The Berks Barrister Summer 2017 - 37

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In the
Wake of
Mackenzie
By William W. Runyeon

The time was a little more than ten years before
Lewis and Clark, when Mackenzie paddled and
portaged up the Peace River, across the harsh
divide, and descended through the lush forest,
and quickly, to an arm of the vast ocean,
recorded in measurements of careful precision.
Uneasy where unsettled is a helpful
state of mind, whether coming 'round the
river's bend upon a scene ravaged by
the winter, deeply altered, or never seen
before. A fresh wind carries through the
border country and no man's land, the
passage across the great divide, the
small water of the summit, where two
little streams flow from it, one east, and
the other, west.
This was not the first expedition,
the weary paddling and occasional
portage of the great, slow river that
bears Mackenzie's name, his disappointment
at its drainage to the Frozen Sea,
and not the grand Pacific. Between journeys.
his exodus was to England to learn
the measure of longitude, nurturing
a vast hope and grim determination,
set loose upon the land the very next
season, in his expedition embarked
upon the river of Peace, ascending
eastern foothills, portaging toward the setting
sun, upon faint trails, or none, by thundering
cataracts, and a mountain range rising
like blades and spines and spires, a great wall
of Heaven, threatening and beckoning,
layered and deep, with morning mists huge,
and rolling like a tide.

The Mackenzie River is the
largest and longest river system
in Canada. It flows through a
vast, isolated region of forest
and tundra within the country's
Yukon and Northwest Territories.
Alexander Mackenzie was a
Scottish explorer who reached
the mouth of the river at the
Arctic Ocean on July 14, 1789.

Remote, hidden lair of imaginary beasts,
new world dragons, with a sharp-eyed glare,
as vigilant protectors of the secret
treasures of the wilderness, where alert
and determined men drive to explore
for fame and glory and riches; a bloom
of wild rumors crowding the wake of discovery.
So slowly, later, long after, descendants,
upon the downhill slope, seek and savor
the harsh land, touched still with wild adventure.

Summer 2017 | 37
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The Berks Barrister Summer 2017

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