The principal advantages to be urged in favour of the southern passes, appear to be that they communicate with more open country on either side, that pasturage is plentiful along the road, and that from their lower latitude they are liable to be blocked up by snow for a somewhat shorter period. Against these the claims of the route by Jasper House may be briefly summed up as follows:--First, it offers the most direct line from Canada to Cariboo, communicating with the road on the Fraser by the shortest route, since Tête Jaune Cache is in latitude 52 deg. 58 min., Richfield Cariboo in latitude 53 deg. 3 min. 9 sec.[16] Secondly, it is the only one which will afford easy communication with _all_ the gold districts of British Columbia. Thirdly, it passes entirely through a country inhabited only by peaceable and friendly Indians. Fourthly, it is the easiest, lying only 3,760 feet above the sea,[17] with a gradual slope on either side; and lastly, it lies four degrees north of the American frontier. These considerations will, we imagine, cause it to be eventually selected as the British highway to the Pacific; and it is satisfactory to be able to state that Dr. Rae, who went out in the spring of 1864 to discover the most suitable route for the telegraph line which the Hudson’s Bay Company propose to carry across the continent, decided upon taking it by the Yellow Head Pass, which he surveyed as far as Tête Jaune Cache. We are permitted to remark that his observations fully bear out the conclusion that there are no serious obstacles to the formation of a road by this route from the fertile belt of the Saskatchewan to British Columbia, as far as he investigated it, viz., from Red River to The Cache. After a day or two, Mr. McKay returned, and very kindly engaged to find us horses and accompany us as far as Yale, the head of navigation on the Fraser, if we would remain at Kamloops a few days longer. Mr. O’B., however, started at once for Victoria, eager to enjoy the pleasures of a higher civilisation there. We must confess to a certain feeling of regret at this, the first breaking up of the strange company who had shared so many adventures together; and Mr. O’B. told us he bore no ill-will, and would forgive and forget all his sufferings on the journey. There were houses every six or seven miles along the road from this point, and he set out, pack on back, without much fear of danger before him. Yet, had he known that two men who had murdered another coming down from the mines, were lurking in the neighbourhood, he would have been very unhappy. One of these men was taken, a few days afterwards, in the Bonaparte Valley; the other was supposed to have crossed the Thompson, and to be lying concealed near Kamloops.