July 9, 1793. Grey Partridges.

July 9, 1793. Daily excerpts from the journal of Alexander MacKenzie, on his overland Voyage to The Pacific Ocean.

     “A heavy and continued rain fell through great part of the night, and as we were in some measure exposed to it, time was required to dry our clothes; so that it was half past seven in the morning before we were ready to set out...I thought it prudent to conceal half a bag of pemmican...we buried it under the fireplace, as we had done on a former occasion.”

     So far he has buried dried food at several places along the way, realizing that they will need the sustenance when they make the return journey.

     “...continued our route along the river or lake...till five in the afternoon, when the water began to narrow, and in about half an hour we came to a ferry, where we found a small raft. At this time it began to thunder, and torrents of rain soon followed, which terminated our journey for the day.” 

     “Our course was about South, twenty-one miles from the lake already mentioned. We now discovered the tops of mountains, covered with snow, over very high intermediate land.”

      He can now see some of the mountains in the area now known as Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.

“We killed a whitehead and a grey eagle, and three grey partridges; we also saw two otters in the river, and several beaver lodges along it.”

     The “grey partridges” he refers to are most likely examples of the Ruffed Grouse, a common bird of the woods across Canada and the USA. (Picture 1). 

He may have confused them for a bird he was familiar with, the European Grey or Hungarian partridge, which is a bird of open areas and farmlands, rather than forests. The “huns” were introduced widely across America years after MacKenzie.

Picture 1. Territory of The Ruffed Grouse. (2016)

Picture 2. The Ruffed Grouse (Audobon) 

     ”When the rain ceased, we caught a few small fish, and repaired the raft for the service of the ensuing day.”