by Mackenzie himself.

From early morning till sunset they toiled during the next three days,
almost without cessation, except for meals. They cut their way from the
margin of the river, where the rocks and ground shelved so steeply that
one false step of any of the men would have been followed by a headlong
plunge into the water. Over the ridge, and down into a hollow beyond,
and up the mountain farther on, they hewed a broad track, by which they
conveyed the baggage and then carried up the canoe. This latter was an
extremely difficult operation at the first part of the road, requiring
the united efforts of the whole party. Being lifted on the shoulders of
some of the men, the tracking-rope was fastened to the bow, and others
of the party went in advance and took a couple of turns of the rope
round a stump. The bearers then advanced steadily up the steep side of
the mountain till they reached those who, by holding on to the rope,
relieved them of any downward weight. The rope was then shifted to a
stump farther up, and the advance was continued. Thus they may be said
to have warped the canoe up the mountain! By two in the afternoon
everything was got to the summit. Then Mackenzie, axe in hand, led the
way forward. The progress was slow, the work exhausting. Through every
species of country they cut their way. Here the trees were large and
the ground encumbered with little underwood; there, the land was strewn
with the trunks of fallen timber, where fire had passed with desolating
power years before, and in its place had sprung up extensive copses of
so close a growth, and so choked up with briars, that it was all but
impossible to cut through them. Poplar, birch, cypress, red-pine,
spruce, willow, alder, arrow-wood, red-wood, hard, and other trees,--all
fell before the bright axes of the _voyageurs_, with gooseberry-bushes,
currant-bushes, briars, and other shrubs innumerable. It must not be
supposed that they did this heavy work with absolute impunity. No,
there was many a bruise and blow from falling trees, and even the shrubs
were successful not only in tearing trousers and leggings, but also in
doing considerable damage to skin and flesh. So toilsome was the
labour, that at the close of one of the days they had advanced only
three miles.

On the afternoon of the third day they finally came out in triumph on
the banks of the river above the cascades, having cut a road of about
nine miles in extent.