﻿1848. YUKON EIVER. 227 



to issue from a lake, which also gives origin to a 

 still smaller stream, bearing likewise the appellation 

 of the Rat, and taking an opposite course to join 

 the western branch of the Mackenzie. The Western 

 Eat River is an affluent of a considerable stream, 

 named the Porcupine, which, running to the west- 

 south-west for two hundred and thirty miles, enters 

 the Yukon, a river emulating the Mackenzie in 

 size, and flowing parallel to it, but on the western 

 side of the Rocky Mountains. Of the country 

 watered by this great river, and its inhabitants, I 

 shall take occasion to speak hereafter. 



The eastern channel of the delta of the Mac- 

 kenzie is also flanked by a ridge, named the Rein- 

 deer Hills, which I consider to be a prolongation 

 of the spur that the Mackenzie crosses at the 

 " Narrows." They are not so rugged or peaked 

 in their outline as the Richardson chain, or the 

 spurs which the Mackenzie passes through higher 

 up ; and their general height does not appear to 

 exceed seven or eight hundred feet. 



Having finished the operations at the cache^ 

 we resumed the voyage, and, retracing our way 

 for a few miles, entered the eastern channel of the 

 delta, and pursued it until seven in the evening, 

 when we encamped, about twenty-two miles below 

 Point Separation. The banks of the river here, 

 and the numerous islands, are well wooded. The 



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