“Back Packing = to the Pacitic. 150

in the trough of the valley, the whole countryside being
dotted here and there with isolated trees, which produced a
very charming effect, reminding the travellers of the scenery
of the central plains more than any spot they had yet seen
since crossing the Rockies. Though they were suffering
with thirst, the distance was too great and the descent too
steep to justify them in wasting the time in going for a drink.

Here the guides left them and ran on ahead to notify
the next tribe, saying that as the road was so well indicated,
it was unnecessary for them to remain. Mackenzie, however,
thought otherwise and, with Cancre the Crab, started off
in pursuit, coming up with them where they had stopped
with an itinerant family, which included a corpulent woman
belonging to a coast tribe. ‘The sea-coast, they said, was at
no great distance. The woman, who was an object of curiosity
to the travellers, wore a tunicand a woven cypress-bark robe,
and was decorated with a necklace of blue beads, while
similar ornaments adorned her hair and hung from her ears.
Her arms were encircled with bracelets of brass, copper and
horn. She was short, stout, with an oblong face, grey eyes
and a flattish nose. They were on their way to the Great
River to fish for salmon and among their impedimenta was
an old woman, quite blind and infirm, whom they carried on
their backs in turn,

‘Their guides left them, and their places were taken by
two boys, who on coming up to an Indian family later
delegated the office to the strangers. According to the in-
formation of the last people they were now coming to a
river which was neither large nor long, but whose banks
were inhabited, and to whose mouth a great wooden canoe
filled with white people came when the leaves began to grow.

In order to prevent his guides from escaping in the night,
Mackenzie, since leaving the canoe, sacrificed his comfort