NORTHERN INTERIOR OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

fully a month in advance of Fraser, who started from the
eastern side of the Rockies, and had, moreover, to deliver
freight at Fort McLeod. Then, again, La Malice became
sick to the point of showing symptoms of delirium, and
all the other men complained of some ailment, a circum-
stance of which Bancroft takes occasion to have another
fling at poor Fraser, who, he seriously asserts, should have
had better men in his fort!

Arrived at the terrible Bad River, which was now
swollen by the freshets, La Malice was sufficiently
recovered to make trouble and thwart his employer by
threatening to remain behind, a step which Fraser was too
kind-hearted to allow.

At ten o’clock on the 1oth of June they were in sight
of the Fraser, and the next day they encamped at the
confluence of the Nechaco. Up that beautiful river the
brigade encountered other enemies in the shape of grizzly
bears, two of which they chased. “One man was caught
and badly torn, the dogs coming up just in time to save
his life. The wife of one of the hunters escapéd a horrible
death by throwing herself flat on her face, the enraged
brute, in consequence, passing her by in pursuit of her
flying husband.” '

The first Carriers sighted by the expedition must have
been the survivors of the Chinlac massacre recorded in
our first chapter, as they were met at the confluence of the
Stuart and Nechaco Rivers,? to the number of thirty men,
arrayed in robes of beaver, lynx, and marmot skins.

The 26th of July, 1806, was a rather windy day on what

1. Bancroft, ‘‘ History of the North-West,” pp. 108-9.

2. To the best of our knowledge all the authors, without a single exception,
confound the two rivers, though in reality they are very distinct streams. The
Stuart River drains Lake Stuart, in the north, while the Nechaco, which is a
most important river, issues from Lakes Emerald, Dawson and Morice, in
the west.

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