40 Joseph Schafer ble), and on the right bank of which we descended to the Columbia. 2d. The northern water communication in frequent use by the traders of the H. B. Company, apparently affording greater facilities for the conveyance of troops, is by the more circuitous route of Lake Winnipeg, the Saskatchewan and Ath- abasca Rivers, from whence the "portage" or land carriage of about no miles across the Rocky Mountains to the boat encampment on the Columbia. We shall return by this route in the spring, 1846, and be then able to report on its capabilities. We beg to draw your Lordship's attention to the follow- ing extract of a letter addressed by Sir George Simpson, the Govr. of the Hudson's Bay Company, to ourselves, in which is contained all the information or instructions received from that gentleman on the subject of our present report, viz. : "From Red River Settlement, whither I have now the pleas- ure of conducting you, a party . . . etc. [Quote Sir G Simpson's letter from the above clause down to and including the following, five and a half pages of matter. "You will see from the extent of the Company's agricultural operations and from the large quantities of cattle and sheep at their estab- lishments of Fort Vancouver, the Cowlitz and Puget's Sound, that they could provide the means of subsistence for any naval or military force that is likely to be required in that quarter, and other parts west of the mountains, while the sturgeon, salmon and other fisheries are inexhaustible."] (The report continues) : Your Lordship will perceive, by the above statement, that in our opinion the facilities for conveying troops to the Ore- gon Territory, by the route we have lately passed, do not exist to the extent Sir George Simpson represents. The Hudson's Bay Company have a certain stock of cattle, etc., at each of their different trading posts of Fort Ellice, on the Assiniboine, and Forts Carlton, Pitt and Edmonton on
the Saskatchewan Rivers, but as far as we could learn they----
