The mountains seemed to be a solid mass of limestone, in some places without any covering of foliage.
[Footnote 5: For the word "elk" Mackenzie uses "moose deer".

"Elk" in the Canadian Dominion is misapplied to the great Wapiti red deer.] "In no part of the north-west", writes Mackenzie, "did I see so much beaver work" (along the eastern branch of the Peace River).

In some places the beavers had cut down acres of large poplars, and were busily at work on their labours of dam-making during the night, between the setting and the rising sun.
Gnats and mosquitoes came with the intense heat of June to make life almost unbearable.

As they got close to the Rocky Mountains they encountered Amerindians who had never seen a white man before, and who at first received them with demonstrations of great hostility and fright.

But owing to the diplomatic skill of Mackenzie they gradually yielded to a more friendly attitude, and here he decided to camp until the natives had become familiarized with him and his party, and could give them information as to his route.