Tracking Up-Stream 78

baggage. We were all of the opinion that this circumstance
proceeded from the tide. The water continued to rise till
about six.”” Mackenzie decided to stay and further observe
the tide which next day rose sixteen or eighteen inches.?

The party embarked Thursday and steered under sail
among the islands hoping to meet with some of the natives,
but these expectations were not realised. “‘We accordingly
made for the river and stemmed the current.” In these
words he indicates definitely the beginning of the return
journey up-stream. The water shoaled to paddle-depth in
the afternoon, and the temperature became more agreeable,
though the rise in warmth was not without its disadvantages,
for it subjected them to the persecution of the mosquitoes.

A landing was made Friday on an island which was in
use as a graveyard. Various articles, including canoes, sleds,
dishes and troughs, were there to accommodate the spirits
of the departed. “‘’The frame of the canoe, which was
entire, was put together with whalebone; it was sewed in
some parts and tied in others. The sledges were from four
to eight feet long; the length of the bars was upwards of
two feet; the runners were two inches thick and nine inches
deep; the prow was two and a half feet high and formed of
two pieces sewed with whalebone.

“The weather was now very pleasant and in the course
of the day we saw great numbers of wild-fow! with their
young. I ascended the high land eastward, whence I had a
delightful view of the river, divided into innumerable streams,
meandering through islands, some of which were covered
with wood and others with grass. “The mountains which
formed the opposite horizon were at a distance of forty
miles.”

‘The hunters were successful in killing two reindeer on

The Arctic tides are very small.