1906-7. 'Transactions. 31 



The MacKenzie River Basin. 



By E. Stewart, Supt. of Forestry. 



[Read Jan. 11, 1907.] 



Perhaps no portion of America has received greater attention 

 from the explorer during the last three centuries than the sub- 

 arctic regions of Canada, and yet they remain practically unex- 

 plored up to the present day. 



As early as 1577 Martin Frobisher spent some time on the 

 borders of the Arctic. The name of Frobisher recalls his contem- 

 porary, Drake, and carries us back to the defeat of the Spanish 

 Armada in which he performed a distinguished part and for which 

 he was honored by his king. 



Later, about 1610, Henry Hudson sailed up the great river 

 of the State of New York and also into that Canadian inland sea, 

 which, along with the above river, bears his name. Hearne went 

 down the Coppermine to the sea and wintered there in 1770 and 

 1771 



To my mind the most distinguished of them all. Sir Alexander 

 Mackenzie, made a journey in one short summer, that of 1789, 

 from Lake Athabaska, then called the Lake of the Hills, down the 

 Slave River, across Great Slave Lake, and then all the way down 

 the great river which received his name over 1000 miles to the 

 frozen ocean, returning the same season back to his starting point. 

 He then ascended the Peace River 600 miles to a point near Dun- 

 vegan where he wintered. All of this in bark canoes, and much 

 of it through an unknown region. The next season he ascended 

 the Peace to its headwaters, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and 

 finally, after enduring the greatest hardships, reached the Pacific, 

 returning again by the same route to his post at Chipewyan. 



Sir John Franklin in his second expedition, accompanied by 

 Dr. Richardson, made the journey down the Mackenzie in 1825. 



Many, whose names I need not recall, also imbued with a 

 spirit of adventure, have from time to time journeyed along the 

 ice-bound coast and through that sub-arctic wilderness which now 



