p the Peace river. Spring thaw brought the
waters down from the mountains in turbulent floods, and the precipices
narrowed on each side till the current became a foaming cascade. It
was one thing to float down-stream with brigades of singing voyageurs
and cargoes of furs in spring; it was a different matter to breast the
full force of these torrents with only ten men {75} to paddle. In the
big brigades the men paddled in relays. In this canoe each man was
expected to pole and paddle continuously and fiercely against a current
that was like a mill-race. Mackenzie listened to the grumblers over
the night camp-fire, and explained how much safer it was to ascend an
unknown stream with bad rapids than to run down it. The danger could
always be seen before running into it. He cheered the drooping spirits
of his band, and inspired them with some of his own indomitable courage.

By May 16 the river had narrowed to a foaming cataract; and the banks
were such sheer rock-wall that it was almost impossible to land. They
had arrived at the Rocky Mountain Portage, as it was afterwards called.
It was clear that the current could not be stemmed by pole or paddle;
the canoe must be towed or carried. When Mackenzie tried to get
foothold or handhold on the shore, huge boulders and land-slides of
loose earth slithered down, threatening to smash canoe and canoemen.
Mackenzie got out a tow-line eighty feet long. This he tied to the
port thwart of the canoe. With the tow-line round his shoulders, while
the torrent roared {76} past and filled the canyon with the 'voice of
many waters,' Mackenzie leaped to the dangerous slope, cut foothold and
handhold on the face of the cliff with an axe, and scrambled up to a
table of level rock. Then he shouted and signalled for his men to come
up. If the voyageurs had not been hemmed in by a boiling maelstrom on
both sides, they would have deserted on the spot. Mackenzie saw them
begin to strip as if to swim; then, clothes on back and barefoot, they
scrambled up the treacherous shore. He reached over, and assisted them
to the level ground above. The tow-line was drawn taut round trees and
the canoe tracked up the raging current. But the rapids became wilder.
A great wave struck the bow of the canoe and the tow-line snapped in
mid-air. The terrified men looking over the edge of the precipice saw
their craft sidle as if to swamp; but, on the instant, another mighty
wave flung her ashore, and