autumn of that year, planted the first of those stations, Fort McLeod, in latitude 55° north.^ Thus, while Lewis and Clark were wintering at Fort Clatsop, within the sound of the breakers of the Pacific, a small party left by Fraser spent the winter west of the Rockies, in the far interior, nearly nine degrees of latitude to the northward, on the shores of Lake McLeod.
Eraser's new trading posts; exploring the great river. In 1806 Fraser founded two other stations, Fort St. James, on Stuart Lake, and Fort Fraser at Fraser Lake. Then, in the spring of 1807, came orders for him to explore the great river still believed to be the Columbia, in order to limit American activities and to find a more practicable route than the one by Peace River for the trade into the trans-Rocky Mountain region.^ With incredible difficulty, Fraser descended the great river in the summer of 1808, reaching the sea coast in July, to find, on determining its latitude, that the river was not the Columbia at all!
David Thompson. When Fraser was beginning his preparations for descending the river he supposed to be the Columbia, David Thompson was crossing the Rockies at Howse Pass. He reached, on June 22, 1807, a tributary of the real Columbia but, while he spent much time during the years following on the upper waters of the river, it was not till four years later that he descended to its mouth. When he did so he encountered the Astor party who had already con 1 Morice. The Northern Interior of British Columbia, 54.
2 Morice, p. 70-71.
