31
masters or accepting Montreal.
and the
With
ment
New York
to
passage
spring of i8t4, the
the
in
first
West Company on
North
the
of
or
the country
became known
point,
llr-it
free
change of owners Astoria changed also its as Fort George, and from
tlie
and
naire
a
Of those who chose to remain in new service was Alexander Ross.
was begun, the departure
for
the
great
en
Interior,
move-
Columbia
the
route to
Fort
William, of the spring brigade, consisting of four-
teen
boats
which were embarked no fewer than 124 men of the Astor company who
in
exclusive of the
iren,
had elected to return to Canada by land
in
preference
making voyage round the Horn, the whole leaving the Fort with flags flying and the din of a general the
to
salute
ringing
their
in
ears.
Ross and a
the brigade as far as Fort
accompanied
little
party
Okanagan where
the
brigade continuing their journey along the Columbia, Ross taking pack horses overland
they
separated,
back to his post at Kamloops. at
that
point
he
from the North Westers for
petition
Fur Hunters" he alludes
Of
there."
nagan
In his
I
this
first
must have encountered in
to there "being
his
experience
some combook, "The
now no
second journey he says:
rivalry
"From Oka-
proceeded northward, some 300 miles, to
my
She-whaps. There being now no rivalry there, or elsewhere to contend with, I put the business in train for the season, and immediately returned again,
own
post
at
with the view of being able discovery,
some time:
which this
I
was
and
to
carry out a project of
others
had
to penetrate
Okanagan, due west, to the supposed not to exceed 200
Pacific, miles;,
contemplated
for
across the land from
on foot, a distance and for the perfor-