108 Srp ALEXANDER MACKENZIE

trail he was pleased with their plaintive sing-
ing, which had ‘‘somewhat the air of church
music.” Next day, at another camp, he dis-
covered and secured by exchange two half-
pence which were hung as ornaments in chil-
dren’s ears, one English of George III and the
other coined in Massachusetts in 1787. He
was obviously in a district in which traffic
with European and American vessels was
frequent. That night, in fear lest his guides
should desert, he heroically slept with one of
them. The man’s beaver robe was “‘a nest of
vermin”, his hair was greased with fish-oil,
and his body smeared with red earth; but ~
Mackenzie was so exhausted that he “passed
a night of sound repose”, in spite of the
defects of his bed-fellow.

On the 6th they made rapid progress at
first over level ground, before they began to
climb the slopes of the Telegraph Range.
That evening, for the first time since leaving
Fort Chipewyan, Mackenzie forgot to wind
his watch; but since he had had no oppor-
tunity of correcting it for nine months except
from his own observations, it did not much