40 THEOUGH THE MACiKENZIE BASIN 



Rocky Mountains generally begins, filling the channel bank- 

 high, submerging the tracking paths, and bearing upon its 

 foaming surface such a mass of uprooted trees and river 

 trash that it is almost impossible to make head against it. 



The next morning opened dry and pleasant, but with a 

 milky and foreboding sky. Again the boats were in motion, 

 passing the Pusquatenao, or Naked Hill, beyond which is 

 the Echo Lake — Katoo Sakaigon — ^where a good many 

 Indians lived, having a pack-trail thereto from the river. 



The afternoon proved to be hot, the clouds cumulose 

 against a clear, blue sky, with occasional sun-showers. The 

 tracking became better for a time, the lofty benches decreas- 

 ing in height as we ascended. Innumerable ice-cold creeks 

 poured in from the forest, all of a reddish-yellow cast, and 

 the frequent marks on trees, informing passing hunters of 

 the success of their friends, and the number of stages along 

 the shore for drying meat, indicated a fine moose coimtry. 



The next day was treaty day, and we were still a long way 

 from the treaty post. The Police, not yet hardened to the 

 work, felt fagged, but would not own up, a nephew of Sir 

 William Vernon Harcourt bringing up the rear, and all slith- 

 ering, but hanging to it with dogged perseverance. Nothing, 

 indeed, can be imagined more arduous than this tracking 

 up a swift river, against constant head winds in bad weather.. 

 Much of it is in the water, wading up " snies," or tortuous 

 shallow channels, plunging into numberless creeks, clamber- 

 ing up slimy banks, creeping under or passing the line over 

 fallen trees, wading out in the stream to round long spits 

 of sand or boulders, floundering in gumbo slides, tripping, 

 crawling, plunging, and, finally, tottering to the camping- 

 place sweating like horses, and mud to the eyes — ^but never 

 grumbling. After a whole day of this slavish work, no 

 sooner was the bath taken, supper stowed, and pipes filled, 

 than laughter began, and jokes and merriment ran round the 

 camp-fires as if such things as mud and toil had never 

 existed. 



