Mouth of the Mackenzie River. Mackenzie (river). Description, geographical location. History and names
/ / 69.1977; -135.022 (Mackenzie, mouth)Coordinates :
It is a navigable river, the length of the navigable routes of the entire river system Mackenzie 2200 km - from Waterways on the Athabasca River to the port of Taktoyaktuk on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. The largest settlements: Aklavik, Inuvik, Fort Norman, Fort Providence and the Norman Wells oilfield center.
Story
It was discovered and first passed by A. Mackenzie from June 29 to July 14, 1789. Originally called the river Disappointment(English) Disappointment, "Disappointment" or "Discontent" ).
tributaries
- R. Carcaju
- R. Ruth
- R. mountain
- R. Hare Indian
Hydrography
The beginning of the Mackenzie River is considered to be the source from the Great Slave Lake, large Canadian lakes also belong to the river basin. Mackenzie's relatively low water content is due to the blocking effect of the Rocky Mountains to the west, which reduce the influence of the Pacific Ocean in the lower part of its catchment.
The Mackenzie, like more than half of Canada's rivers, belong to the Arctic Ocean basin. The food of the Arctic rivers is mainly snow and rain. In central and northern regions countries rivers and lakes are covered with ice for 5 to 9 months. Mackenzie freezes in September - October, opens in May, in the lower reaches - in early June; snow and rain food; spring-summer flood.
The river valley is formed by strata of alluvial and water-glacial deposits, heavily swamped, covered spruce forest.
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Notes
An excerpt characterizing the Mackenzie (river)
(If anyone is interested in the details true destiny Radomir, Magdalene, Cathars and Templars, please see the Additions after the chapters of Isidora or a separate (but still being prepared) book "Children of the Sun" when it is posted on the website www.levashov.info for free copying).I stood completely shocked, as it was almost always after the next story of the North ...
Was that tiny, newly born boy really the famous Jacques de Molay?! How many different preraznye legends I heard about it mysterious man!.. How many miracles were connected with his life in the stories I once loved!
(Unfortunately, wonderful legends about this mysterious man have not survived to this day... He, like Radomir, was made a weak, cowardly and spineless master who "failed" to save his great Order...)
– Can you tell us a little more about him, Sever? Was he such a powerful prophet and miracle worker as my father once told me? ..
Smiling at my impatience, Sever nodded in the affirmative.
– Yes, I will tell you about him, Isidora... I have known him for many years. And I talked to him many times. I loved this man very much ... And I missed him very much.
I did not ask why he did not help him during the execution? It didn't make sense, since I already knew his answer.
– What are you?! Have you spoken to him? Please, will you tell me about this, Sever?!. I exclaimed.
I know I was like a child in my excitement... But it didn't matter. Sever understood how important his story was for me, and patiently helped me.
“Only I would like to know first what became of his mother and the Cathars. I know that they died, but I would like to see it with my own eyes... Help me, please, Sever.
And again, reality disappeared, returning me to Montsegur, where wonderful brave people lived their last hours - students and followers of Magdalene ...
Cathars.
Esclarmonde lay quietly on the bed. Her eyes were closed, she seemed to be sleeping, exhausted by losses ... But I felt - it was just protection. She just wanted to be alone with her sadness... Her heart suffered endlessly. The body refused to obey... Just a few moments ago, her hands were holding a newborn son... Embracing her husband... Now they are gone into the unknown. And no one could say with certainty whether they would be able to get away from the hatred of the "hunters" who filled the foot of Montsegur. Yes, and the whole valley, as far as the eye covered ... The fortress was the last stronghold of the Cathars, after it there was nothing left. They suffered a complete defeat ... Exhausted by hunger and winter cold, they were helpless against the stone "rain" of catapults that rained down on Montsegur from morning to night.
“Tell me, Sever, why didn’t the Perfect Ones defend themselves?” After all, as far as I know, no one was better than them in "movement" (I think they mean telekinesis), "breath" and much more. Why did they give up?!
