18 THE GREAT DENE RACE.

West of the Rockies these are simply submerged valleys between moun-
tains. For that reason they are almost invariably much longer than wide and
very deep. The most beautiful is Lake Stuart, the longest L. Babine (105 miles)
and the deepest L. Morice (known maximum, 780 feet). Snowy slopes of a
dazzling whiteness or emerald-like glaciers overhanging picturesque valleys,
whence issue torrents with sonorous cascades, are common occurrences within
that territory.

In the east lie the great lakes of the Canadian north: Athabaska
(Krei-thele-’ké, i. e. willow-floor in Déné), Great Slave Lake, an inland sea
336 miles long, which its inhabitants call 7’si-thue, ot Breasts-Water, and
Great Bear Lake (Sa-tSo-thue, Big-Bear-Water), an immense expanse of water
and ice, near which the much missed J. Franklin dwelt for some time, in
the course of one of those expeditions which preceded the fateful journey,
wherein he ended in misery explorations which had long gladdened the heart
of adventurous England.

The most important rivers on the same side of the mountains are the
Liard, so called by the French Canadians for the abundance of balsam poplars
on its banks, and which the Indians know as Eret’qi-die, or Strong Current
River; Peace River, whose English name commemorates a lull after a series
of wars. It rises, under the name of Finlay, west of the Rockies, which it
crosses through a deep gorge, being then Tsi-tsi, the Big Water, to the
Sékanais, and becoming 7si-desse, or Vermilion River, east of the main range.
It is in reality nothing else than the headwaters of the great waterway of the
north, the Mackenzie, which is generally known as NaotSa, i. e. Gigantic Banks,
to the Dénés who inhabit its basin.

The only stream which can be compared to it as far as importance and
volume of water are concerned is the Yukon. I am much mistaken if this
should not be spelt Yukhon, or in such a way as to indicate that the k sound
is very guttural. At any rate this occurs in the terms for river in all the
western Déné dialects, except the Nahanais. There is very little doubt that
“river” is the meaning of that name. In the same way as primitive peoples
are inclined to consider their own nationality as the very essence of mankind,
even so is that apparent exclusiveness manifested in the naming of their chief
stream. To them this is simply the river. This is the meaning of the word
by which the Tsimpsians call the Skeena, Ksién; of the Kooi which the
Nla‘ka‘pamuh or Thompson Indians apply to the Fraser; of the Cita'tko
whereby the Shushwaps of Kamloops designate the Thompson River which
flows by their reserve, etc.

A notable exception to this rule is the native name of the Fraser
among the Déné tribes stationed on its banks. They uniformly call it Ltha-
Rhoh, which means one river within another, perhaps owing to the impor-
tance of its main tributary, the Nechaco, which at its confluence appears to
be quite as large as the Fraser itself. Tacoutche-desse, which Mackenzie took