We poled and lined up nameless streams, portaged o’er hill and plain;
We guessed and groped, North ever North, with many a twist and turn
We saw ablaze in the deathless days, the splendid sunsets burn.”
Service
Perhaps no portion of America has received greater attention from the explorer during the last three centuries than the Sub-Arctic regions of Canada, and yet they remain practically unknown to the present day.
As early as 1577, Martin Frobisher spent some time on the border of the Arctic. The name Frobisher in English history carries us back to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, in which he performed a distinguished part and for which he was honoured by his Queen.
Later, in 1611, Henry Hudson after sailing up the great river of the State of New York found a tragic death in that Canadian inland sea, which, along with the above river, bears his name.
Samuel Herne went down the Coppermine to the Arctic Ocean and wintered there in 1770 and 1771; and as a result of his travels wrote the first account of the North American bison and Indian methods of hunting.
Later, in 1789, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, one of the boldest and most resourceful explorers of modern times, made a journey in one short summer from Lake Athabaska, then called the Lake of the Hills, down the whole course of the Slave River, across Great Slave Lake and then all the way down the great, but then unknown river, the Mackenzie, 1000 miles to the frozen Ocean, returning the same season to Fort Chippewyan.
In the autumn of 1792 he commenced another voyage from Chippewyan; this time with the Pacific Ocean as his objective point going westward up the Peace River; and succeeded before winter overtook him, in reaching a point 600 miles up that stream near Dunvegan, where he wintered.