“There are reasons for this, Isidora. In the very first attacks of the crusaders, the Cathars did not yet give up. But after the complete destruction of the cities of Albi, Beziers, Minerva and Lavour, in which thousands of civilians died, the church came up with a move that simply could not work. Before they attacked, they announced to the Perfects that if they surrendered, not a single person would be harmed. And, of course, the Cathars surrendered... From that day on, the fires of the Perfect Ones began to blaze all over Occitania. People who devoted their whole lives to Knowledge, Light and Goodness were burned like garbage, turning the beautiful Occitania into a desert scorched by bonfires.
The Mackenzie River is the largest in Canada. Her length is 4241 km. In fact, the water stream, which is called "Mackenzie", begins its journey from Great Slave Lake. It is considered the deepest North America. Max Depth the reservoir reaches 614 meters, and the area is 28.4 thousand square meters. km. In spring, autumn and summer the lake is covered with an ice crust. It is released from it only in the summer months.
From the lake, the water stream flows to the northwest and ends up in beaufort sea. Its length is 1738 km. The very same water system of the river begins river finlay in central British Columbia. The source is in a small lake Tutade. These are the Omineka Mountains. The river flows south along the Rocky Mountains and empties into the Williston Reservoir. The total length of Finlay is 420 km.
Mackenzie River on the map
The Peace River flows out of the reservoir. This is a large water stream, the length of which is 1521 km. It flows into the Slave River, which flows out of Lake Athabasca. It is the latter that flows into the Great Slave Lake. And the Mackenzie River is already flowing from it and carries its waters to the North Arctic Ocean. Hence the figure of 4241 km is obtained.
Why is this strange name- "Slave"? The thing is that on the banks of the river and the lake lived a tribe of Slave Indians. Here is a lake with a river and called "Slave". Hence the confusion, since the English word "slave" means "slave". They wanted the best, but it turned out to be the Great Slave Lake and the Slave River. Now you can’t do anything, it’s historically so.
The mighty northern river was discovered by the Scottish traveler Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820). In 1789, he moved along the waterway from Lake Athabasca towards the Arctic Ocean. In total, the traveler swam and walked 4.5 thousand km. People paid tribute to the courage of this man and immortalized his name in the name of the river.
It feeds on tributaries, lakes, rains and snows. The floodplain of the river is heavily swamped. Forests of black spruce, aspen and poplar grow around. To the north comes the kingdom of dwarf birches, willows and numerous peat bogs. And, of course, permafrost. In the delta area, its depth reaches 100 meters.
The largest lake, connected to the river through a channel, is called Big Bear. It is located on the Arctic Circle. The maximum depth is 413 meters. The area of the reservoir is 31.15 thousand square meters. km, which is larger than the area of the Great Slave Lake. The channel, or rather, the river, is called the Big Bear and reaches a length of 113 km. Its depth is 6 meters, and the width reaches 300 meters.
Mackenzie River in autumn
Mackenzie herself is broad and slow river. The drop height from source to mouth is 156 meters. There are many shoals and side channels on the river. The width varies from 2 to 5 km. The depth is 8-9 meters. In some places, the mountainous terrain causes the stream to narrow, and its width reaches 0.5 km. Accordingly, the flow rate also increases.
This water river system covers 20% of the country's territory. In length, it ranks 13th in the world among all the great water systems and gives the Arctic Ocean 11% of the total drainage. The Mackenzie River begins to ice over in September. Ice drift begins in May, and in the lower reaches this period falls on the month of June.
The river basin is home to 397 thousand people, which is 1% of the population of Canada. The bulk of the population is concentrated in the province of Alberta. But in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories, mostly indigenous peoples live. But there are many useful resources: oil, gas, uranium, gold, tungsten, timber - all this is abundantly rich northern land. Navigation is well developed on the river. It covers 2200 km in summer period. And in winter, ice roads, dog teams and snowmobiles are practiced.
In a word, this is a real harsh north, in no way inferior to Taimyr or Chukotka. Life in these places, though not seething, but securely settled in rare settlements. You can call the village of Fort Providence. It is inhabited mainly indigenous people northern lands. There are almost 800 inhabitants.
But in Inuvik, which is administrative center Northwest Territories, about 4 thousand people live. This is a stronghold oil companies. It is from here that the management of geological studies of nearby lands is carried out. You can also mention the village of Aklavik, Fort Norman, Norman Wells.
The Mackenzie River is a navigable river during the summer.
