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FOREWORD

In the preparation of this essay, Mackenzie’s narrative, as
contained in the original edition of his Voyages, 1801, was
used as a basis. Supplementary information regarding the
routes followed was obtained from other sources, particularly
from the publications of the Geological Survey of Canada.
The writer himself travelled over the greater part of the
track of the Pacific “voyage” by canoe and portage, from
the town of Peace River, below Mackenzie’s Fort, to the
Parsnip-F raser divide, and thence down the Fraser.

The tide-water section on the Pacific was checked up by
reference to Bulletin No. 6, “‘Mackenzie’s Rock,” issued by
the Historic Sites Commission, Ottawa, 1925; and the
Indian Trail from the Blackwater to Bella Coola over the
interior plateau, by reference to Dr. G. M. Dawson’s report
of 1876, in the Geological Survey Report of Progress for
that year.

The first two chapters are in the nature of a summary
of explorations in the North-West collated from Mackenzie’s
own narrative, supplemented, where necessary, by reference
to Dr. Davidson’s The North-West Company; Dr. Elliot
Coues’ New Light on the Early History of the Greater
North-West. The Manuscript ‘fournals of Alexander Henry
and David Thompson; Lawrence J. Burpee’s Search for the
Western Sea, and L. R. Masson’s Les Bourgeois de la Com-
pagnie du Nord-Ouest, Quebec, 1889-90. 2 vols.

The outline of Spanish, British, American, and Russian
affairs on the Pacific, in chapters vi. and xili., is derived

v