mates of the rate of descent of Mackenzie River and its feeders, I am inclined, independent of his calculations, to consider the Clearwater River at Methy Portage, to be nine hundred feet above the sea, which accords well with his conclusions; since the difference of level between Methy Lake and Clear-water River being five hundred and ninety feet by my barometrical observations, the latter would be nine hundred and fifty feet above the sea by his data.

On the 3d of July, the whole of the baggage and the boats were brought to the banks of the Little Lake; and on the 6th, every thing having been carried over to Clear-water River on the preceding evening, we descended from the Cockscomb, where we had remained encamped for two days, that we might avoid the musquitoes which infested the low grounds. While the boats were loading, we took leave of our canoe-men, who returned to Canada, and at half-past eight, A.M., we pushed off.

The portage occupied nine days from the time of Mr. Bell's arrival; but, with the assistance of horses, we could have passed it easily in three, and saved nearly a week of summer weather, most important for our future operations, besides husbanding the strength of the men. The transport of the four boats, being made on the men's shoulders, employed two days and a half of our time

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CHAPTER IV.

Clear-water River.-Valley of the Washakummow.-Portages.-Limestone Cliffs -Shale.-Elk, or Athabasca River.-Wapiti.-Devonian Strata.-Geological structure of the banks of the River.-Athabasca Lake, or Lake of the Hiils.— Meet Mr. M'Pherson with the Mackenzie River Brigade.-Send home Letters -L'Esperance's Brigade.-Fort Chepewyan.-Height of Lake Athabasca above the Sea.-Rocks.-Plumbago.-Forest Scenery.-Slave River.-Reindeer Islands.-Portages.-Native Remedies.-Separate from Mr. Bell and his Party.

IT is probable that the sands of this district and the adjacent limestones, belong to the Erie division of the New York system of rocks, considered by the United States geologists to be an upper member of the silurian system, but, by various English naturalists, to be rather part of the Devonian, or of the carboniferous series.

The valley of the Clear-water River, or Washakummow, as it is termed by the Crees, is not excelled, or indeed equaled, by any that I have seen in America for beauty; and the reader may obtain a correct notion of its general character by turning to an engraving in the narrative of Sir John Franklin's second Overland Journey, executed from a drawing of Sir George Back's. The view from the Cockscomb extends thirty or forty miles, and discloses, in beautiful perspective, a succession of steep, wellwooded ridges descending on each side from the lofty brows of the valley to the borders of the clear stream which meanders along the bottom. Cliffs of light-colored sand occasionally show themselves, and near the water limestone rocks are almost every where discoverable. The Pinus banksiana occupies most of the dry sandy levels; the white spruce, balsam fir, larch, poplar, and birch are also abundant; and, among the shrubs, the Amelanchier, several cherries, the silver-foliaged Eleagnus argentea, and rustyleaved Hippophäe canadensis are the most conspicuous.

At the portage, the immediate borders of the stream are formed of alluvial sand; but six or seven miles below, limestone in thin, slaty beds crops out on both sides of the river, and, to the left, forms cliffs twenty feet high. A short way further down an isolated pillar of limestone in the same thin layers rises out of the

water; and soon after passing it, we come to the White Mud Portage (Portage de Terre blanche), of six hundred and seventy paces, where the stream flows over beds of an impure siliceous limestone, in some parts meriting the appellation of a calcareous sandstone, and, for the most part, having a yellowish-gray color. On the portage, and on the neighboring islands and flats, the limestone stands up in mural precipices and thin partitions, like the walls of a ruined city; and the beholder can not help believing that the rock once formed a barrier at this strait, when the upper part of the river must have been one long lake. The steep sandy slopes, as they project from the high sides of the valley, appear as if they had not only been sculptured by torrents of melted snow pouring down from the plateau above in more recent times, but that they had been previously subject to the currents and eddies of a lake. If such was the case, we must admit that other barriers further down were also then or subsequently carried away, as the sides of the valley retain their peculiar forms nearly to the junction of the stream with the Elk River. I have been informed that the country extending from the high bank of the river toward Athabasca Lake is a wooded, sandy plain, abounding in bison and other game.

In the evening we encamped on the Pine

Portage (Portage des Pins), which is one thousand paces long. The name would indicate that the Pinus resinosa grows there; but, if so, I did not observe it, the chief tree near the path being the Pinus banksiana, named Cyprès by the voyagers. A very dwarf cherry grows at the same place; it resembles a decumbent willow, and is probably the Cerasus pumila of Michaux. This is the most

northern locality in which it, and the Hudsonia ericoides, which was flowering freely at this time, were observed. The Lonicera parviflora was also showing a profusion of fragrant, rich, yellow flowers, tinged with red on the ends of the petals, especially before they expand; and on this day we gathered ripe strawberries for the first time in the season.

