1848.

SANDSTONE CLIFFS.

209

who states that it is fifty fathoms deep; but in obtaining such soundings, his lead must have fallen into a crevice, or have been carried down the channel of the stream by the strength of the current; for gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, who are well acquainted with the locality, informed me that a bed of stone crosses the stream, and at the close of the summer, when the river is at the lowest, produces a fall, except on the east side, where there is a channel that boats can ascend by towing. In the dilatation of the river above the Rampart defile, there are some fine examples of sandstone cliffs, which have decayed so as to form caves, pillars, embrasures, and other architectural forms. The beds have slate-clay partings and seams of clay-ironstone. Associated with them there is a marly stone, containing corallines, referred by Mr. Sowerby to Amplexus; and covering the sandstone in many places, and alternating with the upper beds, there is a deposit of bituminous shale.

In making its way through the defile, the river bends suddenly to the east-north-east, and, as the dip of the beds forming the cliffs on each side is in the contrary direction, the strata rise into sight in succession as we descend the river. The cliffs have been denuded of the covering of shale which exists higher up the stream, but the limestone of which they are chiefly formed is stained with bitumen,

either in patches or whole layers. At the upper end of the defile, a fine granular, foliated limestone is interleaved with beds containing madrepores, and parted by seams of carbonaceous matter. Near the middle of the defile the limestone contains the Terebratula sphæroidalis (or a nearly allied species) which is a fossil of the inferior oolite, also some Producti and the coralline named Amplexus. Several seams of black shale, about eighteen or twenty inches

Section at the Ramparts.

thick, exist among the limestones, and rise with them in succession above the level of the water; but there are not more than two or three of these seams in the height of the cliff at any one part. The shale is of various degrees of hardness, and passes into a brownish-black flinty slate. The dip of the beds is not uniform throughout the defile, being more or less undulated, and for some way the layers are horizontal. In places here and there, the limestone beds are excavated into deep pot-holes filled with shale, resembling the gravel pits which dip into

chalk beds.

1848.

HARES.

211

On the top of the Rampart Cliffs we found a large body of Hare Indians encamped. This is a common summer haunt of these people, who resort thither to avail themselves of the productive fishery which exists above the defile. At this time, owing to the river not having subsided so rapidly as usual, they were taking only a small number of fish, and, consequently, were complaining of want of food. This people, and most of the tribes who live the whole year on the immediate banks of the Mackenzie, depend greatly for subsistence on the hare (Lepus americanus). Of these animals they kill incredible numbers; but every six or seven years, from some cause, the hares disappear suddenly throughout the whole country; so that not one can be found either dead or alive. In the following year a few reappear, and in three years they are as numerous as before. The Canadian lynx migrates when the hares, on which it chiefly preys, become The musk rat is subject to periodical murrains, when great numbers lie dead in their nests; but the dead hares are not found, whence we may conjecture that when their numbers become excessive they disappear by migration. I could not learn, however, that the Indians had ever seen them travelling in large bands.

scarce.

The Hare Indians are a tribe of the Tinnè or Chepewyan nation, and speak a language differing

only as a provincial dialect. They are, like the rest of the nation, a timid race, and live in continual dread of the Eskimos, whom they suppose not only to be very warlike and ferocious, but also endowed with great conjuring powers, by which they can compass the death of an enemy at a distance. The possession of fire-arms does not embolden the Tinnè to risk an open encounter with the Eskimo bowmen; and unless when they are assembled in large numbers, as we found them at the Ramparts, they seldom pitch a tent on the banks of the river, but skulk under the branches of a tree, cut down so as to appear to have fallen naturally from the brow of the cliff; and they do not venture to make a smoke, or rear any object that can be seen from a distance. On the first appearance of a canoe or boat, they hide themselves, with their wives and children, in the woods, until they have reconnoitred, and ascertained the character of the object of their fears. More than once in our descent of the river, when we had landed to cook breakfast or supper, and were not at all aware of the vicinity of natives, a family would crawl from their hiding-places, and come to our fire. They always pleaded want of food; and as their wretched appearance spoke strongly of their necessities, they invariably shared our meals; but not unfrequently they sold us a fish or two

1848.

AND ESKIMOS.

213

before we parted; being probably what they had reserved for their next meal, if we had not furnished them with one. We never found them with abundance of food; for, in times of plenty, they do not think it necessary to lay up a stock, but let the future provide for itself.

It is supposed that formerly the Eskimos were in the habit of ascending the river to the Ramparts to collect fragments of flinty slate for lance and arrow-points; but they have been only once so far up, since the trading-posts were established. An old Indian, who was alive within a few years, told Mr. Bell that on that occasion he was wounded by an arrow; but that he succeeded in escaping to the top of the cliff, from whence he killed two Eskimos with his fowling-piece.

As we passed the encampment, the Indians rushed down to the river's side, and, launching their canoes, accompanied us to Fort Good Hope, which now stands near its earliest site, a short way below the defile. At the time of Sir John Franklin's descent of the river in 1825 and 1826, the post stood about one hundred miles further down; but it was removed to its present position in 1836, after the destruction of the former establishment by an overflow of the river. The flood, carrying with it large masses of ice, rose thirty feet; and, mowing down the forest timber,