64 Mackenzie’s Voyages

little canoe was too small a stage for his antics and he asked
to be taken into Mackenzie’s canoe.

“No sooner had he entered than he began to perform
Eskimo dances to our no small alarm. He was however soon
persuaded to be more tranquil, when he began to display
various indecencies according to the custom of the Eskimos
He informed us that on the opposite hill the Eskimos, three
winters ago, killed his grandfather.”

A smoke was seen ahead and on near approach a group of
forty Deguthee Denees! indulged in a most terrible uproar,
running about as if deprived of their senses. ‘Their hostility
was indicated by the removal of their women and children
to a place of safety. But they were soon pacified in the
usual way.

The guide expressed his alarm regarding the Eskimos,
but on being reassured by Mackenzie’s people he consented
to remain with the party. From these Indians it was learned
that the distance overland to the sea, both to the east and to
the west, was very short. “They represented the land on
either side as projecting to a point.”

The sultriness of the early part of the day gave way to
a decided fall in the temperature, indicating the extremes
that are likely to be experienced within a few hours in these
latitudes. Mackenzie notes a large quantity of wild flax,
the growth of the last year, lying on the ground, and the
new plants sprouting up through it, which circumstance
he had not observed in any other part.

This day’s journeying had been between low clay banks,
but the country was low and flat and no mountains were
visible.

For sixty miles the course had been due west. On Friday,
10 July, the canoes entered the Narrows, or the Lower

1 See Appendix C, “Indian Tribes,”