54 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



there is an immense difference between the navigation of a light canoe 

 and the navigation of a heavily laden bateau against the Fraser at 

 its mid-June height. ^^ In his report 21st June, 1847, he expressed 

 the opinion that "the series of rapids in the vicinity of the Falls (i.e., 

 the lower canyon) extending with intervals of smooth water in all 

 from 2 to 3 miles presents no insurmountable impediment to our 

 progress from the facility of making portages if found necessary, as 

 they doubtless will be, at the higher stages of the water." For the 

 purpose of avoiding the worst of the freshet he suggested that the 

 brigade should so time its movements as to reach Langley about 20th 

 June. "It is difficult," he says, "to realize a conception of the 

 ruggedness of the extraordinary region without actual observation. 

 One is surprised rather at finding any practicable passage than dis- 

 appointed at the reverse." This calls to mind Fraser's vivid descrip- 

 tion of the same locality. As though he foresaw the disturbing 

 events which were soon to occur on the Columbia and imperiously 

 require the immediate adoption of this route, Anderson, before 

 departing for Alexandria, furnished the Indians with the necessary 

 implements to construct a trail for horses across the Cascades to the 

 Fraser at the point where he had left his canoe. 



Douglas, however, was cautious. He determined, in company 

 with J. M. Yale and William Sinclair, personally to examine this 

 stretch of dangerous water in the summer of 1847. His report was 

 decidedly adverse. That section, he said, "will be found exceedingly 

 dangerous at every season and absolutely impassable in the summer 

 freshets when the river is full and attains a level of 60 feet above the 

 low water mark in autumn. The rapids," he continues, "occur at a 

 spot where Fraser's River forces a passage through the Cascade 

 Mountains and stretch from side to side of that stupendous barrier. 

 It is impossible to conceive anything more formidable or imposing 

 than is to be found in that dangerous defile, which cannot for a moment 

 be thought of as a practicable water communication for the transport 

 of valuable property." Clinging tenaciously to his view that a 

 passable road could be made, Douglas, while condemning utterly the 

 water route through the little canyon which Anderson had thought 

 feasible, substituted a cumbrous scheme of ferrying horses and goods 

 and furs across the angry Fraser at Spuzzum and making a trail of 

 about thirteen miles to the spot afterwards known as Fort Yale. 

 Of it he wrote: "This extension of the horse road must be carried 

 through the mountains in a narrow winding defile on the north side 

 of Fraser's River, which runs nearly parallel with it. Though neither 

 ^^Report of A. C. Anderson preserved in the Archives of British Columbia. 



