The Rivers Of Canada.
Canada is a land of lakes and rivers, probably more so than any other country. Both have played an extremely important role in the development of the country, and they still do, for most of our important towns and cities are situated beside them. We have rivers flowing into three oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic, and some are long due to the large size of Canada.
For a long time rivers were our chief corridors of travel. Before European settlement, most of the "first nations" depended on canoe travel to get around, though larger boats and canoes were used by them along our Pacific coast. With the coming of Europeans, boat and canoe travel along the rivers still was the main means of transportation. Roads were few and in very poor condition, commonly almost impassible. But rivers were generally present and commonly long, even on the dry Prairies. Those rivers flowing into the Pacific through the western mountains were shorter and less navigable.
The St lawrence River was the key to the opening up of eastern Canada to the first Europeans, particularly the French settlers. Ships could sail as far as Montreal, about 1,000 kilometres from the sea, before reaching rapids which made farther progress up the river impossible for larger ships.
Later, with the making of primitive canals, ships could proceed to the head of Lake Superior, the most westerly of the Great lakes. That added another 1,000 kilometres to the distance ships could sail west, or almost to the centre of Canada. Now, with modern and large canals, there is great ship traffic by lake boats, generally called lakers, down the Great Lakes and St Lawrence to near the Atlantic.There, cargoes are trans -shipped to ocean going ships, for the lakers are not designed for ocean travel. Montreal now is somewhat by-passed, and is no longer Canadas biggest port. As the St lawrence freezes in winter for about six months, the first arrival of a ship in Montreal in spring used to be a great event. The captain of the first arrival was presented with a gold cane. Now, ice-breakers keep the river open as far as Montreal all year, though most of the traffic on the Great Lakes still stops.. However, the gold cane is still awarded to the captain of the first ship to arrive, I believe now the first after New years.
Smaller rivers also played a major role in opening up the country. They were used by Indian canoe, of course, and later by explorers and the fur traders who traded goods for furs with the Indians. This was mostly a summer occupation, for the rivers froze over during the long, dark, winter months. Even in winter they still played a major role in travel, for the river ice gave a generally smoother and easier route than the poor, in winter almost impassible, roads. Horse drawn sleds could easily follow the rivers for long distances, though they would have to carefully watch for the rare spots of open water, generally near rapids. It was rather unpleasant at one of those spots to suddenly find oneself in water at near freezing temperatures. The river ice also made travel easier for snow shoers.
When Canada spread westward to the Pacific, study was made of the Prairie rivers for purposes of navigation. A few ships did travel those rivers, often carrying coal for settlers. Many ended up on sand bars or were wrecked, and they could only make a couple of trips a year. Navigation of those rivers took great skill, what with the sand bars and changing courses of the channels. But this period of river navigation did not last long, for railways soon appeared on the scene and river navigation was no longer needed. It is still important in some areas, however, the major example being the MacKenzie River which flows northward to the Arctic. This river has a large, summer barge traffic to supply northern communities. There are no railways in those northern areas, and in many instances the only roads are winter ones, made each year when winter comes and the ground freezes over and trucks can travel over the frozen ground for a few months. Supplies have to be rushed in to supply many of the northern communities which, with the coming of spring, would be cut off except for air travel.
The rivers were also important in the past as a power supply for grinding flour and cutting lumber. Dams would be thrown accross a river, generally near a waterfall or rapid, and the water channeled to run water wheels, which turned the mill stones or saws. It was slow, but generally worked well. Wih the coming of other sources of power, those dams and mills are now of only historic interest.
I was intending to discuss both rivers and lakes in this report, but I got rather carried away with rivers. So, discussion of lakes, the tens of thousands of them, will have to await another report.
Archie Stalker
astalker@cyberus.ca
Ottawa, Canada. August 4, 2,006.
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