shapes, some being rounded and basin-shaped, others
long and narrow. Lakes and swamps are here so numerous, that the
country, for at least sixty miles to the northward, is impassable in
summer, even to the natives. There are many mounds of sand and gravel,
and fragments of sandstone are frequent; but having travelled in this
direction only in winter, when the ground was covered to the depth of
upwards of three feet with snow, I had not an opportunity of examining
its geological structure. White spruces cover the drier spots; larches,
black spruces, and willows abound in moist places; the sandy hillocks
are clothed with aspens, and the sides of the vallies support some canoe
birches, with a thick undergrowth of dwarf birches, alders, and
rose-bushes. The eminence from whence the view just described was
obtained, appears like a ridge only in approaching it from the lake, for
it rises very little above the general level of the country behind it.
It has a direction from N.W. by N. to S.E. by S., and terminates about
eight miles to the eastward of the fort, in a small bluff point on the
shores of the lake and there the strata consist of slate-clay slightly
bituminous. The banks immediately behind the fort also exhibit, in their
ravines, a bluish slate-clay.

The land on the south side, or bottom, of Keith Bay, presents a nearly
similar aspect to that just described, rising, on the borders of the
lake, to the height of one hundred and fifty feet, and then running back
to a great distance nearly level. It may be characterized as full of
hollows, narrow vallies, ravines, and lakes; but it is not hilly,
although it is traversed by ridges of limestone, which rise like walls
through the flat country. The nearest of these ridges terminates on the
borders of the lake at the _Manito Point_, (noticed in page vii.) It may
be proper to remark here, that, in addition to the limestone ridges
visible from Fort Franklin, or from the heights behind it, the summit of
Clark Hill, bearing south, and forming part of a ridge about fifty miles
distant, was distinctly seen. This hill lies behind Old Fort Norman on
the Mackenzie, and has more the outline of a granitic rock, although
some of the peaks which skirt it have the serrated crests which the
limestone ridges in this quarter show. It was guessed to be 1500 feet
high above the Mackenzie.

This sketch of the general features of the country about Fort Franklin
being premised, the ensuing geolo