1789.] MACKENZIE REACHES THE ARCTIC SEA. 263 



unable to proceed farther, in consequence of the hostile dispositions 

 of the natives. 



Between 1788 and 1794, two other expeditions were made from 

 Fort Chipewyan by Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, the superintending 

 proprietor at that place, of which a particular account should be 

 here given, as the geographical information obtained in them was 

 highly interesting, and led to important commercial and political 

 results.* 



The Athabasca Lake is a basin about two hundred miles in 

 length from east to west, and about thirteen in average breadth, sit- 

 uated under the 59th parallel of latitude, midway between the 

 Pacific Ocean and Hudson's Bay. It is supplied by several streams, 

 of which the principal are the Athabasca or Elk River, flowing from 

 the south, and the Unjigah or Peace River, from the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, on the west ; and its waters are discharged through the Slave 

 River, running about two hundred miles north, into the Great Slave 

 Lake, discovered by Hearne in 1771. All these rivers join the 

 Athabasca Lake at its south-west end, near which Fort Chipewyan 

 was then situated. 



Mackenzie's first expedition was made in 1789, and its principal 

 object was to ascertain the course of the waters from the Great Slave 

 Lake to the sea, which Hearne had left undetermined. For this 

 purpose, he left Fort Chipewyan, with his party, in bark canoes, on 

 the 3d of June, 1789, and, passing down the Slave River into the 

 Great Slave Lake, he discovered a large stream flowing out of the 

 latter basin, at its north-west extremity, to which he gave the name 

 of Mackenzie River ; and this stream he descended about nine 

 hundred miles, in a north-west direction, along the base of a chain 

 of mountains, to its termination in the sea. On his return, he 

 examined the country east of his great river, which had been 

 traversed by Hearne, and arrived at Fort Chipewyan on the 12th 

 of September, after an absence of nearly three months. 



The mouth of the Mackenzie was supposed by its discoverer to 

 be situated near the 69th degree of latitude, and about 25 degrees 

 of longitude, or five hundred miles, west of the mouth of Hearne's 

 Coppermine River, which is not far from its Lae position.! Still 



* Voyages from Montreal, on the River St. Lawrence, through the Continent of 

 North America, to the Frozen and the Pacific Oceans, in 1789 and 1793, with a pre- 

 liminary Account of the Fur Trade of that Country; by Sir Alexander Mackenzie. 

 London, 1801. 



t Its principal mouth is in latitude 69°, longitude 136° west from Greenwich. 



