The Illustrations of this Work are taken almost entirely from photographs and sketches taken on the spot, and will, it is hoped, possess a certain value and interest, as depicting scenes never before drawn by any pencil, and many of which had never previously been visited by any white man, some of them not even by an Indian. Our most cordial thanks are due to Mr. R. P. Leitch, and Messrs. Cooper and Linton, for the admirable manner in which they have been executed; and to Mr. Arrowsmith, for the great care and labour he has bestowed on working out the geography of a district heretofore so imperfectly known. We also beg to acknowledge the very great obligations under which we lie to Sir James Douglas, late Governor of British Columbia and Vancouver Island; Mr. Donald Fraser, of Victoria; and Mr. McKay, of Kamloops, for much valuable information concerning the two colonies, and who, with many others, showed us the greatest kindness during our stay in those countries. 4, GROSVENOR SQUARE, _June 1st, 1865_. [Illustration: The Western Portion of BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. _Showing the Route followed by_ Lord Milton & Dr. Cheadle. from the Saskatchewan to British Columbia 1863–4. ] THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE BY LAND. CHAPTER I. Sail for Quebec--A Rough Voyage--Our Fellow-Passengers--The Wreck--Off the Banks of Newfoundland--Quebec--Up the St. Lawrence--Niagara--The Captain and the Major--Westward Again-- Sleeping Cars--The Red Indian--Steaming up the Mississippi-- Lake Pippin--Indian Legend--St. Paul, Minnesota--The Great Pacific Railroad--Travelling by American Stage-Wagon--The Country--Our Dog Rover--The Massacre of the Settlers by the Sioux--Culpability of the United States Government--The Prairie--Shooting by the Way--Reach Georgetown. On the 19th of June, 1862, we embarked in the screw-steamer _Anglo-Saxon_, bound from Liverpool to Quebec. The day was dull and murky; and as the trader left the landing-stage, a drizzling rain began to fall. This served as an additional damper to our spirits, already sufficiently low at the prospect of leaving home for a long and indefinite period. Unpleasant anticipations of ennui, and still more bodily suffering, had risen up within the hearts of both of us--for we agree in detesting a sea-voyage, although not willing to go the length of endorsing the confession wrung from that light of the American Church--the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher--by the agonies of sea-sickness, that “those whom God hateth he sendeth to sea.”