They all now bent over the great sheet of paper, some of which was blank and marked “Unknown.”
“Here we are, right here,” said John, putting his finger on the map. “Only, when this map was made there wasn’t any railroad. They used to come up from Edmonton a hundred miles across the prairies and muskeg by wagon. A rotten bad journey, Uncle Dick said.”
“Well, it couldn’t have been much worse than the new railroad,” grumbled Jesse. “It was awfully rough, and there wasn’t any place to eat.”
“Oh, don’t condemn the new railroad too much,” said Rob. “You may be glad to see it before you get back from this trip. It’s going to be the hardest one we ever had. Uncle Dick says this is the last great wilderness of the world, and one less known than any other part of the earth’s surface. Look here! It’s two thousand miles from here to the top of the map, northwest, where the Mackenzie comes in. We’ve got to get there if all goes well with us.”
John was still tracing localities on the map with his forefinger. “Right here is where we are now. If we went the other way, up the Athabasca instead of down, then we would come out at the Peace River Landing, beyond Little Slave Lake. That’s where we came out when we crossed the Rockies, down the Finlay and the Parsnip and the Peace. I’ve got that course of ours all marked in red.”
“But we go the other way,” began Jesse, bending over his shoulder and looking at the map now. “Here’s the mouth of the Peace River, more than four hundred miles north of here, in Athabasca Lake. Both these two rivers, you might say, come together there. But look what a long river it is if you call the Athabasca and the Mackenzie the same! And look at the big lakes up there that we have read about. The Mackenzie takes you right into that country.”
“The Mackenzie! One of the very greatest rivers of the world,” said Rob. “I’ve always wanted to see it some time. And now we shall.
“I’d have liked to have been along with old Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the old trader who first explored it,” he added, thoughtfully.
“I forget just what time that was,” said Jesse, hesitating and scratching his head.