as made of a reindeer's antler.
Axes were manufactured out of a piece of brown or grey stone, six to
eight inches long and two inches thick. They kindled fire by striking
together a piece of iron pyrites and touchwood, and never travelled
without a small bag containing such materials.

The Amerindians along the lower Mackenzie had heard vague and terrible
legends about the Russians, far, far away on the coast of Alaska; they
were represented as beings of gigantic stature, and adorned with
wings; which, however, they never employed in flying (possibly the
sails of their ships). They fed on large birds, and killed them with
the greatest ease. They also possessed the extraordinary power of
killing with their eyes (no doubt putting up a gun to aim), and they
travelled in canoes of very large dimensions.

[Illustration: BIG-HORNED SHEEP OF ROCKY MOUNTAINS]

"I engaged one of these Indians," writes Mackenzie, "by a bribe of
some beads, to describe the surrounding country upon the sand. This
singular map he immediately undertook to delineate, and accordingly
traced out a very long point of land between the rivers ... which he
represented as running into the great lake, at the extremity of which
he had been told by Indians of other nations there was a white man's
fort." The same people described plainly the Yukon River westward of
the mountains, and told Mackenzie it was a far greater stream than the
one he was exploring. This was the first "hint" of the existence of
the great Alaskan river which was ever recorded. They also spoke to
Mackenzie of "small white buffaloes" (?the mountain goat), which they
found in the mountains west of the Mackenzie.

Whenever and wherever Mackenzie's party met these northernmost tribes
of Athapascan Indians they were always ready to dance in between short
spells of talking. This dancing and jumping was their only amusement,
and in it old and young, male and female, went to such exertions that
their strength was exhausted. As they jumped up and down they imitated
the various noises produced by the reindeer, the bear, and the wolf.

In descending the Mackenzie River, and again on the return journey
upstream, Mackenzie notices the abundance of berries on the banks of
the river, especially the kind which was called "pears" by the French
Canadians. These were of a purple hue, rather bigger than a pea, and
of a luscious taste. There were also gooseberries and a few
strawberries. Quantities of berr