306 GEOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
Valdes and Galiano, who were at the same time with Vancouver in this locality, (June, 
1792,) discovered here, also, the sand banks near the mouth of the river, experienced the 
current of the river, saw great trunks carried away by these currents, tasted sweet water, 
and observed, from far in the snowy mountains, a deep, broad cut or valley, (una quebrada 
ancha,) the valley of Fraser’s river; and they, from all this, concluded that there must be a 
great river in the neighborhood. They supposed it to empty into the salt water canal which 
Elisa had called Canal de Florida Blanca, (Vancouver’s Burrard’s canal.) But they searched 
for it in vain in this canal, and the river remained undiscovered also by them.* 
The same river was, а year after Vancouver, (June, 1793,) discovered and navigated in its 
upper parts by Alexander MacKinzie, who introduced for it the Indian name Facoutche 
Fessee, (said to signify great river.) After this it was supposed to be a branch of Columbia 
river. After the year 1806, Mr. Harmon, of the Northwest Company, explored many upper 
branches of this river. 
In the year 1812 another agent of the Northwest Company, Mr. Fraser, reached it again 
from the interior, traced it very far down, and made it nearly certain that it was not a part of 
the Columbia river, but that it entered into the Gulf of Georgia. Since that time the river 
has been called Fraser’s river. 
The first European who passed down the whole river from its head to its mouth, and who 
observed more accurately the longitudes, latitudes, and turning of its course, was Sir George 
Simpson, governor of the Hudson Bay Company’s territories, in the year 1828. 
19. Mount BAKER (489 40’ north latitude, 44° 40’ west longitude) is one of the loftiest and 
most conspicuous peaks of the northern Cascade range; it is nearly as high as Mount Rainier, 
and, like that mountain, its snow-covered pyramid has the form of a sugar-loaf. (See sketch.) 
It is visible from all the waters and islands which we have just described, and from the whole 
southeastern part of the Gulf of Georgia, and likewise from the eastern division of the Strait 
of De Fuca. It is for this region a Кре and important landmark, as Mount Rainier is for 
Admiralty Inlet. 
The Spaniards, Quimper and S (1191,) were probably the first discoverers of this 
mountain, and called it La Montaña del Carmelo. This may be concluded from the circumstance 
that the historian of the expedition of the Sutil and Mexicana (1792) uses the name as an 
already old and known appellation.t It seems, however, that this name was not given 
exclusively to this peak, but to the whole snowy range between Mount Baker and Mount 
Rainier. 
On the expedition of асы Lieutenant Joseph Baker, of the ship Discovery, discovered 
this mountain for the first time in the afternoon of the 30th of April, 1792, at the ship station 
near Fort Discovery, from which point it bore north 43° east. Vancouver called it after him, 
Mount Baker, which name it has always retained. Mount Baker, which stands quite near the 
49th degree of north latitude, may be said to be the northwestern boundary pillar of the 
territory of the United States, and with it we conclude this review. 
© See account of the voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana, page 64. 
t For instance, on page 47 of the Sutil and Mexicana. 
