Page:Columbus and other heroes of American discovery; (IA columbusotherher00bell).pdf/237

 *sity, abandoned, and an arduous climb began, resulting, however, in the successful scaling of the rugged ridge, and the safe arrival at a village on its western side, where the weary travelers were regaled with salmon, a fish never before met with on their travels in North America.

The inhabitants of this remote home in the wilderness were of a far more civilized appearance than the Indians of the East; and as the sea was approached by the explorers, they passed through settlements numbering hundreds of well-built houses, peopled by various tribes belonging to the southern branches of the great hyperborean group. Members of the Sicannis and other Rocky Mountain families were met with, who, one and all, showed courtesy to the white strangers, though they were jealous of any interference with their fishing or hunting; and as the western coast was approached, the active and intelligent Thinkleets, chiefly of the Stikeen and Tungass tribes, excited the admiration of their visitors by their ingenuity in the construction of domestic and other implements, and their skill in painting and carving.

The shores of the North Pacific Ocean were finally reached in north latitude 52° 20´ 48´´. The whole of the continent of British America had for the first time been traversed; its vast breadth had been proved beyond a doubt; and the connecting link between the discoveries on the western coast and those from the East, whether from Hudson's Bay, New England, or the Southern States, was added at last. Yet in Mackenzie's account of his work he scarcely notes the first sight of the sea; we have searched in vain for any details of his sojourn on its shores. Having done what he came to do, he turned back, and retraced his steps, winding up the narative of his adventures with this simple and unostentatious sentence:—"After an absence of eleven months I arrived at Fort Chipewyan, where I remained for the purposes of trade during the succeeding winter."