164 Mackenzie’s Voyages

of red, There was one man among them six feet four inches.
His manners were affable, and he had a more prepossessing
appearance than any Indian I had met with in my journey.
He was about twenty-eight years of age, and was treated
with particular respect by his party.”

They were loaded with skins and furs, and were on their
way to the coast where some of their people had already
gone. Mackenzie’s party was glad to travel with them, par-
ticularly since their rate of travel was regulated by their
women and children, yet at this easy pace they did twenty
miles that day. ‘These amiable people changed their route !
next day, and, with great reluctance, Mackenzie was com-
pelled to part from them, though he would gladly have
continued with them to whatever destination they had in
view. They pointed out the pass which would lead him next
day to a view of the river flowing into the sea.

The party had now been thirteen days on the trail since
leaving their canoe. It was Wednesday the seventeenth when
they reached the summit of the pass, where the snow was as
hard underfoot as concrete. A tempest raged, and the hail
fell in an avalanche, and Mackenzie remarks that the weather
was as distressing as any he had ever experienced. ‘The
hunters scoured the hills for game and succeeded in bringing
in a small caribou doe, whereupon they renewed their
shivering march. Before them appeared a stupendous moun-
tain, on the hither side of which flowed the stream that
emptied into the Pacific. As soon as wood was found a big
fire roared, the venison was cooked, and they made a heartier
meal than they had done for many a day before.

The alteration in their outlook raised their spirits, and to

1 Probably en voute to Salmon House on Dean River.

2 After leaving the headwaters of the Blackwater the trail crosses
Dean River a little east of the 126th meridian, and reaches Bella
Coola River a little west of it.