Mackenzie river is one of the longest and broadest streams in the world. According to Mr. R. G. McConnell, of the Geological Survey, one of the first to attempt a scientific survey of the river, the Mackenzie “drains an area of six hundred and seventy-seven thousand, four hundred square miles, and has an approximate discharge at a medium stage of the water, according to some rough measurements made by the writer, of five hundred thousand cubic feet per second. Its basin is traversed for nearly one thousand three hundred miles by Rocky mountains, and the Mackenzie is probably unique among the rivers of the world in the fact of having a large proportion of its basin situated on the farther side of a great mountain chain. Two of its principal tributaries, Liard and Peace rivers, pierce Rocky mountains and drain large areas beyond, while the third, the Athabaska, originates in the heart of the same range, and is confined entirely to the eastern slope. The country from which the Mackenzie draws its supplies is of the most varied description and includes part of the broken plateau region west of Rocky mountains, Rocky mountains themselves through fifteen degrees of latitude, the northern part of the prairie district and the wooded and moss-covered country which succeeds it towards Arctic ocean, while tribute is also drawn from a wide belt of rough Laurentian country on the east, and from portion of the “Barren Lands.” From Great Slave lake to the sea the Mackenzie is an imposing stream, averaging about a mile in width with occasional expansions for long distances to twice this size. It is characterized by the comparative purity of its water, by its long straight reaches and by the absence of sudden bends. Its valley, usually shallow, follows closely all the sinuosities of the stream without the intervention of large flats. Clusters of islands obstruct its channel in a number of places, and are met with at intervals all the way down, while ranges of lofty mountains run parallel with it for part of its course, and form a fitting background to this king of northern waters.” SILENT SWEEP OF A MIGHTY RIVER. “Opposite Fort Simpson,” according to Mr. McConnell, “the main channel of the Mackenzie is almost exactly a mile wide, and it maintains and often exceeds this width for many miles below. Its course, as far as the Great Bend, a distance of seventy miles, is north-northwest, and its current in average stages of the water has a velocity of about four miles an hour. The banks of the valley appear low owing to the great size of the river, but in reality have often a height of two hundred feet or over. The appearance of this part of the Mackenzie and of the unending spruce forests which border it is monotonous and uninteresting, and is only relieved by the majesty inseparable from the silent sweep of a river of its magnitude.”