. Pathfinders of the West; being the thrilling story of the adventures of the men who discovered the great Northwest. The whales divedbelow, fortunately ; for one blow of a finback or sulphurbottom would have played skittles with the back from the whale hunt, triumphant as ifthey had caught a dozen finbacks, the men erected apost, engraving on it the date, July 14, 1789, and thenames of all present. 4lt had taken six weeks to reach the Arctic. Ittook eight to return to Chipewyan, for the coursewas against stream, in many places tracking the canoesby a tow-line. The beaver meadows
. Pathfinders of the West; being the thrilling story of the adventures of the men who discovered the great Northwest. The whales divedbelow, fortunately ; for one blow of a finback or sulphurbottom would have played skittles with the back from the whale hunt, triumphant as ifthey had caught a dozen finbacks, the men erected apost, engraving on it the date, July 14, 1789, and thenames of all present. 4lt had taken six weeks to reach the Arctic. Ittook eight to return to Chipewyan, for the coursewas against stream, in many places tracking the canoesby a tow-line. The beaver meadows along the shoreimpeded the march. Many a time the quaking mossgave way, and the men sank to mid-waist in skirting close ashore, Mackenzie discoveredthe banks of the river to be on fire. The fire was anatural tar bed, which the Indians said had been burn-ing for centuries and which burns to-day as whenMackenzie found it. On September 12, with ahigh sail up and a driving wind, the canoes cut acrossLake Athabasca and reached the .beach of Chipewyanat three in the afternoon, after one hundred and two 1^. FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES 287 days absence. Mackenzie had not found the North-west Passage. He had proved there was no North-west Passage, and discovered the Mississippi of thenorth — Mackenzie River. Mackenzie spent the long winter at Fort Chipewyan;but just as soon as the rivers cleared of ice, he tookpassage in the east-bound canoes and hurried down tothe Grand Portage or Fort William on Lake Superior,the headquarters of the Northwest Company, wherehe reported his discovery of Mackenzie River. Hisreport was received with utter indifference. The com-panv had other matters to think about. It wasgirding itself for the life-and-death struggle with itsrival, the Hudsons Bay Company. My expeditionwas hardly spoken of, but that is what I expected, hewrites to his cousin. But chagrin did not deter pur-pose. He asked the directors permission to explorethat other broad strea
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