THE NORTHWEST BOUNDARIES
339
banks of the river about 150 miles up form precipices where the towing line cannot be used, and the Current so impetuous at certain Seasons as to render it impossible to use either the setting Pole or Paddle, Canoes being the only craft that can attempt to stem the current at any Season. The Natives treated our party 7 with civility and seemed anxious that we should settle among them. They assembled from the back Country to the banks of the River in great numbers during the fishing season (from April until October) when the population is very great, and at all Seasons the Country may be said to be densely peopled, and their character much the same as that of those inhabiting the banks of the Columbia. I should not however consider it safe to form an Establishment there, with a smaller force than 60 to 70 men and officers, until we are better acquainted with them. Q. Could the Fur produce to the North of Eraser's River and West of the Rocky Mountains be conveniently transported by means of this river for shipment to other Countries? A. From all the information I have been able to collect respecting Fraser's River, it is not my opinion that it affords a communication by which the interior Country can be supplied from the Coast or that it can be depended on as an outlet for the returns of the interior. I will further altho' unasked take the liberty of giving it as my opinion, that if the navigation of the Columbia is not free to the Hudson's Bay Company, and that the territory to the Northward is not secured to them,
they must abandon and curtail their Trade in some parts and probably be constrained to relinquish it on the West side of the
Rocky Mountains
altogether.
(Signed)
GEO. SIMPSON.
London, 31st December, 1825. Journal 722,
p.
3
Hudson's Bay House, London, 25th July, 1826. the Right Honourable, Wm. Huskisson. I have annexed to your queries such answers as Sir the records to which I refer afford: I think that there is sufficient proof that the Traders of the N. W. Company had established Posts on the Columbia long before the establish-
To
Dear
7 See the Wash. Historical Quarterly, Vol. 3, page 198 et seq., for the journal of this expedition.
