} mountains
by way of the Peace river. But Thompson was to explore a dozen new
trails across the Great Divide. While four of his men crossed over to
the Red Deer river and rafted or canoed down the South Saskatchewan,
Thompson himself, with five French Canadians and two Indian guides,
crossed the mountains to the Kootenay country. The Kootenay Indians
were encamped on the Kootenay plains preparatory to their winter's
hunt, and Thompson persuaded some of them to accompany him back over
the mountains to Rocky Mountain House on the North Saskatchewan. This
was the beginning of the trade between the Kootenays and white men.
Probably from these Indians Thompson learned of the entrance to the
Rockies by the beautiful clear mountain-stream now named the Bow; and
Duncan M'Gillivray, a leading partner, accompanied him south from Rocky
Mountain House to the spot on the Bow where to-day the city of Calgary
stands. It was on this trip that Nor'westers first met the Piegan
Indians. From these horsemen of the plains the explorers learned that
it was only a ten-day journey overland to the Missouri. Snow was
falling when the traders entered the Rockies at what is now the Gap, on
the {103} Canadian Pacific Railway. Inside the gateway to the rugged
defile of forest and mountain the traders revelled in the sublime
scenery of the Banff valley. At Banff, eastward of Cascade mountain,
on the sheltered plain where Kootenays and Stonies used to camp, one
can still find the circular mounds that mark a trading-station of this
era. Whether the white men discovered the beautiful blue tarn now
known as Devil's Lake, or saw the Bow river falls, where tourists
to-day fish away long summer afternoons, or dipped in the famous hot
springs on the slope of Sulphur mountain, we do not know. They could
hardly have met and conversed with the Kootenays and Stonies without
hearing about these attractions, which yearly drew Indian families to
camp in the encircling mountains, while the men ranged afield to hunt.

Thompson and M'Gillivray were back at Rocky Mountain House on the
Saskatchewan for Christmas. Some time during 1800 their
French-Canadian voyageurs are known to have crossed Howse Pass, the
source of the North Saskatchewan, which was discovered by Duncan
M'Gillivray and named after Joseph Howse of the North-West Company.

For several years after this Thompson was {104} engaged in making
surveys for the North-West Company in the valley of t