Of course, as they neared the Rocky Mountains the navigation of the Peace River became more and more difficult.  At last they left the river to find their way across the mountains till they should reach the headwaters of a stream flowing towards the Pacific Ocean.  Sometimes they only accomplished three miles a day, having to carry all their goods and their canoe.  The mountainous country was covered with splendid forests of spruce, pine, cypress, poplar, birch, willow, and many other kinds of trees, with an undergrowth of gooseberries, currants, and briar roses.  The travellers generally followed paths made by the elk,[5] just as in the dense forests of Africa the way sometimes is cleared for human travellers by the elephant.  Every now and again they resumed their journey on the river between the falls and cascades.  The mountains seemed to be a solid mass of limestone, in some places without any covering of foliage.

[Footnote 5:  For the word “elk” Mackenzie uses “moose deer”.  “Elk” in the Canadian Dominion is misapplied to the great Wapiti red deer.]

“In no part of the north-west”, writes Mackenzie, “did I see so much beaver work” (along the eastern branch of the Peace River).  In some places the beavers had cut down acres of large poplars, and were busily at work on their labours of dam-making during the night, between the setting and the rising sun.

Gnats and mosquitoes came with the intense heat of June to make life almost unbearable.  As they got close to the Rocky Mountains they encountered Amerindians who had never seen a white man before, and who at first received them with demonstrations of great hostility and fright.  But owing to the diplomatic skill of Mackenzie they gradually yielded to a more friendly attitude, and here he decided to camp until the natives had become familiarized with him and his party, and could give them information as to his route.  But they could only tell that, away to the west beyond the mountains, a month’s travel, there was a vast “lake of stinking water”, to which came, for purposes of trade, other white men with vessels as big as islands.

These Rocky Mountain Indians made their canoes from spruce bark[6] in the following manner:  The bark is taken off the spruce fir to the whole length of the intended canoe, only about eighteen feet, and is sewed with watape at both ends.  Two laths are then laid across the end of the gunwale.  In these are fixed the bars, and against them the ribs or timbers, that are cut to the length to which the bark can be stretched; and to give additional strength, strips of wood are laid between them.  To make the whole water-tight, gum is abundantly employed.

[Footnote 6:  See p. 281.]

Obtaining a guide from these people, Mackenzie continued his journey along the Parsnip, or southern branch of the upper Peace River, partly by water, partly by land till he reached its source,[7] a lake, on the banks of which he saw innumerable swans, geese, and ducks.  Wild parsnips grew here in abundance, and were a grateful addition to the diet of the travellers.  As to birds, they not only saw blue jays and yellow birds, but the first humming bird which Mackenzie had ever beheld in the north-west.[8]