A General Map of the Routes in British North America Explored by the Expedition under Captain Palliser, during the years 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860. Compiled from the Observations and Reports of Captain Palliser and his Offcers, including the Maps constructed by Dr. Hector, and other authentic documents. To accompany “The Journals, Detailed Reports, & Observations” presented to both Houses of Parliament, by Command of Her Majesty, 19th May, 1863. Standord’s Geographical Estab. London, 1865

Captain John Palliser [1817–1887] was a geographer who hailed from County Meath, Ireland. After service in the military he participated in a hunting exploration among the native peoples of the American West that was chronicled in his book, Adventures of a Hunter in the Prairies, published to much acclaim in 1853.


Later that decade, the Royal Geographic Society proposed to the Colonial Office that Palliser explore Canadian territory between Lake Superior and the Rocky Mountains, which was approved by Secretary of State for the Colonies, Henry Labouchere. His instructions to Palliser was to attain a general and scientific knowledge of the regions in areas of land, agriculture, coal and minerals.


This map shows the routes taken by the British North America Exploring Expedition over its four year period. Despite a £13,000 budget that was three times the original estimate its findings provided the Government with invaluable evidence on the topographical and economic potential of the country.

A map of America, between latitudes 40° and 70° North, and longitudes 80° and 150° West; exhibiting the principal trading stations of the North-West Company; and intended to accompany the narrative of occurrences in the Indian countries of North America, connected with the Earl of Selkirk, the Hudson’s Bay and the North-West Companies.

Appears to be based on Sax’s map of North America.

[The Earl of Selkirk referred to was Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk [1771–1820], who established the Red River Colony in 1812 in what in now Manitoba.]

The map appears in Notice respecting the boundary between His Majesty’s possessions in North America and the United States, 1817, attributed to Simon McGillivray [1785–1840].

McGillivray played a role in merging the family owned North West Company with the rival Hudson’s Bay Company.

On the map there is a note near the head of Canoe River: “Snare Inds. (now destroyed)”

Daniel Williams Harmon [1778–1843] was a fur trader and diarist. Harmon was born in Bennington, Vermont, and died in Sault-au-Récollet (Montreal North), Lower Canada. He joined the North West Company in 1800 and gradually moved westward. He took as a common-law wife Elizabeth (Lizzette) Laval or Duval (ca. 1790 – 1862) in 1805, at South Branch House on the South Saskatchewan River. They legally married in 1819, at Fort William, Ontario, and had 12 children.

Harmon arrived in New Caledonia in 1809. There he served for ten years at Fort Saint James and Fort Fraser.

The map seems largely based on Mackenzie’s map North America 1803.

The red horizontal line is “Boundary line claimed by the United States as laid down in an American map published inPhiladelphia 1816.”

William Sax [1774–1840], First Clerk in the Surveyor General’s Office of Canada, was active ca. 1795 – 1835. He drafted this map to accompany the 1818 report of William Bacheler Coltman, commission of the peace for the Indian territory of the northwest, regarding the struggle between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company for hegemony in the fur trade.