Winterina on the Peace = 411

should be used with discretion, it must not be forgotten
that he had in view British public opinion, which was not
entirely in favour of this method of taking ae of the
weaknesses of the nation’s wards.

The two men who had been sent ahead in the spring to
get the necessary timbers ready had employed themselves so
diligently that all was in readiness to begin the work of con-
struction. But Mackenzie knew the necessity of keeping
up the food supplies, and therefore, until the seventh, was
busy settling matters with the Indian hunters, equipping
them for the winter hunting. On the sixth, ice began to run
in the river, and navigation was at an end until the end of
the following April. Having settled with the Indians, all
hands were set to work to construct the fort, put up the
dwellings, and form store-houses. ‘The other fork of the river,
since known as the Smoky, one league distant across the neck
of land, froze solid on the sixteenth, but the main river did
not set fast until the twenty-second, which enabled them to
cross the river, a fortunate circumstance, since the hunters,
while the ice was running, had been prevented from crossing
and securing meat supplies. Nevertheless they had their
difficulties while the snow was insufficient for sledding,
during which time the hunters had to bring in the spoils
of the chase on their backs, a very toilsome business and one
not relished by those accustomed to canoes and dog-teams.
The weather was so severe by the twenty-seventh that the
axes of the workmen became almost as brittle as glass. After
2, December it was impossible to keep a record of the tempera-
ture, as on that date Mackenzie’s Fahrenheit thermometer
was injured and became useless. This loss and the situation
in general moves him to comment upon the lack of know-
ledge and experience both in himself and in those who
looked to him for help. “‘In this situation, removed from all