of a travelling band of these Indians, finding that
Mackenzie's party was on short rations and very hungry, offered to
boil them a kettle of fish roes.

"He took the roes out of a bag, and having bruised them between two
stones, put them in water to soak. His wife then took an handful of
dry grass in her hand, with which she squeezed them through her
fingers. In the meantime her husband was employed in gathering wood to
make a fire, for the purpose of heating stones. When she had finished
her operation, she filled a _watape_ kettle nearly full of water, and
poured the roes into it. When the stones were sufficiently heated,
some of them were put into the kettle, and others were thrown in from
time to time, till the water was in a state of boiling. The woman also
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 fir