[app. ad. Du. trekken to draw, pull, tug, drag, tow (see TREK), assimilated in form to TRACK v.1] trans. To tow (a vessel), esp. from the bank or tow-path. Also absol. Cf. TRACT v.2 1.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Indies, II. xxxiv. 21. They [vessels] come down … before the Stream of the River, but [they] are obliged to track them up again, with Strength of Hand, about 1000 Miles.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Chemin de halage, a path on the side of a river, or canal, for horses to track … vessels along the stream.
1817. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 101/2. The Tug … tracks these vessels between Leith and Grangemouth.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. iv. 41. They can generally find room to track their vessels along its solid margin.
1887. J. Gibson, Gt. Waterfalls, 165. They made their way to Korti occasionally through miles of rapids, over which they were tracked, poled, rowed, sailed, and portaged according to circumstances.
b. intr. To proceed by towing. Said of a boat or of those in it.
1854. Milman, Lat. Chr., IV. v. (1864), II. 304. They tracked in their boats along some of the rivers.
1880. A. E. Moule, Chinese Stor., v. 74. Our boat tracked slowly against the stream, now shallowing as we approached its source.
1888. C. D. Bell, Winter on Nile, viii. (1889), 83. You may have to ‘track’ at a slow pace.
Hence Tracking vbl. sb. (also attrib.) and ppl. a.; also Trackable a., such as to admit of tracking or towing.
1839. Darwin, Voy. Nat., ix. (1879), 178. The party … was divided into two spells, each of which hauled at the tracking line alternately.
1849. E. B. Eastwick, Dry Leaves, 24. Boats are got up against the stream chiefly by tracking, being towed by the crew.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xii. (1856), 88. Enlarging it [a crevice] into a ‘trackable’ canal.
1873. Routledge’s Yng. Gentl. Mag., Aug., 524. The channel was too wide to permit of ‘tracking,’ as it is called in Arctic language—that is, towing with ropes along a margin of ice.
