142 FIFTY YEARS IN WESTERN CANADA

gathered was co-ordinated between points whose
latitude had been duly determined, and thus it was
that Father Morice obviated the necessity of a
sextant.

It can readily be realized that, in the course of
twenty-one or twenty-two years’ explorations, the
results of the missionary’s operations were consider-
able. He ascended to the very source of the Black-
water River and crossed the divide which separates
its valley from the basin of the Pacific. He explored
and mapped the important Nechaco River from its
very mouth to its triple headwaters, namely, Lakes
Morice, in the south, Dawson just north of it and
Emerald still farther north. He likewise travelled
over the Stuart River from mouth to source with inter-
vening lakes (Stuart, Tremblay and Tatla) up to the
Driftwood River, which, with the Tache and the Middle
Rivers, form but one fluvial artery. He furthermore
explored the Bulkley to its source in Loring Lake.
That swift mountain stream had previously been called
Morice in its upper reaches by a man who never was
but many miles from the point where it receives the
real Morice, a humble forest stream which is twice
crossed by the telegraph trail.°

He crossed by boat, on horseback or on foot, prac-
tically the whole width of British Columbia, from the
mouth of the Skeena up to Hazelton, thence to Babine,
after that to Bear Lake on foot, and finally—always
on foot—to Fort Grahame, within view of the Rockies
and on the Finlay, which he then descended to the point
where it receives the Parsnip. Going up this last river
he reached the Pack, which he ascended up to Mc-
Leod’s Lake. From this point he many times covered
the eighty-five or ninety miles overland which separate

6 V. the end of next chapter.