50 Mackenzie’s Voyages

Besides which, authorities state that Pond himself was
not above drawing the long bow when it suited his purpose.
At all events Mackenzie’s observations while on Slave
Lake fixed the latitude of these waters in 61° 40’ ! and there-
fore he was prepared to find the outlet flowing west and
perhaps south-west. Moreover, that rumour of the biggest
falls in the world was to haunt him day and night. So far
as they knew, no one had been on this river before, except
of course the native population, if there were any such.
Even the Red-Knife guide’s limit of travel extended no
farther than the first lake-expansion a few hours’ journey
from the lake, so that from now on they felt themselves to
be veritable discoverers, pioneers of the new world, fore-
runners of all that might pass this way in the days to come.
They were adventurers in the true sense of the word.

The outlet from the lake is seven or eight miles in width
and very shallow. A moderate current flows around a large
island about fourteen miles in length, which occupies most
of the space between the shores. Passing down the northern
channel, every member was on the guz vive, as the canoes,
urged on by wind and current, made rapid progress, south-west
and then west, past what is now Fort Providence, into a
lake-expansion. Here the country was so low and the width
of the river so great that the opposite shores were scarcely
visible. This body of water is to-day known as Mills Lake.
The Red-Knife guide had never been beyond this point,
but was well acquainted with the river that flows in from
the Horn Mountains in the north, which 1s the country of
the Beaver Indians. His people frequently forgathered on
that river with the Beavers. |

For some time there was difficulty in finding egress from

1 Mackenzie’s latitudes have been found to be much nearer the
exact positions than his longitudes.