July 7th.-The Pine Portage was completed in the morning, and an hour later we crossed the Bigstone Portage of six hundred paces. Afterward we passed the Nurse Portage (Portage de Bonne), of two thousand six hundred and ten paces; the Cascade Portage, of one thousand three hundred and eighty; and encamped on the Portage of the Woods, two thousand three hun

SULPHUREOUS SPRINGS.

79

ared and fifty paces long; where two of our boats were broken. At this place, and on many other parts of the river, smooth granite boulders line the beach. The strata in situ are limestone covered by thick beds of sand.

July 8th.-The boats having been repaired early in the morning, we embarked at half-past six, and at eight came to a sulphureous spring, which issues from the limestone on the bank of the river. Its channel is lined with a snow-white incrustation, the taste of the water is moderately saline and sulphureous, and, from its coolness, rather agreeable than otherwise: it had a slight odor of sulphureted hydrogen. Here I obtained specimens of a terrebratulite (T. reticularis).

In the afternoon we passed the mouth of an affluent named the Pembina, from the occurrence of the Viburnum edule on its banks. I did not observe the fruit of this bush further north than Winipeg River, but I was assured that it grew in various localities up to the Clear-water, beyond which it has not been detected. It is distinguished as a species from the very common cranberry tree, or mooseberry (Mongsöa meena of the Crees), by the obtuse sinuses of its leaves; and its fruit has an orange color, is less acid, more fleshy, and more agreeable to the taste. There is a rapid in Clear-water River just above the Pembina, where a section of the north bank is exposed; and I regretted that I had not leisure to examine it. As seen from the boat in passing, it appeared to be formed of sandstone at the base, then of sand, and high up of shale or sandstone in thin layers. Three miles further down a cliff on the south side, about twenty feet high, is composed of an impure limestone, in very thin layers, capped by a more compact, cream-yellow limestone. ly hot this day, and, dreading the musquitoes, we avoided the bushy banks of the river, and encamped on an open sand-flat, but did not thereby gain immunity, for we were assailed by myriads during the whole night, a heavy rain having driven them into the tents. The species that now infested us had a light brown color. Each kind remains in force a fortnight or three weeks, and is succeeded by another more bitter than itself.

The sun was intense

The Dog-bane and Indian hemp (Apocynum androsæmifolium and hypericifolium) grow luxuriantly on the sandy banks of this river. They abound in a milky juice, which, when applied to the skin, produces a troublesome eruption. The voyagers, by

lying down incautiously among these plants at night, or walking among them with naked legs, often suffer from the irritation, which resembles flea-bites; hence they designate the plant herb à la puce. The second-named species grows more robustly and erectly than the other, and furnishes the natives living on the coast of the Pacific with hemp, out of which they form strong and durable fishing nets.

July 9th.-Three miles below our last night's encampment we entered the Elk or Athabasca River, a majestic stream, between a quarter and half a mile wide, with a considerable current, but without rapids.

*

The lower point of the bank of the Clear-water, where it loses itself in the Elk River, is formed of limestone strata, covered by a thick deposit of bituminous shale, which is probably to be referred to the Marcellus shale of the United States geologists.* The shelving cliff of this shale is one hundred and fifty feet high or upward, and is capped by sand or diluvium. The high cliffs extend for two or three miles up the Clear-water River, above which the sandy slopes for the most part conceal the strata, except at the water's edge, where the limestone crops out. Much of this limestone has a concretionary structure, and easily breaks down. Other beds are more compact.

The same kind of limestone forms the banks of Elk or Athabasca River for thirty-six miles downward, to the site of Berens' Fort, now abandoned. The beds vary in structure, the concretionary form rather prevailing, though some layers are more homogeneous, and others are stained with bitumen. The strata for the most part lie evenly, and have a slight dip, but in several places they are undulated, and in one or two localities dislocated, though I did not observe any dykes or intruding masses of trap rock.

Among the organic remains obtained from the beds of limestone at the water's edge, were Producti, Spirifers, an Orthis resembling resupinata, Terebratula reticularis, and a Pleurotomaria, which, in the opinion of Mr. Woodward of the British Museum, who kindly examined the specimens, are characteristic of Devonian strata. In the following season, Mr. Rae picked up from the beach of Clear-water River a fine Rhynchonella, which * See Appendix for a classification of the rocks of the New York sysThe Marcellus shale belongs to the Erie division.

tem.