﻿270 SHALE FORMATION. August, 



and about one hundred and fifty feet high. The 

 strata, where exposed, are sand and clay, and I 

 believe that this promontory, from its northern 

 point to the bottom of Franklin Bay, is the ter- 

 mination of the sandy and loamy deposit and bitu- 

 minous shale which throughout the whole length 

 of the Mackenzie rests on the sandstone and lime- 

 stone beds so frequently noticed in the preceding 

 pages, and fragments of which may be traced 

 among the alluvial islands in the estuary of the 

 Mackenzie, and in Liverpool Bay. A line drawn 

 from Clowt sang eesa, or Scented Grass Hill, of 

 Great Bear Lake, to the north-north-west, would 

 form a tangent to the eastern coast-line of Cape 

 Bathurst, and most probably mark the limit of the 

 formation on that side. If so, the River Beghula, 

 which enters Liverpool Bay, will flow through a 

 country similar to that forming the banks of the 

 Mackenzie, and being consequently well wooded, 

 will abound in animals. 



As we proceeded to the south-east from Cape 

 Bathurst along the shore, the crest of the high 

 bank rose to about two hundred and fifty feet, and 

 beds of bituminous shale, similar to those on the 

 Mackenzie, are exposed in many places. At Point 

 Trail, in latitude 70° 19' N., the bituminous shale 

 was observed to be on fire in 1826, and the bank 

 had crumbled down from the destruction of the 



