Tue Great JOURNEY 109

matter. On the 7th they had a trying day;
after passing the hills, they crossed a swampy
plateau “that was seldom less than knee
deep,” and they did not stop until 7.30,
when they had walked twenty-six miles. He
noticed for the first time that day the great
care with which the natives of this region
tended their graves. On the 8th he reached
the banks of the Blackwater again after a
march in pouring rain. ‘Though provisions
were very short, he cached a half-bag of
pemmican against their return. The party
followed the river for thirty miles, with snow-
covered mountains now visible before them.
On the morning of the roth they crossed it on
a raft, and went up a small branch to the
beautiful Cluskus Lakes, where they fell in
with some natives, more attractive than any
they had yet seen, who presented them with
fish and gave them cheering reports of the
road to the sea. Mackenzie noted with
approval that their women were not kept in
the usual Indian condition of abject slavery.

A quotation from his entry for July 11