THE Great JOURNEY Ill

On the 12th he met and surmounted the
most serious danger of this stage of the jour-
ney. ‘They started early and travelled late,
crossing once more to the north bank of the
Blackwater a few miles above Lake Tsacha,
and covering thirty-six miles. In the late
afternoon the guides deserted them, and they
were left entirely alone. The voyageurs were
“filled with alarm of a nature to defy imme-
diate alleviation,” and Mackenzie had hard
work to cheer them up. They were sur-
rounded by snowy mountains, and the cold
added to their trials. A guide they must have
if they were to go on. In the morning they
saw a house by a river, from which smoke
was rising. Mackenzie went up to it alone;
as soon as he was seen “‘the women and chil-
dren uttered the most horrid shrieks, and the
only man who appeared to be with them
escaped out of a back door.”” Gradually the
women were calmed and won over by presents,
but the man hid behind trees and threatened
to shoot whenever Mackenzie approached.
He spent the whole day in persuading him
and some other Indians who arrived to accept