[Footnote 7:  Mr. Burpee points out that this was really the southernmost source of the mighty congeries of streams which flowed northwards to form the Mackenzie River system.  Having traced the Mackenzie to the sea, its discoverer now stood four years afterwards at its most remote source, 2420 miles from its mouth at which he had seen the ice floes and the whales.]

[Footnote 8:  Humming birds arrive annually in British Columbia between April and May, and stay there till the autumn.  They winter in the warmer parts of California.]

From this tiny lake he made his way over lofty mountains to another lake at no great distance, and from this a small stream called the Bad River flowed southwards to join a still bigger stream, which Mackenzie thought might prove to be one of the branches of the mighty Columbia River that flows out into the Pacific through the State of Oregon.  It really was the Fraser River, and of the upper waters of the Fraser Mackenzie was the discoverer.[9]

[Footnote 9:  The great surveyor and map maker, David Thompson, was the first white man to reach the upper waters of the Columbia River.  The Fraser River was afterwards followed to its outlet in the Straits of Georgia (opposite Vancouver Island) by Simon Fraser.]

[Illustration:  THE UPPER WATERS OF THE FRASER RIVER]

Their experiences down the little mountain stream which was to take them into the Fraser nearly ended in complete disaster.  “The violence of the current being so great as to drive the canoe sideways down the river, and break her by the first bar, I instantly jumped into the water and the men followed my example; but before we could set her straight, or stop her, we came to deeper water, so that we were obliged to re-embark with the utmost precipitation....  We had hardly regained our situations when we drove against a rock which shattered the stern of the canoe in such a manner, that it held only by the gunwales, so that the steersman could no longer keep his place.  The violence of this stroke drove us to the opposite side of the river, which is but narrow, when the bow met with the same fate as the stern....  In a few moments, we came across a cascade which broke several large holes in the bottom of the canoe, and started all the bars....  The wreck becoming flat on the water, we all jumped out ... and held fast to the wreck; to which fortunate resolution we owed our safety, as we should otherwise have been dashed against the rocks by the force of the water, or driven over the cascades....  At length we most fortunately arrived in shallow water, and at a small eddy, where we were enabled to make a stand, from the weight of the canoe resting on the stones, rather than from any exertions of our exhausted strength....  The Indians, when they saw our deplorable situation, instead of making the least effort to help us, sat down and gave vent to their tears.”