THE Great JouRNEY 105

put on short rations, and of the natives, of
whom they saw no sign. Next morning they
reached the mouth of the river (the West
Road or Blackwater) from which the trail to
the coast began. The guide had not returned,
and Mackenzie was at a loss what to do since
he could not attempt the trail without a
guide. Fortunately after a few hours’ delay
the guide arrived. The danger was over, the
natives were pacified, and the party could go
forward once more. They had been in the
Fraser valley for seventeen days, and had
advanced little more than one hundred miles
towards their goal.

(4) Across the Mountains

The nearest point on the coast was still
about two hundred miles away in a straight
line, and the intervening country was a tangle
of mountain ranges and high plateaus, dotted
with small lakes and intersected by the deep
valleys of many winding streams. In such a
region the track was hard to find and diffi-
cult to travel; it wound between mountains,
crossed and recrossed rivers, led through