Concerning delta great northern river, then in winter period, and this is as much as 6 months, it is almost indistinguishable. Everything around comes to life after the beginning of the ice drift. The ice melts in a few days, and countless channels appear, separated by islands. The length of the delta is 160 km, and the width from edge to edge is 80 km.
There are many in the water pingo. These are earthen hills, the core of which consists of ice. This phenomenon is common in permafrost regions. Ice in the summer turns into water, but cannot escape to the surface. Then it freezes, expands and pushes the earth up. There are over 1,500 pingos in the delta region. This is the largest concentration of them in the world.
The mighty northern stream is rightfully considered the pride of Canada. It carries its waters into the Beaufort Sea slowly and solidly. But they feel the hidden strength and power. And this always causes respect and interest in the greatest creations of nature, one of which is the Mackenzie River.
Stanislav Lopatin
Mackenzie is the most long river Canada and the entire American North (including the Finley, Peace River and Slave Rivers). The Mackenzie River flows through the northwestern part of the country and thanks to a large number tributaries is an extremely branched river system covering up to 20% of Canada. The Mackenzie basin covers several Canadian provinces, including: in the southern part it is Alberta and Saskatchewan, in the northwestern part - Yukon. River in the 18th century Europeans became interested as a potential route to the Pacific Ocean, but Mackenzie could not bring the discoverers to the Pacific coast, it is separated from it by mountains - to the south, these are the ridges, and to the north, the Mackenzie mountains.
For most of the way, the river flows through the lands of the northwestern, subpolar region of the country, which is called the Northwest Territories. Its source is also located here - in the Great Slave Lake, although in fact the Mackenzie River begins in the Rocky Mountains from the source of the Finlay River, which passes into the Peace River, and it, in turn, flows into Athabasca Lake, which, through the Slave River, connects to the Great Slave Lake, thus forming the largest Canadian and the second longest river system in North America after the Mississippi-Missouri. - the deepest (614 m) on the North American continent, it is rightfully considered one of the wonders of the local nature. Its name goes back to the designation of the local slave tribe - consonant, but not related to English word"slave" ("slave", "slave"). The translation of the name of the lake as "Slave", in fact, is erroneous. By the way, the descendants of the slaves were able to defend their right to the ancestral lands of the tribe, so a small community of Indians still lives on the shores of the lake named after them.
The river basin occupies the northern part of the Canadian (North American) platform. This is a Precambrian (earlier 500 million years) formation, the antiquity of which determined the presence of a number of minerals: rudzhelez, copper, nickel, uranium, gold, zinc, lead and other metals that occur in the foundation of the platform, which is exposed in the north of the continent, and later the sedimentary cover of the platform contains deposits of oil, gas, coal, potash and other salts. Thanks to their development, these inhospitable places turned into more habitable: for example, the discovery in the 1930s. gold in the Slave Lake region led to the birth of the city of Yellowknife, which later became the administrative center of the Northwest Territories and the center of gold mining. Silver and uranium are also mined here, and since 1991 - diamonds.
Flowing through the Northwest Territory, Mackenzie, not far from its mouth, crosses the border of the Arctic Circle and flows through the bay of the same name into the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. At its confluence with the sea, it forms a vast delta, the soil of which, up to a depth of 100 m, is bound by permafrost. Mackenzie waters supply about 11% of the total river flow of the Arctic Ocean and play an important role in creating the microclimate in the delta region.
The river flows through a vast area, which is forests and tundra, in places with heavily swampy areas. For the greater part of its journey, Mackenzie has a rather wide channel (from 2 to 5 km), through which water flows slowly and calmly (the height difference from source to mouth is only 156 m). A delta up to 80 km wide is formed at the mouth. The banks are rocky and indented in places, but swamps make up no more than 18% of the river basin area. Most of The basin is covered with forest-tundra and forests, of which 93% are deserted, untouched by man expanses. The food comes from rain and snow, and during the melting of snow and ice, serious floods occur. From September to May, the river is hidden under ice.
The cold waters of Mackenzie are home to 53 species of fish, some of which are endemic. Interestingly, many fish species are genetically related to species found in the Mississippi: scientists suggest that previously these rivers could be connected through a system of lakes and tributaries.
