134 Mackenzie’s Voyages

between the north and south fork, that is to say, between
the Finlay and the Parsnip, that, if he had been governed by
his own judgment, he would have taken the northern branch;
but the old warrior had warned him not on any account to
follow it, as it was soon lost in various branches in the
mountains, whereas, by going south, he would reach a carry-
ing-place across a divide which would put him upon a river
that flowed south, where the inhabitants build houses and
live upon islands,

‘There was so much apparent truth in the old man’s
narrative that I determined to be governed by it, for I did
not entertain the least doubt, if I could get into the other
river, that I should reach the ocean.”

Neither Mackenzie nor any of his contemporaries was
aware that the unknown part of the continent between the
Pacific and a line from Lake Winnipeg to Lake Athabasca
was many degrees wider than the maps of the time indicated,
for, although the longitudes of certain isolated points on the
Pacific were known, as of Nootka, Cape Addington, and
Cook’s Inlet, the remainder of the coast-line had not been
determined, and it was believed that great gulfs and arms of
the sea extended inland for many hundreds of miles,! hence
the distance to the western ocean was always much fore-
shortened to his mind’s eye. Thanks then to the old Indian’s
advice and Mackenzie’s good sense in following it, the
expedition was in all likelihood saved from disaster. With
Mackenzie’s persistence, the chances are that, had he decided
to ascend the Finlay, he would have continued up one of
its western branches into the mountainous region where
the headwaters of the Peace, Liard, Fraser, Skeena, and

! Meares had suggested the existence of such great indentations
in his recently issued book. ‘‘Observations on the Probable Exis-
tence of a North-West Passage.” Meares, John, Voyages in 1788-9.
London, 1790.