s to the Pacific. Some one told him about the Peace
River. That's how he came to make the first trip over the mountains
here. By rights the Fraser River ought to have been named after him,
too, because he was the first to see it."

"But he wasn't the first to run it on out," said John, who also had a
good idea of the geography hereabouts, which he had carefully studied
in advance. "It was Simon Fraser did that first."

"Yes, they'll both been good man, heem," said Moise, his mouth full of
bacon. "My wife, she'll had an onkle once name Fraser an' he'll been
seex feet high an' strong like a hox--those Fraser, yes, heem."

"They must have been strong men," said Alex, "and brave men as well."

"Their worst time was getting west of here, wasn't it?" asked John.

"Yes," answered Rob. "The book says that when they tried to get down
the Fraser they had a terrible time. Sometimes they had to carry their
canoe through swamps and over hills. No wonder the men mutinied. Why,
they lost all their bullets, and got everything they had wet. The men
almost lost heart."

Moise nodded. "I'll onderstan' that," said he. "Sometime man get
tired."

"But you see now, Moise, why we wanted to come down here and go over
this same ground and not to take the easy portage trail into Lake
McLeod."

"All same to me," smiled Moise. "I'll don' care."

"Of course, if we wanted to go through the easiest way," assented Rob,
"it would be simpler to go up through McLeod Lake. But you see, that's
something of a way above here. Finlay found that lake after Mackenzie
came across, and they had a fort up there when Fraser came through
eighteen years later. The Indians used to come to that fort and tell
about the salt water somewhere far to the west. They had brass and
iron which they had got of white men somewhere on the Pacific--that
was more than a hundred years ago. Fraser wanted to get across to the
Pacific, but he followed the old Mackenzie trail across here. He
started at the Rocky Mountain portage and went up into McLeod Lake,
and stopped there for a while. But he didn't start west and northwest,
by way of Stuart Lake. Instead of that, he followed Mackenzie's
journal, just as we're doing. He came into the little creek which
leads into these lakes--where we'll go down pretty soon. He came right
across this lake, not a mile from where we're sitting. Then he met
Indians in here, who told him--just as Moise has told us--that the
best and easiest way