1908.] PREVIOUS EXPLORATIONS HEARNE AND MACKENZIE. 



55 



Desiring to satisfy himself that the river emptied into the sea, 

 Ilearne proceeded to its mouth, where he arrived July 17. He then 

 turned southward and in a general way retraced his outward course 

 until he reached the vicinity of Point Lake, when he bore slightly 

 westward and crossed Great Slave Lake somewhere to the eastward 

 of the Xorthern Arm about the last of December, ITTI. This lake 

 he called the '"Athapuscow," and it has been by some supposed to 

 be identical with the Athabaska, but a careful examination of his 

 iiarrative and map renders this idea untenable." Entering the com- 

 parative level country south of the lake, a welcome change from 



the jumble of rocks and hills " which he had been traversing, he 

 struck Slave River at a point where its banks were high — that is, 

 at some distance south of the lake — and after following the river 

 for some 40 miles turned olf to the eastward, reached his outward 

 track near Clowe}^ Lake, and returned to Fort Prince of AYales over 

 nearly the same route followed on the first part of his outward 

 journey. 



The narFative of Hearne's journey, which was published in 1795, 

 contains many notes on natural history, and in his closing chapter 

 the author gives a more or less detailed account of many of the 

 animals with which long residence in the north had made him 

 familiar. 



The next traveler to be referred to in the present connection is 

 Alexander Mackenzie, who, in the summer of 1789, descended to its 

 mouth the great river which now bears his name. Since Llearne 

 had penetrated the interior, hitherto unknown to the northward 

 of the Saskatchewan, the fur traders of Canada had gradually 

 extended their field of operations northward, first to the upper 

 Churchill River, then by wa}^ of Isle a la Crosse and Methye Portage 

 to Athabaska River, where a post was erected by Peter Pond in 

 1778, about 40 miles above the mouth of the river. In 1785 trading- 

 houses were built on Great Slave Lake to the eastward of the mouth 

 of the river, apparently near Stone Island. In 1787 the various 

 private traders and small companies united under the name of the 

 ' Xorth-West Company,' which was a most formidable rival of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company until their consolidation in 1821. The post 

 established on the Athabaska was removed in 1788 to the south 

 shore of Athabaska Lake, about 8 miles east of the mouth of the 

 river. It was named Fort Chipewyan and for some years was the 

 principal post of the district. From here Alexander Mackenzie 

 started on his famous journeys of exploration. 



" For a brief discussion of this part of Hearne's route, by Doctor Richardson, 

 see Back's Narrative Arctic Land Expedition to Mouth of Great Fish River, pp. 

 150-155, 1836. 



