128 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
APPENDIX 
EXTRACT FROM DouGuas’ JOURNEY TO Hupson’s Bay; PUBLISHED IN 
THE COMPANION TO THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE, VOL. II, pp. 135-138. 
“At noon on the 27th of April, we had the satisfaction of landing at 
the Boat Encampment at the base of the Rocky Mountains. How 
familiar soever these snowy mountains have been to us, so that we 
might be expected to lose an adequate idea of their immense altitude, 
yet on beholding the Grand “ Dividing Ridge” of this mighty continent, 
all that we have seen before seems to fade from the mind, and to be for- 
gotten in the contemplation of their height and indescribably rugged 
and sharp peaks, with the darkness of the rocks, their glaciers and eter- 
nal snows. 
The principal branch of the Columbia is here sixty yards wide, the 
Canoe River forty, and the middle one, [Wood river] on whose banks 
we ascend, is thirty. 
On Saturday the 28th, having packed the whole of my journals in 
a tin box, and carrying a case of seeds and a shirt or two, tied up in a 
bundle, we commenced our march across the mountains in an easterly 
direction, first entering a low swampy piece of ground, about three miles 
long, knee-deep of water, and covered with rotten ice, through which we 
sank more than a foot down at every step that we took. Then we 
crossed a deep muddy creek, and entered a point of wood, principally 
consisting of Pine, P. balsamea, nigra, alba, and Strobus, together with 
Thuja plicata. About eleven we entered the snow, which was four to 
seven feet deep. moist and soft, which, together with the fallen timber, 
made walking in snow shoes very fatiguing. We camped that night 
on the west side of the middle branch of the Columbia. Except two 
species of Squirrel, we saw no animals. 
Sunday the 29th, min. heat 23°, max. 43°. After a sound and re- 
freshing night’s rest, we started at four this morning, proceeding for six 
miles due East; in the course of which we made as many traverses or 
fordings of the river, which was two and a half to three feet deep, clear, 
and with a powerful current. Though the breadth did not exceed 
twenty-five to fifty yards, the length of time passed in the water was 
considerable, for the feet cannot with safety be lifted from the bottom, 
as if once the water gets under the soles of the feet, which should be 
glided along to prevent this, over goes the whole person. In very 
powerful currents, it is necessary to pass in a body, and the one support- 
ing the other, in an oblique direction. Then we came to a level valley, 
