Mackenzie seems to have been a little disappointed with the results of his northward journey; perhaps he had thought that the outlet of Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River would be into the Pacific, the Mer de l’Ouest of his Canadian voyageurs.  Yet he must have realized that he had discovered something very wonderful after all:  the beginning of Alaska, the approach to a region which, though lying within the Arctic circle, has climatic conditions permitting the existence of trees, abundant vegetation, and large, strange beasts, and which, moreover, is highly mineralized.  His work in this direction, however (and that of Hearne), was to be completed in the next century by SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, SIR GEORGE BACK, SIR JOHN RICHARDSON, and SIR JOHN ROSS—­all knighthoods earned by magnificent services in geographical exploration—­and by THOMAS SIMPSON, Dr. John Rae,[3] WARREN DEASE, JOHN M’LEOD, ROBERT CAMPBELL, and other servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

[Footnote 3:  See p. 125.]

In October, 1792, Mackenzie had determined to make a great attempt to reach the Pacific Ocean.  By this time he and his colleagues had explored the Peace River (the main tributary of Slave Lake), and had realized that they could travel up it into the heart of the Rocky Mountains.  He wintered and traded at a place which he called “New Establishment”, on the banks of the Peace River, near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.  He left this station on May 9, 1793, accompanied by ALEXANDER MACKAY,[4] six French Canadians, and two Indian guides.  They travelled up the Peace River in a twenty-five-foot canoe, and at first passed through scenery the most beautiful Mackenzie had ever beheld.  He describes it as follows:—­

“The ground rises at intervals to a considerable height, and stretching inwards to a considerable distance:  at every interval or pause in the rise, there is a very gently ascending space or lawn, which is alternate with abrupt precipices to the summit of the whole, or at least as far as the eye could distinguish.  This magnificent theatre of nature has all the decorations which the trees and animals of the country can afford it:  groves of poplars in every shape vary the scene; and their intervals are enlivened with vast herds of elks and buffaloes:  the former choosing the steeps and uplands and the latter preferring the plains.  At this time the buffaloes were attended with their young ones, who were striking about them; and it appeared that the elks would soon exhibit the same enlivening circumstance.  The whole country displayed an exuberant verdure; the trees that bear a blossom were advancing fast to that delightful appearance, and the velvet rind of their branches reflecting the oblique rays of a rising or setting sun, added a splendid gaiety to the scene which no expressions of mine are qualified to describe.”

[Footnote 4:  Alexander Mackay long afterwards left the service of the North-west Company, and was killed by savages on the Alaska coast, near Nutka Sound.]