CANOES 17 



later, closed the age of great discoveries by 

 crossing the Great Divide to the westward- 

 flowing Eraser and reaching the Pacific by way 

 of its tributary, the Blackwater, an Indian trail 

 overland, and the Bella Coola. Mackenzie had 

 found the canoe route ; and when he painted the 

 following record on a fiord rock he was bring- 

 ing centuries of arduous endeavour to a be- 

 fitting close : * Alexander Mackenzie, from 

 Canada, by land, the 22nd of July, 1793.' 

 This crowning achievement with paddle and 

 canoe seems very far away from the reader 

 of the twentieth century. Yet Fra^ois Beau- 

 lieu, one of Mackenzie's voyageurs, only died 

 in 1872, and was well known to many old 

 North- Westers who are still alive. 



The Indian birch-bark canoe is pre-eminently 

 characteristic of Canada. But it is not the 

 most primitive type of small craft ; and it 

 was often superseded for various purposes by 

 the more advanced types introduced by the 

 whites. There are three distinct types of small 

 craft all the world over. Like everything else, 

 they have followed the invariable order of 

 evolution, from the simple to the complex. 

 First came the simple log, which served the 

 earliest man to cross some little stretch of 

 water by the aid of pole or paddle. Next came 



