MACKENZIE RIVER 



3567 



MACKENZIE RIVER 



Farm, on December 7, the Reformers were 

 routed, and Mackenzie himself fled to the 

 United States. He established his headquarters 

 on an island in the Niagara River. There for 

 several months he proceeded to annoy both the 

 Canadian and the American governments, until 

 he was finally arrested on a charge of violating 

 the neutrality of the United States and was 

 sentenced to serve 'eighteen months in prison 

 at Rochester, N. Y. He actually served eleven 

 months, an experience, in the words of a canny 

 biographer, which "cured him of his love for 

 republican institutions." 



After his pardon in 1840 Mackenzie worked 

 in the New York customhouse and later for 

 the New York Tribune. In 1849 the Canadian 

 government proclaimed a general amnesty to 

 all who had taken part in the rebellion. Mac- 

 kenzie thereupon returned to Toronto, and 

 from 1851 to 1858 again served in the assembly. 

 Towards the close of this period, the disease 

 of which he died, softening of the brain, had 

 already begun to show its effects and finally 

 compelled his retirement from pubHc life. He 

 died at Toronto on August 29, 1861. G.H.L. 



Consult Lindsey's Life and Times of William 

 Lyon Mackenzie; Dent's Story of the Upper 

 Canada Rebellion. 



MACKENZIE RIVER, the greatest river 

 wholly in Canada, and except the Mississippi, 

 the greatest in North America. Its length, 

 2,525 miles, is nearly as great as that of the. 

 Missouri River, and its volume is considerably 



COURSE OF THE MACKENZIE 



larger. Its average minimum discharge is ap- 

 proximately 500,000 cubic feet per second. 

 This means that in a single day the water dis- 

 charged by the river would make a lake two 



miles long, one mile wide and a thousand feet 

 deep throughout. In flood season this amount 

 is increased many times. The average width of 

 the Mackenzie is about a mile, and it has a 

 fall of approximately six inches to the mile. 

 The basin of the Mackenzie River system, in- 

 cluding the Peace River, has an area of 682,000 

 square miles, or nearly one-fifth of the area of 

 the whole Dominion of Canada. The river 

 takes its name from Sir Alexander Mackenzie, 

 the first man to descend its course to the 

 mouth. 



Details of Its Course. The head stream of 

 the Mackenzie River system is the Finlay, 

 which rises in the Rocky Mountain Trench, in 

 the north-central part of British Columbia. 

 After a southeasterly course of 250 miles the 

 Finlay meets the Parsnip, and the combined 

 stream, called the Peace River (which see), 

 cuts its way eastward through the Rocky 

 Mountains and then flows northward and east- 

 ward through one of the most fertile sections 

 of Canada until it empties into the Slave 

 River. The Slave River is the outlet of Atha- 

 baska Lake, into which flows the Athabaska 

 River, which is sometimes regarded as the 

 southern head stream -of the Mackenzie sys- 

 tem. The Slave River, after a northerly course 

 of 265 miles, flows into Great Slave Lake, from 

 whose western end it emerges as the Mackenzie 

 River. The Mackenzie River proper, from 

 Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean, is over 

 1,000 miles long, about the distance from Chi- 

 cago to Quebec. 



Like the Yukon, the Mackenzie system is 

 navigable for nearly the whole of its length. 

 The Mackenzie proper is navigable throughout 

 its length usually from the middle of June 

 until nearly the end of October. The same is 

 true of the Slave River. The Athabaska River 

 is navigable as far as the Grand Rapids near 

 Fort McMurray, and is then navigable above 

 the rapids to its outlet from Lesser Slave Lake. 

 The Peace River is navigable for 220 miles 

 above its mouth. The Mackenzie system in- 

 cludes at least 2,000 miles of navigable water- 

 ways. 



Through its upper course the Mackenzie 

 flows through a rich agricultural and timber 

 district, and farther north there are large de- 

 posits of lignite on its banks. For seventy-five 

 or eighty miles above its mouth it flows through 

 a flat delta, parts of which have not yet been 

 surveyed or even explored. Fish are abundant, 

 especially whitefish and trout; the latter often 

 attain tremendous size. Wild game is still 



