travel about 10 
miles, having forded the Columbia’ main stream in that space 13 times, 
the depth of water never exceeding 3 feet. Enter the 2nd Point of 
Woods about 9 o’clock and travel near 3 miles and encamp at noon, 
the snow having become too soft for us to continue further this day. 
The road thro’ these woods is very bad and difficult to be found not 
being distinctly marked as was the case in the point we passed yesterday. 
This causes much additional labour to the people and often leads them 
out of their way not one of them knowing the road properly. If the 
person returning with the horses in the fall and best acquainted with 
the proper track were desired to mark the trees sufficiently high not to 
be hidden by the snow it would be a great relief to the people going out 
in the spring. The snow shoes or Pas d’ours we traded from the Indians 
are very bad and too small and break often. I would therefore suggest 
that in future a sufficiency for the Express people might be made at 
Fort Colville, a little larger than the 2 pairs we got from there this 
spring, as it would render the travelling much easier and prevent the 
uncertainty of obtaining them from Indians. See geese—killa partridge. 
Monday, 30th.—Sharp frost in the morning—fine day. Course 
north—start at 4 a.m. Continue thro’ the woods about + mile and fall 
upon the river then travel upon the battures about 9 miles having 
forded the main stream 7 times and arrive at the foot of the Grand Cote 

! He is now ascending Wood river, apparently so named after the dense forest’ 
traversed by the portage road up its valley. 
2 In the Rockies, wherever the bottom of thevalley widens sufficiently to per- 
mit, the stream spreads ouc in numerous channels through the sand and gravel bars. 
These ‘bottoms’ were called ‘battures’ by the voyageurs. 
3 A clerical error for Wood river. 
‘From Boat Encampment to this point a distance of 22 miles, the ascent is 
comparatively easy; total rise about 1,000 feet. He has now reached the foot of 
the long steep ascent of 3,000 feet in 7 or 8 miles to the summit of Athabaska pass. 
