92 ROBERT POCOCK. 



" Met at the Castle Inn (Mr. Jerry's) with a Mr. 

 James Guthrie, a person who had travelled much. He 

 said he was a master in the Royal Navy. He said he 

 set out from Quebec with a Captain Holland of the 57th 

 Regiment, and a party of twenty-eight men, to explore 

 and traverse the lakes and inland country of America, 

 so as to get to the Pacific Ocean : that when he was 

 within some distance of it he fell in with Mr. Alexander 

 Mackenzie and his party, just below Slave Lake, who had 

 obtained their pursuit, and for that Mr. Mackenzie was 

 created a knight or baronet, and he believes is now in 

 London. Mr. Mackenzie he said was a man of con- 

 siderable fortune in America was a clerk once to Sally 

 Hance, a person of some importance on the River 

 Sinclair. Mr. Guthrie said that when he had got 

 nearly to the end of his route, Captain Holland was 

 recalled, and he, Mr. Guthrie, had the command of the 

 party. Mr. Guthrie said that about two miles from 

 the Falls of Niagara is a sulphurous spring, so hot that 

 the company boiled their tea-kettle at it. That rattle- 

 snakes are common in the islands in the lakes, and 

 are generally avoided by a peculiar smell when near 

 them. 



" Thursday) 22nd. Fish (cod) very plentiful. Sent a 

 large one to Frances Pocock, at the school at Woburn. 

 It cost 5s., and weighed about thirty pounds. Sent 

 another to Mr. Thomas Brewer, weighed twelve pounds^ 

 cost Is. 6d. ! A ball this evening in the Town Hall, first 

 this season. 



" Saturday, 24th. Fine day. Gravesend Fair. Fewer 

 hogs and people than ever before. Went to it, and 

 saw at a booth, for threepence, a large seal alive, pur- 

 chased at Billingsgate about four years ago. It was 



