Notes and Observations of Travels in the 

 Regions of Great Slave Lake. 



At a meeting of this Historical 

 Society, held in the city council dham- 

 ber, on the evening oif Tuesday, the 

 12tih February, 1901, the following 

 paper was read by Mr. W. J. McLean, 

 ex-chief factor of the H. B. Oo.: — 



In order the better to convey to your 

 minds an idea of the localities visited 

 by me on my late journeys tto the far 

 north, though presented to you in a 

 very inadequate manner, I will first 

 give you an account of the route fol- 

 lowed by me on my way to the remote 

 region referred to. 



From Winnipeg to Edmonton a dis- 

 tance of 1,032 miles, I travelled in 

 comfort and ease, by railway. Ed- 

 monton is a flourishing town with sev- 

 eral good hotels, especially the Al- 

 berta, and several stores, some of 

 which are not far short of any in Win- 

 nipeg. There are also two or three 

 banking houses. I think I may venture 

 to say that Edmonton has a great fut- 

 ure before it as a commercial centre. 

 From Edmonton to Athabasca Land- 

 ing, 99 miles, over a rolling country 

 interspersed by small rivers and lakes, 

 I travelled in a wagon. From this 

 point I embarked on the Athabasca 

 in a small open boat, and travelled 

 165 miles without any impediment, 

 down that swift river to the Grand 

 Rapdds, justly so-called, as they are 

 in "the season of high water stupend- 

 ously grand. Here oin a small island 

 on either side of which runs the ra- 

 ging rapids, there is a tramway . of 

 abont half a mile long, built and oper- 

 ated by the Hudson's Bay comxpany 

 for the purpose of their own trade in 

 the northern districts. On this tram- 

 way I had my boat and cargo taken 

 over, and again embarked at the foot 

 of the rapids, and proceeded through 

 a series of rapids too Fort McMurtray, 

 a distance of 87 miles. From this 

 point to Chipewyan on the Athabasca 



Lake, a distance of 185 miles, tlhe 

 river runs smoothly to its outlet in 

 the above lake. From Font 

 Chipewyan, three or four miles 

 is travelled on the lake be- 

 fore entering the river, the first 50 

 miles of which above its confluence 

 with the Peace river is called by the 

 old voyageurs, Riviere de Roche, from 

 its rocky clharacter. After its 

 junction with the Peace river it be- 

 comes the Slave river proper, a very 

 large and swift river, on to Smith 

 Portage, distant from Fort Chipe- 

 wyan 102 miles. On Smith Portage, a 

 distance of 16 miles, there is a wagon 

 road, constructed by the Hudson's 

 Bay company, over which they now 

 do their transport work with oxen 

 and carts. Formerly this 16 miles of 

 the route was got over by following 

 the river, and making five compara- 

 tively short portages, one of which, 

 however, 



THE MOUNTAIN PORTAGE, 

 was a particularly arduous one, owing 

 to the very high and steep sandy 

 ridge over which it had to be done. It 

 was over this portage route that I 

 travelled. It was not altogether new 

 to me, as I had gone over it several 

 times many years ago. From Fort 

 Smith the river becomes wider, and 

 runs without any obstruction to its 

 outlet in Great Slave lake, a distance 

 of 190 miles, making a grand total of 

 745 miles by water from Athabasca 

 Landing. Along this river there are 

 some very fine stretches of timber. 

 The south and southwestern portion 

 of Great Slavs lake is, comparatively 

 speaking, void of a'ny particularly at- 

 tractive scenery. That, however, is 

 not the case with the north and north- 

 eastern part of it. After leaving Fort 

 Resolution going north for a distance 

 of 60 or 70 miles, one enters an in- 

 numerable cluster of rocky islands, 