Exploration of the basin of the inhospitable northern river threatened to become the deepest disappointment not only for Alexander Mackenzie, but also for other geographers and travelers who were primarily concerned with finding a river route to the Pacific Ocean. Over time, the river was appreciated and it immortalized the name of the discoverer. 
The beginning of the formation of lakes and rivers in this region dates back to the end of the last ice age- about 11,000 years ago. The study of Mackenzie began not so long ago. The first European who managed to reach the coast of the Arctic Ocean, making his way to it along the mainland, is the English merchant and traveler Samuel Herne (1745-1792). And the first description of this river dates back to 1789 and belongs to the Scottish merchant and traveler Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820). However, according to Mackenzie himself, around 1780, in the lower reaches of the river, the Indians were already exchanging some kind of white skins for iron. It could also be Russian sailors. As an employee of the Northwest Fur Company, Mackenzie secured the organization of the expedition. Initially, she had to find a waterway to the Pacific Ocean, which the Indians told about. It was precisely because the expedition found a way out not to the Pacific, but to the Arctic Ocean, that the river was first called "Disappointment", which means "Disappointment" in English. The campaign began with the founding of Fort Chipewyan on the Athabasca River. The river expedition itself started on June 3, 1789. Information has been preserved about the guide - an Indian named "English leader", who participated in the campaign to the Arctic Ocean of S. Herne. Six days later, boats made of birch bark approached Slave Lake, but only on June 29 did Mackenzie find a stream flowing towards the Pacific
(as he thought) an ocean river without a name. The Indians they met spoke about the endless length of the river and the difficulties with food. The most unpleasant surprise was that the river turned due north, and on July 10, A. Mackenzie wrote: “It is quite clear that this river flows into the Great North Sea,” and on July 13 he saw the sea itself. The expedition did not explore its shores, but the night tides and the whales frolicking in the bay made it clear that this was an ocean. Later, the English explorer of the Arctic, John Franklin (1786-1847), having carried out in 1825-1826. expedition to this river, and assigned to her, and the mountains, and the bay, first explored by Mackenzie, the name of the "disappointed" Scot.
Mackenzie is navigable - the length of its navigable routes is 2200 km. The level of seasonal fluctuations in water is used to generate hydropower. In 1968, the Bennett Dam, one of the largest in the world, was built in the upper Mackenzie on the Peace River, and it is not the only one here: dams have appeared in many places, both for hydropower and for flood control. In the south, it became possible to conduct Agriculture. In addition, there is an ambitious project to relocate Arctic freshwater through the Mackenzie Reservoir-Irrigation and Transportation System. melt water inland and beyond.
Not only people use the river for their own purposes: the Mackenzie Delta, located at the junction of four major migration routes for North American birds (their number reaches a million in autumn), is an important transshipment point for them.
The construction of the dam caused significant damage to the ecosystem of the river and, in particular, to its delta, which led to a significant reduction in populations of migratory birds. According to the US Geological Survey, published in Forbes magazine in 2004, about a quarter of the world's oil and natural gas reserves are located in the Arctic. In particular, "the Mackenzie Delta and adjacent offshore areas are extremely rich in natural gas, which will be produced over the next decade." Due to the massive transformation of the area around the pipeline, many species may soon become extinct. Elsewhere in the river basin, oil, uranium, tungsten, gold, and diamonds are mined, and timber is mined in the upper reaches of the river. In addition, Mackenzie is the main transport artery: entire “trains” of barges move along its smooth surface (in winter they move along it on dog sleds and snowmobiles).
No matter how noticeable human activity is for the river, only 1% of Canadians now live in its basin. The population of the basin is about 397,000 people (according to 2001 statistics), that is, the average population density is approximately 0.2 people per square kilometer, but in last years all greater value tourism begins to play a role in the region's economy, the city of Inuvik is the most visited settlement in the Arctic, the center of Inuit culture and the launching pad for many ecotourism routes. Great importance also have Scientific research- hydrographic and geological.
general information
The longest river in Canada and the American North.Main tributaries:(left) Liard, Arctic Red River, Peel; (right) Big Bear.
Major lakes: Great Slave, Athabasca, Williston, Claire.
