journey. The current here varies in strength but generally
runs at about 4 to 5 miles per hour, although some author’
ities say its rate is closer to 6 miles per hour at certain stages
of the water. It does not compare in difficulty of navi-
gation, however, to the fast stretch of water above Fort
Simpson and the mouth of the Liard.

This is the part’ of the river where, before the days of
steam and diesel ‘engines, rivermen had to =“‘track” or
“line”, i.e., pull their heavy canoes or York boats against
the current. All together, there are about 75 miles of swift
water above Fort Simpson, of which the most dangerous is
pethaps the Green Island Rapids, a few miles above the
mouth of the Liard. In 1945, Green Island Rapids was
charted by the Hydrographic Service of the Department of
Mines and Resources, and a new channel, suitable for
navigation, was located in mid-stream. At Fort Norman,
the Great Bear River enters from the east and about 90
miles farther north the river falls over a rock reef to form
the Sans Sault Rapid, which is perhaps the greatest obstruc-
tion during low water to navigation from Great Slave Lake
to the Arctic Ocean. In high water the rapid is obliterated,
but in low water it becomes a serious, although not impass-
able, obstruction to steamboat navigation. Except for the
narrows just above Fort Good Hope known as the Ramparts,
where a 6-mile current is encountered, there are no rapids
of great consequence as far as Point Separation, below which
the river spreads out in its delta to enter the ocean through
several channels.

The above should’not be regarded as a guide to naviga-
tion on the Mackenzie route; but rather as an outline of
the conditions governing the machinery of river transporta-

tion, and the physical obstacles that river craft must be
designed to overcome.

A point of some consequence to navigation on the
Mackenzie route—and one that may prove to have signi-
ficance in the future development of channels of transporta-
tion in the Mackenzie Valley is the fact that the Liard
River is open about a month before ice conditions permit
navigation on Great Slave Lake. The Liard itself is a
difficult stream; its basin differs somewhat from that of the
other streams of the Mackenzie system in that its feeders
run off earlier in the year, it falls rapidly in midsummer, and
late operation is limited to light power barges. ;

Substantial improvements in the Mackenzie water route
are under consideration by the Dominion Government and
to that end surveys have been made of parts of Great Slave
Lake and the Mackenzie River from the mouth of the Slave
River to Fort Simpson.

Water Transport

Water transport on the Mackenzie River and its
tributaries was first developed by the fur trading companies,
who are still the largest shippers and receivers of goods in
the area. However, during the past ten years mining
operations in the Yellowknife area north of Great Slave Lake

and at Great Bear Lake have required a large volume of
freight, and indications are that this movement will become
even larger in the future. In the very early days of water
transport on the Mackenzie birch bark canoes were used,
and these were followed by factory-made canoes of about
the same dimensions and style. The York boat was intro-
duced in the early part of the nineteenth century. This
craft had a hull similar to that of a whale boat, was about
40 feet long, had a 10-foot beam, a pointed bow and stern,
and a square cut sail.

Steam power was introduced about 1883, and on the
longer hauls the canoe and York boat gave place to steamer,
tug, and barge types adapted to the depth and character
of the streams of the Mackenzie basin. The first steamer,
the Grahame, a stern-wheeled craft, was built by the
Hudson's Bay Company to operate between Fort McMurray
on the Athabaska River and Fort Fitzgerald on the Slave
River. In 1885-86, the Wrigley, a screw-propelled vessel,
was built at Fort Smith to operate on the lower Slave River.
The S.S. McKenzie River, a stern-wheeler built in 1907,
Was in continuous service until 1924, when the S.S. Dis-
tributor III was acquired. The McKenzie River later was
renovated and put into service to handle the increased
volume of business, particularly during the summers of
1942, 1943, and 1944, when her further use was necessary
to assist in transporting the extra freight resulting from the
Canol Development at Norman Wells. From these boats
has grown the rather extensive river fleet of the Hudson’s
Bay Company, which in recent years has been supplemented
by the boats and barges of. three other transportation
companies, whose operations have developed largely from
the expansion of mining operations in the territory. The
solid backlog of traffic over these northwestern water
routes remains, as before, the traffic associated with the
fur trade, dominated by the operations of the Hudson’s
Bay Company and referred to as “post freight”. Although a
good deal of traffic is handled by steamer the bulk of the
freight is transported in barges towed or pushed either by
steamer or by diesel-powered river tugs. These latter are
sturdy craft capable of handling several barges. The load
transported depends on the condition of the water across
the lakes or in the upstreams.

Occasional mining booms have taxed the normal shipping
facilities and each has left in its wake some overcapacity
to await reabsorption in the next boom. Activities in
connection with joint defence projects during 1942-44
and particularly the race to bring in materials for the Canol
pipeline added many new craft of types—some not very
suitable to the conditions—never before seen in these
inland waters. These ranged from fishing craft brought
from the Pacific Coast and cabin cruisers from the Atlantic,
to army pontoons—small duralumin bridge-building pon-
toons—and steel tugs from the United States. The pon-
toons, when assembled into a raft unit on which pipe could
be transported, were moved by small power boats. Large
steel barges were also employed.

{ 101 J