Warre and Vavasour^ 1845-6. 65 [No. 12.] Warre and Vavasour Report, June 16, 1846. The Right Honble. The Secretary of State for the Colonies. My Lord: In obedience to the orders contained in the accompanying memoranda, we had the honor to report our- selves to Sir George Simpson, the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and embarked at La Chine on the 5th of May, in boats made of birch bark, the usual conveyance of the agents of the Company. [Omit rest of ist p., 2d p., 3d p., 4th p., 5th p., 6th p., 7th p., 8th p., to 3d line from the close.] On the 25th July we entered the Rocky Mountains, crossed the Bow River in canoes made of skins (carried with us for the purpose) and commenced the passage of the mountains. Our daily journeys were now necessarily very short, and much impeded by the dampness of the forests, the height and ruggedness of the mountain passes. We crossed, by means of the skin canoes, the headwaters of the McGillivray's River, on the 28th July, crossed with con- siderable difficulty another range of mountains, and encamped on the 31st on the Lake from whence flow the waters of the Columbia. Without attempting to describe the numerous defiles through which we passed, or the difficulty of forcing a passage through the burnt forests, and over the highlands, we may venture to assert, that Sir George Simpson's idea of transporting troops, even supposing them to be at Red River, with men, provisions, stores, etc., through such an extent of uncultivated country, and over such impracticable mountains would appear to us quite impossible. We descended the right bank of McGillivray's River, crossed a range of Mountains thickly covered with pine and cedar trees, to the Flatbow Lake, on the Flathead River, which we crossed and descended on the left bank to Fort Colville on the
Columbia, where we arrived on the i6th August, having lost----
