tay here two or three days," said John.

"We might do worse," replied Alex. "This isn't a bad camping place,
and besides, it seems to me good country to make a little hunt, if we
care to do that."

"It certainly would be a fine place for beaver," said Rob, "if it
weren't against the law to kill them."

"Yes, or other things also--bear or bighorns, I should think very
likely."

"I suppose there isn't any law against killing bears," said Rob, "but
how about bighorns? I thought they were protected by law."

"We'll talk about that after a while," Alex answered. "Of course, no
one would want to kill beaver at this time of year, no matter what the
law was, because the fur is not good."

"I see by Sir Alexander's journal," continued Rob, "that it must have
been along in here that they saw so much beaver work. There are plenty
of dams even now, although it's a hundred years later than the time he
came through."

"I suppose when we get down farther there are fewer creeks," said
John, "and the rocks and trees are bigger. I don't know just where we
are now, because the trees are so thick a fellow can't see out."

"Well," went on Rob, bringing out his map, and also that which was
found in his copy of _Mackenzie's Voyages_, "it must have been just
about in here that Mackenzie met the first Indians that he saw in this
country--the ones who told him about the carrying place, and about the
big river and the salt water beyond it. They were the Indians who had
iron spears, and knives, and things, so that he knew they had met
white men off to the west. They had a big spoon which Mackenzie says
was made out of a horn like the buffalo horn of the Copper Mine River.
I suppose Mackenzie called the musk-ox buffalo, and very likely he
never had seen a mountain-sheep."

"That's right," said Alex, "those Injuns used to make big spoons out
of the horns of the mountain-sheep--all the Injuns along the Rockies
always have done that. It seems strange to me that Mackenzie didn't
know that, although at that he was still rather a new man in the
north."

"You never have been in here yourself, have you, Alex?" asked John.

"No, and that's what is making the trip so pleasant for me. I'm having
a good time figuring it out with you. I know this river must run north
between those two ranges of mountains, and it must turn to the east
somewhere north of here. But I've never been west of Fort St. John."

"I don't like the look of this river down th