ounded in
beavers. It was the month of July, however, and they were harassed
with thunderstorms, some of which were followed by hailstones as big
as musket balls. After one such storm the ground was whitened for two
miles with these balls of ice.

In order not to be deserted by all of their new guides, Mackenzie was
obliged to insist on one of them sharing his hut. This young
Amerindian was dressed in beaver garments which were a nest of
vermin. His hair was greased with fish oil, and his body smeared with
red earth, so that at first Mackenzie thought he would never be able
to sleep; but such was his fatigue that he passed a night of profound
repose, and found the guide still there in the morning. In this region
he notes that the balsam fir of Canada was abundant, the tree which
provided the gum that cured Cartier's expedition of scurvy. Some of
the natives with whom they now came into contact were remarkable for
their grey eyes, a feature often observed amongst the Amerindians of
the North Pacific coast.

"On observing some people before us, our guides hastened to meet them,
and, on their approach, one of them stepped forward with an axe in his
hand. This party consisted only of a man, two women, and the same
number of children. The eldest of the women, who probably was the
man's mother, was engaged, when we joined them, in clearing a circular
spot, of about five feet in diameter, of the weeds that infested it;
nor did our arrival interrupt her employment, which was sacred to the
memory of the dead. The spot to which her pious care was devoted
contained the grave of a husband and a son, and whenever she passed
this way she always stopped to pay this tribute of affection."

By this time, exposure to wind and sun, the attacks of mosquitoes and
flies, the difficulty of washing or of changing their clothes, had
made all the Europeans of the party as dark in skin colour as the
Amerindians, so that such natives as they met who had the courage to
examine them, did so with the intention of discovering whether they
had any white skin left. The natives whom they now encountered
(belonging to the maritime tribes) were comely in appearance, and far
more cleanly than the tribes of the north-west. As already mentioned,
they had grey eyes, sometimes tinged with hazel. Their stature was
noble, one man measuring at least six feet four inches. They were
clothed in leather, and their hair was nicely combed and dressed with
beads. One