continued stirring the contents of the kettle, till they were brought to a thick consistency; the stones were then taken out, and the whole was seasoned with about a pint of strong rancid oil.  The smell of this curious dish was sufficient to sicken me without tasting it, but the hunger of my people surmounted the nauseous meal.  When unadulterated by the stinking oil these boiled roes are not unpalatable food.”

Farther on their journey their hunger was alleviated by wild parsnips, also roots which appeared, when pulled up, like a bunch of white peas, with the colour and taste of a potato.  On their way they were obliged to cross snow mountains, where the snow was so compact that their feet hardly made any perceptible impression.  “Before us appeared a stupendous mountain, whose snow-clad summit was lost in the clouds.”  These mountains, according to the Indians, abounded in white goats.[11] Emerging from the mountains on to the lower ground, sloping towards the sea, at nightfall they came upon a native village in the thickness of the woods.  Desperate with his fatigue, and risking any danger to obtain rest, Mackenzie walked straight into one of the houses, where people were busily employed in cooking fish, threw down his burden, shook hands with the people, and sat down.

[Footnote 1:  Oreamnus.]

“They received me without the least appearance of surprise, but soon made signs for me to go up to the large house, which was erected, on upright posts, at some distance from the ground.  A broad piece of timber with steps cut in it led to the scaffolding even with the floor, and by this curious kind of ladder I entered the house at one end; and having passed three fires, at equal distances in the middle of the building, I was received by several people, sitting upon a very wide board, at the upper end of it.  I shook hands with them, and seated myself beside a man, the dignity of whose countenance induced me to give him that preference....”

Later on, this man, seeing Mackenzie’s people arriving tired and hungry, rose and fetched from behind a plank, four feet wide, a quantity of roasted salmon.  A whole salmon was offered to Mackenzie, and another to Mackay; half a salmon was given to each of the French Canadian voyageurs.  Their host further invited them to sleep in the house, but, Mackenzie thinking it preferable to camp outside, a fire was lit to warm the weary travellers, and each was lent a thick board on which to sleep, so that he might not lie on the bare ground.

“We had not long been seated round the fire when we received a dish of salmon roes, pounded fine and beat up with water so as to have the appearance of a cream.  Nor was it without some kind of seasoning that gave it a bitter taste.  Another dish soon followed, the principal article of which was also salmon roes, with a large proportion of gooseberries, and an herb that appeared to be sorrel.  Its acidity rendered it more agreeable to my taste than the former preparation.  Having been regaled with these delicacies, for such they were considered by that hospitable spirit which provided them, we laid ourselves down to rest with no other canopy than the sky.  But I never enjoyed a more sound and refreshing rest, though I had a board for my bed and a billet for my pillow.”