is exceedingly rugged, and possesses few features to interest the
traveller.

We arrived at the post of Okanagan on the 28th, situated on the left
bank of the Columbia River. The ground was still covered with snow to
the depth of two feet, and had been five feet deep in the course of
the winter--an extraordinary circumstance, as there generally falls so
little snow in this quarter, that the cattle graze in the plain nearly
all winter. The Indians are designated Okanagans, and speak a dialect
of the Atnah. Their lands are very poor, yielding only cats, foxes,
&c.; they subsist on salmon and roots.

Messrs. F---- and D---- arrived from Fort Vancouver on the 7th of
April, and we embarked on the 8th in three boats manned by retiring
servants. Mr. B---- accompanied us, having obtained permission to
cross the Rocky Mountains.

We arrived at Colville on the 12th, where we met with a most friendly
reception from a warmhearted Gael, (Mr. McD.) The gentlemen proceeding
to the dépôt in charge of the accounts of the Columbia department
generally remain here a few days to put a finishing hand to these
accounts--an operation which occupied us till the 22d, when we
re-embarked, leaving Messrs. D---- and B---- behind; the former being
remanded to Fort Vancouver; and the latter, having changed his mind,
in an evil hour for himself, returned to his old quarters; where he
was murdered sometime afterwards by an Indian who had lost his father,
and thought that the company of his old trader would solace him for
the absence of his children.