La Grande Riviére en Bas eee

The Indians called them manetoe aseniah, or spirit stones,
not having any suspicion, apparently, that they were merely
patches of snow.

The current had averaged four miles during the day, and
the banks were higher than any yet encountered, towering
two hundred feet above the river. Great caution was observed
lest they should run into some great rapid or fall. ‘This
was such a prevalent idea that all of us were persuaded that
we heard those sounds which betokened a fall of water.”

The river turned sharply north at what is now known as
Camsell Bend, where the stream impinges upon the Mac-
kenzie Mountains. For several hundred miles it parallels
the range, whose peaks were always in sight. The river
widened and groups of low islands filled the channel, one of
which was about twenty miles in length.

At eight in the evening the fourth camp was made on the
north side of the river. The Indians complained of the
perseverance with which the party pushed forward, saying
that they were not accustomed to such severe fatigue as it
occasioned. Probably Mackenzie mentions this complaint
merely to contrast their indolence with the unremitting
labours of the canoemen.

‘They had reached a point three hundred miles down the
river, travelling an average of seventy-five miles a day
since quitting the lake, which is certainly not an excessive
speed. The current between ‘‘ Head-of-the-Line,”’ which is
about six miles west of Trout River, and the Liard, a
distance of seventy-five miles, has a velocity of seven to
eight miles an hour, at which rate it is not difficult to jog
along comfortably a hundred miles a day. It is to be remarked
that Mackenzie makes no mention of complaints from his
voyageurs. ‘They were used to the routine. The fur-trade
demanded intensive work over short periods, for the