Largest settlements: Inuvik, Norman Wells (oilfield center), Fort Providence.
Ethnic composition: Indians - 36%, descendants of the British -17%, descendants of Scots and Irish - 26%, others (Eskimos / Inuit, French, Germans, mestizos, Ukrainians, etc.) - 1% (out of all respondents, only 20% identify themselves as Canadians ).
Languages: English, Gwich'in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuktun, Cree, Northern Slave, Southern Slave, Dogrib, French, Dene.
Religions: Catholicism - more than 50%, shamanism.
Ports: Hay River, Waterways, Taktoyaktuk.
Nearest airport: international Airport Yellowknife.
Numbers
Length: Mackenzie proper - 1738 km, together with the Finley, Peace River and Slave rivers - 4241 km.Width: up to 5 km.
Average depth: 8-9 m.
Source height: Finlay source - 1200 m, source from the Great Slave Lake - 156 m.
Pool area: 1,805,200 km2.
Estuary water flow: average - 10,000 m 3 / s, maximum - 31,800 m 3 / s.
Solid runoff: 15 million tons/year.
Length of shipping lanes: 2200 km.
Climate and weather
In the south of the basin - moderate, in the north - from subarctic to arctic.Average annual water temperature:+3°С.
January average temperature: from -16°С in the south to -28°С in the north.
July average temperature: from +16°С in the south to +8°С in the north.
Average annual rainfall: less than 100 mm in the north, more than 300 mm in the south, up to 1000 mm in the mountains.
Freeze-up: September-May/June (downstream).
Economy
Minerals: natural gas, oil, uranium, tungsten, gold and diamonds.Industry: hydropower, logging.
Agriculture: greenhouse vegetable growing (in the south).
Service sector: transport (shipping); tourism (hiking and water amateur or sports tourism, also excursions to the places of the gold rush, the city of Dawson).
Attractions
■ Natural: National parks Lesser Slave Lake and Hillard's Inlet, Mackenzie Buffalo Sanctuary with a protected herd of 2,000 (north of Yellowknife), youngest national park Arctic - Tuktut Nogate, Nahanni National Park (South Nahanni River Valley, south of the Mackenzie Mountains, founded in 1976) - UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 1978), Cameron Falls, pingo hydrolaccoliths (cone-shaped hills up to 40 m in height and up to 300 m in width, which appeared on the surface under the pressure of the ice lying in the lower layers).■ Cultural and historical: Bennett Dam (1968) on the Peace River (tributary) with a tour center.
■ City of Inuvik: Catholic Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Conqueror (1958-1960), built in the shape of an igloo.
■ City of Yellowknife: Old city, including houseboat settlement, Prince of Wales Historical Center (Inuit and Dene Ethnographic Museum), Legislative Assembly (1993)
■ Fort Providence: Dene craft center.
■ Hay River Settlement: main port of the Northwest Territories, home of the Dene people for over 1,000 years.
Curious facts
■ Samuel Herne was accompanied on his campaign by an Indian guide who, in turn, was accompanied by... eight wives.■ In winter, blizzards often occur, giving the effect of "whiteout" when strong wind the snow turns into a stream, inside which the feeling of the depth of space is lost.
■ Canada's first casino, Gertie's Diamond Tooth, gets its exotic name from Gertie Lovejoy: This 1898 local dancehall queen's front teeth were adorned with a real diamond.
■ Taktoyaktuk - the northernmost locality Canada, former whaling center.
■ The ice road on the Mackenzie River is approximately 3 m wide and up to 2.5 m thick, suitable for truck traffic. The driving speed must not exceed 75 km/h. However, there is a risk: if the car stalls, you can easily freeze in it, and traffic along this icy highway between the city of Taktoyaktuk and the city of Inuvik cannot be called active, so there is nowhere to wait for help.
Expeditions and finds
A. Mackenzie spent 1791 in Scotland, where he studied topography and geography, and prepared for a new big journey in order to find river routes leading from Athabasca to the Pacific Ocean. Returning to Canada in 1792, he passed from the river. St. Lawrence, using dry and river routes to Lake Athabasca.
