engraving on it the date, July 14, 1789, and the
names of all present.

It had taken six weeks to reach the Arctic. It took eight to return to
Chipewyan, for the course was against stream, in many places tracking
the canoes by a tow-line. The beaver meadows along the shore impeded
the march. Many a time the quaking moss gave way, and the men sank to
mid-waist in water. While skirting close ashore, Mackenzie discovered
the banks of the river to be on fire. The fire was a natural tar bed,
which the Indians said had been burning for centuries and which burns
to-day as when Mackenzie found it. On September 12, with a high sail
up and a driving wind, the canoes cut across Lake Athabasca and reached
the beach of Chipewyan at three in the afternoon, after one hundred and
two days' absence. Mackenzie had not found the Northwest Passage. He
had proved there was no Northwest Passage, and discovered the
Mississippi of the north--Mackenzie River.

[Illustration: Running a Rapid on Mackenzie River.]

Mackenzie spent the long winter at Fort Chipewyan; but just as soon as
the rivers cleared of ice, he took passage in the east-bound canoes and
hurried down to the Grand Portage or Fort William on Lake Superior, the
headquarters of the Northwest Company, where he reported his discovery
of Mackenzie River. His report was received with utter indifference.
The company had other matters to think about. It was girding itself
for the life-and-death struggle with its rival, the Hudson's Bay
Company. "My expedition was hardly spoken of, but that is what I
expected," he writes to his cousin. But chagrin did not deter purpose.
He asked the directors' permission to explore that other broad
stream--Peace River--rolling down from the mountains. His request was
granted. Winter saw him on furlough in England, studying astronomy and
surveying for the next expedition. Here he heard much of the Western
Sea--the Pacific--that fired his eagerness. The voyages of Cook and
Hanna and Meares were on everybody's lips. Spain and England and
Russia were each pushing for first possession of the northwest coast.
Mackenzie hurried back to his Company's fort on the banks of Peace
River, where he spent a restless winter waiting for navigation to open.
Doubts of his own ambitions began to trouble him. What if Peace River
did not lead to the west coast at all? What if he were behind some
other discoverer sent out by the Spaniards or the Russians? "I