13 



leasing some eight years before of the strip from 54° 40' on the 

 coast up to Mount St. Elias by the Russians to the Hudson's 

 Bay Company. 



In 1850 Campbell obtained permission from Sir George 

 Simpson to descend the river from Fort Selkirk, confident that 

 he would find it to be the Yukon. Accomplishing a journey 

 from the height of land of about 1,200 miles, Campbell proved 

 his surmise correct. From Fort Yukon he ascended the Porcu- 

 pine in company with Murray, crossed on foot to the Peel river 

 and thence ascending the Mackenzie reached Fort Simpson. He 



FORT GOOD HOPE ( Mackenzie River) 



refers with great glee to the surprise of his friends seeing him 

 return to the fort up the Mackenzie instead of down the Liard, 

 as he had been wont to come. The difficulty of the Liard route 

 may be seen from the fact that the regular Hudson's Bay Com- 

 route for transporting the Pelly river furs was by w ay of the 

 Yukon, Porcupine and up the Mackenzie river. 



Campbell, on reaching the junction of the Pelly and Lewis, 

 built his fort, and for a short time it promised to be an important 

 centre, but in 1852 a thieving band of coast Indians, called the 

 Chilkats, made a raid upon Fort Selkirk, plundered and shortly 

 afterwards destroyed it, so that to this day ruins may be seen 



