CHAPTER XI
“*MMACKENZIE'S ROCK”

By eight next morning, having changed to another and
larger canoe, they emerged from the Bella Coola River into
North Bentinck Arm. It was Saturday, 20 July, a foggy
day, with a head wind blowing from the west. The bay
had a breadth of from one to three miles. Seals, porpoises,
gulls and ducks were plentiful. The swell and the head wind
prevented them from going on more than ten miles down the
arm, and they camped in a small cove on the right side of
the arm. Not being accustomed to the tide, which rose and
fell here fifteen feet, the party had frequently to move their
baggage. The Indians left them, but the young chief re-
turned at dark with a porcupine which he dressed and
boiled, and ate with the assistance of two of Mackenzie’s
people, who were famished enough to relish this dish, from
which circumstance they called their haven Porcupine Cove,
a name which has since been changed to Green Bay.
Their situation was disquieting. The provisions were now
reduced to twenty pounds of pemmican, fifteen pounds of
rice, and six pounds of flour, which can hardly be regarded
as more than a day’s rations for ten half-starved men. Their
canoe was leaky, they were on a barbarous coast, and they
had as yet no reason to expect assistance from the natives.
The sea yielded certain edible foods like mussels which
were gathered and eaten by Mackay, but the others were
wholly unacquainted with shell-fish and would not partake
of this food. Leaving Porcupine Cove at six in the morning
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