Return to Fort Chipewyan 193

which will one day people this attractive spot with its
millions.” } 3

Camp was pitched just above the Parle-Pas Rapids, which
required daylight to run them. While this chute has a
formidable appearance it can be negotiated by a short
portage on the southern bank, or by letting down the boat or
canoe by line on the north side. By the evening of the
twentieth their last impediment faced them, the carrying-
place called the Portage de la Montagne de Roche, the
Rocky Mountain Canyon, or, to adopt its present name,
the Peace River Canyon, now provided with a nine-mile
wagon-road to Hudson’s Hope.

As they were reduced to a reserve of two meals, Mackay
and the two Indian hunters were sent on ahead to the
foot of the canyon to endeavour to secure meat for
the party.

Mackenzie’s people, recalling their bitter experiences in
surmounting the canyon, were disinclined to return by the
road by which they had come, but Mackenzie had observed
that the river had fallen fifteen feet in the narrowest part,
and had lost much of its former turbulence. While five of
the men were detailed to carry the baggage over, Mackenzie
and the others took the canoe apart, cleaned out all the dirt,
and exposed it to the air to dry it out as much as possible,
which would lighten it materially.

At sunset Mackay and the hunters returned with heavy
burdens of buffalo meat, and “‘a hearty meal concluded the
day, and every fear of future want was removed.” ‘lhe
portage was made by four the following afternoon, though,
from the reduced vitality of the men, it was found almost
as difficult to let the canoe down the final declivity as it had
been to get it up. Some of their poles which had been left

1 Woollacott, A. P., Canada North of the Fifty-stxth Parallel.