Each man carried on
his back four bags and a half of pemmican, of an average weight of
eighty-five pounds, or other loads (instruments, goods for presents,
ammunition, &c.) of ninety pounds in weight. Moreover, each of the
Canadians carried a gun. The Amerindian servants of the expedition
were only asked to carry loads of forty-five pounds in weight.
Mackenzie's pack, and that of his companion, Mackay, amounted to about
seventy pounds. Loaded like this they had to scramble up the wooded
mountains, first soaked in perspiration from the heat and then
drenched with heavy rain. Nevertheless they walked for about thirteen
miles the first day. Now they began to meet natives who were closely
in touch with the seacoast, which lay to the west at a distance of
about six days' journey.
"We had no sooner laid ourselves down to rest last night than the
natives began to sing, in a manner very different from what I had been
accustomed to hear among savages. It was not accompanied either with
dancing, drum, or rattle; but consisted of soft, plaintive tones, and
a modulation that was rather agreeable: it had somewhat the air of
church music." The country through which they travelled abounded in
beavers. It was the month of July, however, and they were harassed
with thunderstorms, some of which were followed by hailstones as big
as musket balls.
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