and betwixt the Coppermine River and Dease Bay;
several of sandstone and conglomerate, which probably came from the same
quarter; of greenstone, perhaps, from the Copper Mountains, and of
limestone from the northern shores of the lake, and from the isthmus of
the Great Bear Mountain; all these places lying to the eastward or
north-east.

The soil in the immediate vicinity of Fort Franklin is sandy, or
gravelly, and covers, to the depth of one or two feet, a bed of clay of
unknown thickness. Gravel taken from a spot thirty feet above the
present high-water level of the lake, and out of the reach of any stream
or torrent, contained rounded pebbles of granite, of greenstone, of
quartz rock, of lydian stone, and of various sandstones, of which some
were spotted, and others presented zones of different colours. These
sandstones form a considerable portion of the gravel.[24]

The clay which lies under the soil is of a bluish-gray colour, and is
plastic but not very tenacious. It is more or less mixed with gravel.
During the greater part of the year it is firmly frozen; the thaw in the
two seasons we remained there never penetrating more than twenty-one
inches from the surface of the earth. In spots where the sandy soil is
wanting, the clay is covered a foot deep, or more, by mosses, mostly
_bryum palustre_, and some marsh _hypna_ and _dicrana_, in a living
state, for they seem to be converted very slowly into peat in this
climate.

The ground rises gradually behind the fort, until it attains, at the
distance of half a mile from the lake, the height of two hundred feet,
forming, when viewed from the southward, an even ridge, running nearly
east and west--which ridge is, in fact, the high bank of the lake, as it
corresponds in height with the summit level of the banks of Bear Lake
River, and of the southern shore of Keith Bay. The country extending to
the northward, from the top of the bank, is nearly level, or has a very
gentle ascent for about five miles, when a more abrupt ridge rises to
perhaps three hundred or four hundred feet above the lake. The view from
the summit of this second eminence is very extensive, the whole country
as far as the eye can reach appearing to be a level, from which several
narrow precipitous ridges of limestone arise. But, although the country
around these ridges appears from a distance to be level, or very
slightly undulated, yet it abounds in small eminences and steep-sided
vallies of various