36 Str ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

riddles of the wor!d at a time when he hap-
pened to be in the best place from which to
attempt a solution. He was one of that small
band who are drawn towards the unknown,
who are attracted by blank spaces on the
map as the compass needle is attracted by the
magnetic pole.

We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be

Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea.

The riddle before him had occupied the minds
of explorers and geographers since the days
of Columbus. As time had passed and the
boundaries of knowledge had widened, its
solution had seemed to become less and less
easy. Was there a practicable North-West
Passage across North America from Europe
to Asia? What lay between the farthest
points reached in the interior by the fur-
traders and the Pacific coast? What were the
northern limits of the American continent?
Generation after generation of explorers had
sought the answer to these questions, first by