Alexander Mackenzie Reaches the Pacific

Transportation

Shooting rapids in a canoe Copyright/Source

Mackenzie did most of his exploration by canoe and on foot. The canoe of the time was made with a wooden frame and covered with the bark from a birch tree. It was very light and could be carried easily. Carrying the canoe was called "portaging". It was very important for canoes to be light, since Mackenzie often had to walk from one river to another and carry the canoe past dangerous waterfalls and rapids.

Resting on the portage path Copyright/Source

I'm Having a Really Bad Day…
Mackenzie's journal shows he had a particularly hard day on May 20, 1793: "Now with much difficulty, we moved along at the bottom of a high rock. Luckily -- it was not hard stone -- we were able to cut steps in the rock for twenty feet. Then at risk of my own life, I leaped onto a small rock below. There, I received upon my shoulders those who followed me along the steps. In this way the four of us passed the rock. Then we dragged up the canoe, but in doing so we broke it upon the rocks in the water. "As we went on the current ran faster and faster. In a distance of two miles, we had to unload the canoe four times and carry everything."

Livesey, Robert. The Fur Traders, Toronto: Stoddart, ©1989, p. 50.