Of the ultimate fate of any of these men, nothing whatever was then known; the only regular means of communication between the eastern and western side of the mountains being by the Company’s brigade, which goes every summer from Fort Dunvegan on Great Slave Lake, by the Peace River Pass, to Fort McLeod; and news brought by this party on their return would not arrive until next year. With the exception of the Peace River Pass, which lies far away to the north, all the other routes across the Rocky Mountains, as yet known, lie south of the Leather Pass, and lead to the valley of the Columbia. The Kicking Horse Pass, Howse’s Pass, the Vermilion Pass, the Kananaski Pass, and the Kootanie Pass were all explored by Captain Palliser’s expedition, and found to be practicable routes. But all these are far to the south of the gold regions. The Athabasca Pass, used occasionally by the Hudson’s Bay Company, strikes the Columbia River where it is joined by the Canoe River, supposed to take its rise in Cariboo. But the latter river, and the head waters of the north branch of the Thompson, were entirely unexplored. Mr. Ross indeed reached Canoe River in one of his daring expeditions, but finding the country covered with the densest forest, he turned back at once. And Dr. Hector, who appears to have been the most enterprising of all the members of Captain Palliser’s expedition, although he made a determined attempt to reach the head waters of the North Thompson from the sources of the North Saskatchewan, was unable to get through. He encountered a forest-growth so dense, and so encumbered with fallen timber, that he had “neither time, men, nor provisions to cope with it, and was nearly overtaken by the snows of winter.” He expected to be obliged to abandon his horses, and was thankful to escape by turning south to the more open region of the Columbia valley. We therefore determined to adhere to our original design of taking the Leather Pass, following the emigrants’ trail as far as might seem desirable, and then trusting to our imperfect maps and the sagacity of our men, to reach either Cariboo or Fort Kamloops at the grand fork of the Thompson, as circumstances might render advisable.