TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA: 
never before traversed by any white person,' 
at last came to a large river. Here the canoe? 
which was carried by the men on their 
shoulders, was launched, and having all em¬ 
barked, they proceeded down the stream. 
From the course this river took for a very 
great distance, Mr. McKenzie was led to 
imagine that it was one of those rivers he was 
in quest of; namely, one which emptied itself 
into the Pacific Ocean; but at the end of 
several weeks, during which they had worked 
their way downward with great eagerness, he 
was convinced, from the gradual inclination of 
the river towards another quarter, that he must 
have been mistaken; and that it was one of 
those immense rivers, so numerous on the 
continent of North America, that ran into 
Baffin’s Bay, or the Arctic Ocean. 
The party was now in a very critical situ¬ 
ation ; the season was far advanced, and the 
length of way which they had to return was 
prodigious. If they attempted to go back, and 
were overtaken by winter, they must in all 
probability perish for want of provisions in an 
uninhabited country; if, on the contrary, they 
made up their minds to spend the winter 
where they were, they had no time to' lose in 
building huts, and going out to hunt and fish, 
that they might have sufficient stores to sup¬ 
port them through that dreary season. Mr, 
