ie) Srr ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

tant glimpse the day before, came into full
view. They were still patched with snow. On
the same day “the Indians complained of the
perseverance with which we pushed forward,
and that they were not accustomed to such
severe fatigue as it occasioned’”’—and no won-
der; but Mackenzie did not heed their com-
plaints.

When the river reaches the Rockies its
course changes abruptly to the north, and it
flows for several hundred miles between
ranges of hills on either bank. Mackenzie
was very anxious to meet the Indians native
to the district in order to get information. He
was in hourly fear of reaching great falls or
rapids; the current was so strong that it
“produced a hissing noise like a kettle of
water in a moderate state of boiling.”’ On the
evening of July 3 he climbed a prominent hill,
the Rock by the River Side of later travellers,
and found a deserted Indian camp. ‘The
weather had turned cold, and ice formed at
night in quiet water. On the 5th he at last
succeeded in meeting some Indians; they were
greatly frightened, and it needed much diplo-