| Summary: | Few geographers will deny that the character of place, the essence of geography, evolves through a time continuum. Perhaps the majority have interested themselves with geography of the present reaching into the past only insofar as it seems necessary. On the other hand, there are those geographers who are curious about what places were like at other intervals before the present. The field of historical geography promotes and attempts to satisfy this kind of curiosity. This thesis is an historical geography of the Mackenzie River valley covering the century between 1750 and 1850. At the beginning of this period the occupance of the valley by the aboriginal population represented the harmony between man and land as it had evolved from the interaction of nature's challenges and man's ingenuity. It was a hostile environment to which there had been only a primitive response. Near the end of the eighteenth century an entirely new culture with quite different ideas about the exploitation of the natural wealth of the country intruded itself upon the existing way of life. Fur traders from Canada had at their disposal many articles of European manufacture that immediately fascinated the natives and created in them a desire that could be satisfied by the exchange of these items for a few animal skins. The traders were also explorers and rapidly extended their system and influence throughout the valley. This type of contact was also supported by geographical exploration intended only for accurate mapping of the main topographic features of the land. Within a very few years the aboriginal way of life was transformed. The thesis attempts to describe and assess the character of the occupance of the Lackenzie valley before, during, and after the advent of the fur trade. The Mackenzie valley, which includes the entire drainage basin downstream from Great Slave Lake, is a very large one; its area is about equal to that of the Canadian province of British Columbia, or nearly four times the area of Great Britain. The straight ...
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