50 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



existed between New Caledonia and Astoria.^ Other entries, never- 

 theless, indicate that the line of trade continued to lead across the 

 mountains. 



After the union of the North West and the Hudson's Bay com- 

 panies in 1821, Governor Simpson found himself so busy with the 

 adjustment of affairs east of the Rocky Mountains that it was not 

 until October, 1824, that he was able to give his personal attention to 

 the Pacific slope.^ It is said that he had already considered the 

 possibility of a shorter route for the trade of New Caledonia, and that 

 in 1822 John McLeod had made, by his instructions, an attempt to 

 find an outlet by way of the Fraser River.' Such a route had been 

 often discussed; in 1814 Ross had made an unsuccessful effort to 

 find it;* and when Simpson arrived he had to face his transportation 

 problems on the basis of the Columbia's being the only available way. 

 It is not intended to deal with the adjustments then made; it is 

 sufficient that he reorganized the transport service and decreed that 

 the goods for Thompson River and New Caledonia should be taken 

 by bateaux up the Columbia to Fort Okanagan at the mouth of the 

 Okanagan River, thence overland to Kamloops and on to Fort 

 Alexandria, there to be retransferred into bateaux for their dift^erent 

 destinations.^ The produce of the region was to come out over the 

 same route. Setting out from the furthermost posts of New Cale- 

 donia in June, the brigade, as this transport was called, grew in volume 

 as it gathered the returns from other forts. On leaving Alexandria, 

 where the land travel commenced, it comprised probably more than 

 two hundred horses; Kamloops added the quota of the Thompson 

 River district, and the brigade continued to Okanagan where the 

 water carriage was resumed. 



The connection between Alexandria and Okanagan was known as 

 the brigade trail; it was a line as definite as any road of to-day; 

 and the brigade travelled along it, as along the whole route, upon a 



^Harmon's Journal, 1820, ed. p. 240; 1903, ed. p. 202; entry of April 17, 1814. 



^The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, vol. xi, pp. 246-7, containing 

 an article upon Peter Skene Ogden by T. C. Elliott. 



^See an address by Sir Sanford Fleming in the Transactions of the Royal Society 

 of Canada, 1889, pp. 113-114. And see also Journals and Correspondence of John 

 McLeod in the Department of Archives, Ottawa. 



^Alexander Ross, Fur Hunters of the Far West, vol. I, p. 42 et seq. 



^See John Work's Journal in Washington Historical Quarterly, vol. v, p. 284 

 et seq. At the General Council at York Factory on 2nd July, 1825, the following 

 resolution was adopted: "20. New Caledonia Returns next Spring to be taken to 

 Fort Vancouver and receive there the Outfit for 1826." 



