THOMPSON'S EIVER. — BEITISH COLUMBIA. 



229 



rison Eivers.* Lytton is at the Forks of the Thompson and 

 Fraser Eivers, and contains eight or ten stores and a Go- 

 vernment House. The Thompson Eiver is about 150 yards 

 wide at its mouth and there is a horse ferry established 

 across it. Fort Kamloops is an important Post situated on 

 the Forks of the Thompson and North Eivers ; the Thomp- 

 son is here 300 yards wide and the North Eiver 320 yards. 

 The head waters of the Thompson are about twenty-two 

 miles east of these Forks and Dr. Hector advanced in 

 1859 from the east side of the Eocky Mountains within 

 sixty miles of the source of the Thompson. He says that 

 it was his wish "to follow the Columbia Eiver down 

 to its great bend at the boat encampment, and thence 

 following up the valley of Canoe Eiver endeavour to pass 

 to the head waters of the Thompson Eiver and so reach 

 British Columbia." Want of provisions, the approach of 

 winter, and the extraordinary thickness of the forest pre- 

 vented Dr. Hector from accomplishing this very interest- 

 ing link between the trails east of the Eocky Mountains 

 and the head waters of the Thompson Eiver ; from which 

 point a pack-road already exists to the Pacific consider- 

 ably to the north of the Boundary Line. 



The more or less speedy opening of a line of communi- 

 cation from the Atlantic to the Pacific through British 

 territory, will be very largely dependent upon the pro- 

 gress of British Columbia. Enough is known respecting 

 the prospects of that distant colony, to warrant the 

 assumption that it will soon become a very wealthy and 

 important British dependency. In the official documents 

 recently published relative to the affairs of British Co- 

 lumbiaf , a considerable amount of valuable information 



* .Papers relative to British. Columbia, Part III., Aug. 1860, p. 33. 



f Further papers relative to the affairs of British Columbia, Part III. 

 Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, 

 August, 1860. 



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