“Nor is there any reason to believe that 1849 will witness a diminution in the rate at which this extraordinary process of depletion is going forward; on the contrary, there is every symptom of its probable acceleration.”—(Morning Chronicle, 1849, on Irish Emigration.)
(25) A few extracts concerning them will be interesting. “The chain of the Rocky Mountains, after being considerably depressed in latitude 46° and 48°, attains a much higher elevation from latitude 48° to 49°, and, continuing in a westerly direction, it separates the affluents of the Saskatchewan and MʻKenkie from those of Columbia or Oregon and other rivers which flow into the Pacific. These mountains appear to decrease again from about 58° to 62° northern latitude, where probably they do not exceed 4000 feet in height; and, still further north, are estimated at less than 2000 feet, between the latitudes of 42° and 58° north. Several peaks rise far above the snow line.
“Wherever the head waters of the rivers, on the east and west sides of the Rocky Mountains, approach nearest each other, there have been found passes through them. Of these, perhaps the most important is the south pass. Between Mount Brown and Mount Hooker, in latitude 52½, another very important pass, offering great facility of communication between the Oregon and Canada, by the waters of the Columbia and the north branches of the Saskatchewan, which, flowing into Lake Winnipeg, gives easy access to Hudson’s Bay and the great lakes.
“Among the most awful features of mountain scenery lies the great northern outlet of the territory, resembling the southern in many of its features, with even more sublimity of character, but especially in having the sources of several great rivers within a very short distance of each other. Here are the head waters of the Athabasca and north tributaries of the Saskatchewan, which falls into Lake Winnipeg; and on the east the northern waters of the Columbia, and the eastern branch of Frazer’s River, near a deep cliff in the mountains, which has been called by British traders the Committee’s Punch Bowl.”—Rev. C. G. Nicolay.
The first who penetrated the Rocky Mountains was Sir Alexander Mackenzie, then in the service of the North-West Company. In the year 1793 he crossed them in about latitude 54°, discovered Frazer’s River, [A] descended it for about 250 miles, then struck off in a westerly direction, and reached the Pacific in latitude 52° 20’. In 1808 Mr. Frazer, also under the orders of the North-Western Company, crossed the Rocky Mountains and established a trading post on Frazer’s River, about latitude 54°; and in 1811 Mr. Thompson, also an agent of that company, discovered the northern head waters of the Columbia, about latitude 52°, and erected some huts on its banks.
[A] Frazer’s River has its embouche six miles to the north of the 49th parallel, which defines the United States boundary. It is a mile wide. The country around is low, with a rich alluvial soil.
Fort Langley is twenty miles from its mouth.
Sir George Simpson made a journey of 2000 miles in forty-seven days, from the Red River, viâ Fort Edrington, to Fort Columbia, in 1841; he crossed the Rocky Mountains, at the confluence of two of the sources of Saskatchewan and Columbia, at an elevation of 8000 feet above the level of the sea.