He chose to study big river(Peace River), flowing from the west into the Slave at its exit from the lake (at 59 ° N. Lat.). He hoped that by ascending this river, he could come close to the Pacific Ocean. But the valley turned southwest, then straight south. So he sailed up the river until he reached 56 ° N. sh. It was late time year, and Mackenzie stopped for the winter near the mouth of the "Smoking River" (Smoky River).
In early May 1793, when the river opened up, A. Mackenzie with nine companions, including the "English Leader", continued sailing up the Peace River on a large but very light Indian canoe. He walked about another 250 km and, having bypassed a canyon 20 km long, got back into the canoe. Climbing up the river to another canyon, cut by it in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, and dragging the boat through the canyon, the travelers reached at 56 ° N. latitude, 124° W e. two rivers flowing in opposite directions - northern (Finley) and southern (Parsnip); they constituted the Peace River here. Where to go - north or south?
After consulting with the local Indians, A. Mackenzie chose a southerly direction and climbed the river. Parsnip to the source near 54 ° 30 "N and 122 ° W. After reconnaissance, it turned out that in the south, behind a short and convenient portage, some river flows to the west, which brought it to another large and navigable river (Frazer), flowing south behind the mountain range. He hoped to go down it to the Pacific Ocean and began rafting, overcoming the rapids. But after a few tens of kilometers, the Indians warned him that further navigation was impossible because of the rapids. Then A. Mackenzie returned to the mouth of the West Road (100 km upstream) and, accompanied by local Indians, followed it to its source, crossed the Dean River on rafts, and then turned south and, passing through a small valley surrounded snow-capped mountains, whose peaks were hidden in the clouds, reached a new short river (Bella Kula). On Indian canoes, the detachment went down to its mouth (at 52 ° 30 "N), it fell into short sleeve fjord. In order to dispel all doubts, A. Mackenzie moved further to the southwest, two days later he went to the Pacific Ocean, to Queen Charlotte Bay, and made an inscription on the rock: “Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, July 22, 1793.”
When he first crossed North America, he traced the entire river. Peace River (1923 km), crossed the Front and Coast Ranges of the Rocky Mountains, opening between them the Inner Plateau and the upper section of the river. Fraser. In the same way, in September 1793, A. Mackenzie returned to Lake Athabasca, and after wintering, arrived in 1794 on the river. St. Lawrence, having made the second crossing of the mainland and passing in both directions more than 10 thousand km.
Discovery of the Mackenzie River
Scotsman Alexander Mackenzie moved to Montreal as a young man and joined the fur company, which was soon absorbed by the Northwest Company. In 1787, already an experienced agent, he was sent to Lake Athabasca to replace P. Pond. They spent the winter together, and A. Mackenzie, with the participation of P. Pond, drew up a plan for further exploration of the Cook River.
In 1788, on behalf of A. Mackenzie, his cousin Roderick Mackenzie built near the mouth of the river. Athabaskan Fort Chipewyan (relocated to the mouth in 1804), where they both wintered. On June 3, 1789, leaving Roderick as the temporary head of the fort, A. Mackenzie set out with 12 companions on a river trip on canoes made of birch bark.
The expedition was led by a Chipewaian Indian, nicknamed "The English Leader", who took part in S. Herne's campaign to the Arctic Ocean. On June 9, they reached the Great Slave Lake, almost completely covered with ice, only a narrow strip was visible near the shore pure water. Soon, in the rain and with strong winds, the ice began to break, but so slowly that it took about two weeks to cross in canoes. A. Mackenzie spent another six days looking for a further path: the northern shore of the Great Slave Lake is very dissected, especially in the northwest, where the river. The Marian flows into the long and narrow bay of North Arm. Only on June 29 did he find a mighty stream flowing from the western corner of the lake at the latitude of the "Cook River" and carrying its waters to the west. A few days later, A. Mackenzie met three groups of Indians who told him horror stories about the huge length of the river, the impossibility of finding food in the lower reaches - and he barely managed to persuade his guides not to leave it.
At 350 km from the lake, the river turned sharply to the north and entered the mountainous region. On the left side, heights approached it (Mackenzie Mountains), on the right - other heights (Franklin Mountains), which are 65 ° N. sh. interrupted by a wide valley of a full-flowing eastern tributary. A. Mackenzie did not investigate this stream, which led him away from the main goal. At 67° N. sh. main river entered the lowlands, but in the west one could see mountains extending in a meridional direction (Richardson Mountains).
