122 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



tured; but what is seen would make any region famous. 

 We now came once more to outcrops of limestone in regular 

 layers, with disintegrated masses overlying them, or sand- 

 wiched between their solid courses. A lovely niche, at one 

 point, was scooped out of the rock, over the coping of which 

 poured a thin sheet of water, evidently impregnated with 

 mineral, and staining the rock down which it poured with 

 variegated tints of bronze, beautified by the morning sun. 



With characteristic grandeur the bends of the river 

 " shouldered " into each other, giving the expanses the 

 appearance of lakelets; and after a succession of these we 

 came to the first rapid, " The Mountain " — Watchikwe 

 Powistic — so called from a peak at its head, which towered 

 to a great height above the neighbouring banks. The rapid 

 extends diagonally across the river in a low cascade, with 

 a curve inward towards the left shore. It was decided to 

 unload and make the portage, and a very ticklish one it 

 was. The boats, of course, had to be hauled up stream by the 

 trackers, and grasping their line I got safely over, and was 

 thankful. How the trackers managed to hold on was to me a 

 mystery; but the steep and slippery bank was mere child's 

 play to them. The right bank, from its break and downward, 

 bears a very thick growth of alders, and here we found the 

 wild onion, and a plant resembling spearmint. 



In the evening we reached the next rapid, called the 

 Cascades — Nepe Kabatekik — " Where the water falls," and 

 camping there, we had a symposium in our tent, which I 

 could not enjoy, having headache and heartburn, a nasty 

 combination. The 16th was the hottest day of the season — 

 a hard one on the trackers, who now pulled along walls 

 of solid limestone, perpendicular or stepped, or wrought 

 into elaborate cornices, as if by the art of some giant stone- 

 cutter. At one place we came to a lovely little rideau, and 

 on the opposite shore were two curious caves, scooped out 

 of the rock, and supported by Egyptian-like columns wrought 

 by the age-action of water. 



