of the Fraser they were lucky enough to find the "real red deer", the
great wapiti stag, which is absent from the far north-west, beyond the
region of the Saskatchewan. The canoe was loaded with venison. The
banks of the Fraser River sank to a moderate height and were covered
with poplars and cypresses, birch trees, junipers, alders, and
willows. The deserted house or lodge of some Amerindian tribe was
visited on the banks. It was a finer structure than anything that
Mackenzie had seen since he left Fort Michili-Makinak in upper
Canada. It had been constructed for three families. There were three
fireplaces and three beds and a kind of larder for the purpose of
keeping fish. The whole "lodge" was twenty feet long by three wide,
and had three doors. The walls were formed of straight spruce timbers
with some skill of carpentry. The roof was covered with bark, and
large rods were fixed across the upper part of the building, where
fish might hang and dry.

As they continued to descend the Fraser River, with here and there a
rapid which nearly swamped the canoe, and lofty cliffs of red and
white clay like the ruins of ancient castles (stopping on their way to
bury supplies of pemmican against their return, and to light a fire on
the top of the burial place so as to mislead bears or other animals
that might dig it up), they were more or less compelled to seek
intercourse with the new tribes of Amerindians, whose presence on the
river banks was obvious. As usual, Mackenzie had to exercise great
bravery, tact, and guile to get into peaceful conversation with these
half-frightened, half-angry people. The peacemaking generally
concluded with the distribution of trinkets amongst the men and women,
and presents of sugar to the children. Talking with these folk,
however, through such interpreters as there were amongst the Indians
of his crew, he learnt that lower down on the Fraser River there was a
peculiarly fierce, malignant race, living in vast caves or
subterranean dwellings, who would certainly massacre the Europeans if
they attempted to pass through their country on their way to the sea.
He therefore stopped and set some of his men to work to make a new
canoe. He noticed, by the by, that these Amerindians of the Fraser had
small pointed canoes, "made after the fashion of the Eskimo".

Renewing their voyage, they reached a house the roof of which just
appeared above the ground. It was deserted by its inhabitants, who had
bee