DCHP-1 Online

track Esp. North

• 1 v. draw or lead a canoe, boat, scow, etc. through rapids, shallows, or other difficult stretches of water by means of a line or lines running from the craft to a man, or men, on the bank or shore.

  See also: neck (def. 2)  sturgeon-head (boat)  tracker (def. 1)  tracking (def. 1)  trackline  cordelle ((v.))  line ((v.)) (def. 2)  

  • This practice, especially common in the Northland and called by several names, as lining and cordelling, varies in detail according to time and place, type of craft, kind of obstacle, and direction and nature of current. For example, canoes are often tracked by means of lines attached to both bow and stern. Loaded York boats and sturgeonhead boats were laboriously hauled through otherwise impassable stretches of the Mackenzie River by gangs of men equipped with special harness attached to long, heavy rope lines. Much information relating to the various conditions of tracking is to be found in,the many quotations offered f or this and related entries.

  • 1691  (1929)  We went through a little creek were we were forc'd to track our Cannoes into a little Island within wch is great ponds of water.
  • 1796  (1963)  . . . they were to track the canoe up by a line, walking on shore, while I steered it. . . .
  • 1827  (1912)  Tracked the whole day, except 1 hour stopt for breakfast.
  • 1860  (1964)  They come and track with the York and Oxford House Indians during the time of tripping in the summer. . . .
  • 1935  The tide carried us upstream about sixteen miles, but from there on . . . the current was too swift and we had to "track."
  • 1957  The Fort George post . . . received its outfit by the traditional Hudson's Bay Company method of tracking scows up river, with crews of Indians harnessed to the line.

• 2 v. Hist. haul or drag a scow, York boat, etc. over a portage using logs as rollers.

  • 1909  [Caption] Tracking a Scow across Mountain Portage.