On July 10, A. Mackenzie wrote: "It is quite clear that this river flows into the Great North Sea." For three more days, he descended along the river flowing in the low banks, from which numerous branches departed on both sides. Instead of the Indian settlements, previously occasionally found on its shores, here and there the dwellings of the Eskimos were visible. On July 13, at 69 ° 30 "N from the hill of one of the islands of the delta, the traveler saw a strip of open sea in the west - Mackenzie Bay of the Beaufort Sea, and in the east - iced bay (maybe Eskimo Lake). At night, when the sun did not set, he watched the tide, in the morning he saw whales playing in the water in the western bay. Undoubtedly, he reached the Arctic Ocean. But, since he did not follow the adjacent sections in both directions sea coast, the veracity of his message was doubted for a long time. A. Mackenzie himself justified himself by saying that he was running out of provisions. On July 16 he turned back; climbing the river, of course, took much more effort, and the detachment moved twice as slowly. Six days later, A. Mackenzie learned from the Indians he met that eight or nine years ago, far to the west, the Eskimos had contact with white people who had come to big ships and exchanged iron for skins. It is not excluded - the Canadian historical geographer Roy Daniells believes that these were ships of Russian industrialists, and the meeting supposedly took place in the vicinity of Cape Barrow, the northernmost tip of the Alaska Peninsula (71 ° 23 "N, 156 ° 12" W d.). In our historical and geographical literature, there is no information or just mention of this outstanding achievement of domestic sailors.
A. Mackenzie completed his trip to the Arctic Ocean on September 12, 1789 at Fort Chipewyan, covering almost 5,000 km in 102 days. The great stream flowing from the Great Slave Lake and flowing into the Beaufort Sea was called the river. Mackenzie.
The Mackenzie River is great river north of America. In terms of average water flow, it is second to none in North America except the Mississippi. Also, the river found an unusual economic use: besides being a shipping channel in summer, its bed is also used as an ice road in winter.
River length: 4,240 km.
Watershed area: 1,800,000 sq. km. This includes the basins of the Slave, Peace, and Athabasca rivers flowing into the Great Slave Lake). In addition to the Great Slave Lake, the Mackenzie River basin also includes whole line large lakes of Canada: Wollaston, Clair, Athabasca, Big Bear.
Characteristics of the Mackenzie River
Where does it run: Mackenzie rises from the Great Slave Lake. Thanks to this, Mackenzie can be compared with the Neva River, its source is Lake Ladoga. The direction of the river flow is predominantly north-western. The river flows through a very swampy valley. Its banks are covered with dense spruce forest. By the nature of the Mackenzie current, this flat river. It flows into the Gulf of the Botfort Sea of the Arctic Ocean, forming a delta with an area of 12,000 km. sq. In general, half of all rivers in Canada flow into the Arctic Ocean.
Food: mixed, with a predominance of rain and snow feeding.
River mode: characterized by spring-summer floods caused by snowmelt. The average water discharge at the mouth is 10,700 m3/s. This figure could be higher, but the Rocky Mountains to the west greatly reduce the influence of the Pacific Ocean as a source of water.
Freezing: Freeze lasts from September, sometimes from October to May. In the lower reaches, the opening occurs a little later - in early June.
Cities: Aklavik, Inuvik, Fort Norman, Fort Providence and Center oil industry Norman Wells.
Main tributaries: Liard, Arctic Red River, Peel, Big Bear.
The river is navigable for 200 km, all the way to Waterways on the Athabasca River. Further upstream from its source, the Athabasca River flows into the Great Slave Lake.
Interesting facts:
1) The river was discovered and passed in 1789 by the Scottish traveler A. Mackenzie. The first name of the river was Disappointment, which means "Disappointment" in English. Probably, the river did not make a very good impression on the researcher.
2) In the river delta, not far from the northernmost settlement of Canada Tuktoyaktuk, there is a whole collection of hydrolaccolith or pingo. Pingos are cone-shaped mounds of gravel and other soil elements that have been literally squeezed to the surface under the pressure of the ice that lies below. These hills can be up to 40 meters high and 300 meters wide.