Over the Divide EAS
hugging the Rockies closely. By the twelfth the river had

decreased in width to fifteen yards with a moderate current.
Near its termination in a snow-field, the party branched
off on a stream less than ten yards wide, in which there was
very little current, but the channel meandered so much
that it was sometimes difficult to get the canoe forward
around the bends. A mile from the main river the first of a
series of lakes was entered, which forms one of the ultimate
sources of the Peace River. Mackenzie had the satisfaction,
which was shared by his two men, Joseph Landry and
Charles Ducette, who had accompanied him to the Arctic,
of realising when he entered this lake that they were prob-
ably the only three living men who had travelled by canoe
every foot of the way from the Arctic Ocean to this source.
Whether it has ever been done since is doubtful.

A beaten path led over a low ridge 817 paces through a
narrow pass to another lake. Canoes and various articles
were left about by Indians to be picked up on their return
this way. Passing out of a third lake down a rivulet en-
cumbered with driftwood they soon found themselves in
swift water. The land party had great difficulty in making
their way through the woods, Drift-piles had to be cut through
and roads made to portage around bad places. Getting free
from these impediments, Mackenzie was about to join the
land party in order to further lighten the canoe, “but those
in the boat,” he says, “‘with great earnestness requested me
to embark, declaring at the same time, that if they perished,
I should perish with them.”

His men were not accustomed to these mountain torrents
and were soon in difficulties, The canoe struck a rock, was
turned sideways, and broken by the first bar. The leader
instantly jumped into the water, to check its progress, and
the crew followed his example, but they were carried into