73 
Interior of British North America. 
bin a, 49° N. lat., on the Red River of the North, which flows 
into Lake Winipeg, collected by Mr. R. Kennicott in September. 
Mr. Murray records it from Hudson's Bay; and Mr. Ross from 
the Mackenzie. My specimen ( f Ibis/ vol. iv. p. 6) I shot at 
the summit of the “ Boundary Pass " of the Rocky Mountains— 
so named by me on account of its western end being in United 
States territory, while the eastern is on the British side of the line. 
It was on the 6th of September, when I was recrossing the 
mountains from the Pacific side. The day previous having been 
Sunday, I had remained encamped, as was my usual custom, 
with my small party (which then consisted of only two Red 
River half-breeds, a Cree Indian, and a dozen horses), in a 
valley in the midst of the mountains. In fact, we had been driven 
to halt sooner than we had intended on the Saturday afternoon, 
on account of a severe storm of rain and wind; and even if we 
had wished, I do not think we could have travelled very well on 
Sunday ; for the storm continued with much violence, and what 
fell upon us as rain was heavy snow higher up on the mountains. 
Next day, however (Monday), we made a start at 6 a.m., and 
travelled up the course of a creek until ten o'clock, when we 
halted for breakfast. Suspecting that we had a good day's 
work before us, I delayed as little as possible; so, repacking the 
horses, we were under way again in less than an hour and a 
half. After two or three miles we began a steep ascent, and 
w r ere soon on ground entirely covered with snow, in which the 
tracks of some Kootonays, on whom I depended for guiding us 
across the pass, were visible. Passing along the edge of a very 
steep hill, it was as much as our horses or ourselves could do in 
some places to keep our footing. We now descended, crossed a 
thickly wooded gully, and then commenced the ascent to the 
watershed through thick forests. The snow increased in depth 
as we advanced, until on arriving at the crest it was two feet on 
the level, and in places drifted to double that depth. It was 
cold work trudging through the snow in thin leather mocassins, 
without socks; and, to make matters worse, it was blowing fresh, 
with more snow falling thickly. However, on arriving at the 
dividing ridge, with the assistance of the Indian, I unpacked the 
horse with the instrument-boxes, and obtained a reading of the 
barometer, which gave an altitude of 6030 feet. Packing up 
