The Vanished Frontier 203

founded Fort McLeod.t Dr. Davidson, however, in his
North-West Company, gives James McDougall credit for
the erection of this first establishment west of the Rockies,
adding, “‘later in the same year Simon Fraser ascended the
Parsnip River, following in Finlay’s track.”2 Dr. Elliot
Coues, in New Light on the Greater North-West, states
that Fraser was at Cumberland House on 18 June, 1805, and
later left James McDougall and John Stuart at Rocky
Mountain Portage with twelve men, while he himself with
six men ascended the Peace and Parsnip to Fort McLeod
where three of the crew wintered 1805-6.

The Lewis and Clarke government expedition crossed
the Rockies by way of the Missouri and its branches in
August 1805. They embarked on a westward-flowing river
in October and, descending the Columbia, reached the
Pacific 15 November, 1805.

Mackenzie in 1793, Finlay in 1797, Thompson in
1801—2—3, and Simon Fraser and his men in 1805, all pre-
ceded Lewis and Clarke to the Pacific slope. The Americans
did not leave any of their party in occupation, but started on
their return to the east 23 March, 1806, whereas the British
traders made a permanent settlement at Fort McLeod in
the spring of 1805, and many more in the succeeding
years at different points west of the Rockies as far south
as the Columbia River.

The following year Simon Fraser crossed over the
Parsnip-F raser divide, ascended the Nechaco to Stuart Lake
and built Fort St. James in 1806. John Stuart was sent over
to Fraser Lake to examine it, and reported that it was a
suitable locality for a post, and Fort Fraser was accordingly
built there. Fort George at the junction of the Fraser and

1 Burpee, Lawrence J., Search for the Western Sea, p. 507.
* Davidson, Gordon Charles, Ph.D., The North-West Company.
University of California Press, Berkeley, 1918, p. 113.