Having now reached the foot of the Rocky Mountains, our Ancient Mariner--for by this time he will be quite entitled to such an appellation--knowing that water cannot run uphill, feels certain his aquatic experiences are concluded. He was never more mistaken. We immediately launch him upon the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers, and start him on a longer trip than he has yet undertaken--the navigation of the Mackenzie River alone exceeding 2500 miles. If he survives this last experience we wind up his peregrinations by a concluding voyage of 1400 miles down the Fraser River, or, if he prefers it, the Thompson River, to Victoria in Vancouver, whence, having previously provided him with a first class return ticket for that purpose, he will probably prefer getting home _via_ the Canadian Pacific. Now, in this enumeration, those who are acquainted with the country are aware that, for the sake of brevity, I have omitted thousands of miles of other lakes and rivers which water various regions of the North-West: the Qu'Appelle River, the Belly River, Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis, Shoal Lake, and others, along whose interminable banks and shores I might have dragged, and finally exterminated, our way-worn guest. 2. JACQUES CARTIER'S VISIT TO HOCHELAGA IN OCTOBER (1535). =Source.=--Lescarbot's _History of New France_, edited for the Champlain Society, by W. L. Grant and H. P. Biggar. Toronto, 1911. Early next morning the captain donned his armour and ordered his men to be marshalled in order to visit the town and habitation of this tribe, and a mountain which lies close to the town, whither the captain went with the noblemen and twenty mariners, leaving the rest to guard the boats, and taking three men from the town of Hochelaga to be his guides and escort to the spot. And when on the road we found it as well beaten as could be, in a fair country like a park; with as fine oaks as in any forest in France, and the whole ground beneath them thick with acorns. When we had gone about a league and a half, we came upon one of the chiefest lords of the town of Hochelaga, with a large company, who made sign to us to rest there beside a fire which they had lighted in the roadway. And then this chief began to make a sermon and discourse, which, as we have already said, is their mode of showing joy and friendship, welcoming the captain and his company; and our captain gave him two hatchets and two knives, with a cross and a crucifix which he made him kiss, and then hung it around his neck, whereof the chief thanked our captain. This done, we went along, and about half a league further on began to come upon ploughed fields, and fair large meadows full of their manner of corn, which resembles the millet of Brazil, as large as a pea or larger, whereon they live as we do on wheat. And amid these fields is situated and placed the said town of Hochelaga, stretching up to a mountain which lies beside it, which is well cultivated and most fertile, and