INTRODUCTION; Xxili 
quently, that richness of vegetation, which on the Mackenzie attracts 
certain quadrupeds to very high latitudes. 
The Rocky Mountains have been crossed in four several places, 
First, by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in the year 1793, at the head of the 
Peace River, between latitudes 55° and 56°. His route was followed, 
in 1806, by a party of the North-west Company, sent to make a settle- 
ment in New Caledonia, and is still occasionally used. by the Hudson’s 
Bay Company. Lewis and Clark, in the year 1805, crossed the 
Mountains in latitude 47°, at the head of the Missouri, in their way to 
the mouth of the Columbia River. For several years subsequent to 
that period, the North-west Company were in the habit of crossing in 
latitude 523°, at the head of the North branch of the Saskatchewan, 
between which and one of the feeding streams of the Columbia there 
is a short portage; but of late years, owing to the hostility of the 
Indians, that route has been deserted, and the Hudson’s Bay Company; 
who now have the whole of the Fur Trade of that country, use a 
portage of considerable length between the northern branch of the 
Columbia and the Red Deer River, one of the branches of the Elk or 
Mackenzie River. Some attempts have very recently been made 
to effect a passage in the 62nd parallel of latitude; but although 
several ridges of the mountains were crossed, it does not appear that 
any stream flowing towards the Pacific was reached. 
. The whole of the country lying to the eastward of the Rocky 
Mountains, and north of the Missouri and Great Lakes, is settled, 
er more or less frequently visited by the Hudson Bay Company’s 
traders, and is well known to them, with the exception of the vicinity 
ef the Polar Sea, and a corner bounded to the westward by the Cop- 
permine River, Great Slave, Athapescow, Wollaston, and Deer Lakes, 
to the southward by the Churchill or Missinippi River, and to the 
northward and eastward by the sea. This north-eastern corner of the 
American continent is often mentioned in the following pages by the 
appellation of the Barren-grounds, which it has obtained from the 
traders on account of its being destitute of wood, except on the banks 
of some of the larger rivers that traverse it. The prevailing rocks in 
