548 APPENDIX. 



Slave Lake had once been so high as to have had the 

 upper of the embankments for its boundary, and had 

 since subsided. 



Immediately on the north of the "Fort," including the 

 space between Hoarfrost River and the Ah-hel-desseh (the 

 stream leading from Slave Lake to Artillery Lake), the 

 country is mountainous, and consists for the greater part 

 of granite, in which red felspar and large plates of mica 

 are conspicuous. The ascent here towards the barren 

 lands may be taken at 1400 feet. On the north, along 

 Artillery Lake, the country assumes a more open aspect, 

 with sloping moss-covered hills, on which are rarely 

 scattered clumps of wood; but in latitude 63° 15' N. 

 the pine disappears altogether, and there it is that the 

 " barren lands" fairly commence. 



The country from Artillery Lake to Clinton Colden 

 Lake, and thence to Lake Aylmer, is characterised by 

 the small altitude of the hills, which are more or less 

 covered with large boulders of granite, and decline to 

 the water's edge. 



In these lakes islands are numerous ; many of them 

 consisting of great unbroken masses of granite, on the 

 summits of which are huge stones and splintered frag- 

 ments of rock. Similar boulders had been observed 

 near Fort Enterprise during the first journey of Sir 

 John Franklin, where, in fact, the height of land seems 

 to be a continuation of this tract, and to be of the same 

 character. Sand was seen at first along the beach, but 

 soon rising into banks and mounds : and, finally, at the 

 northern extremity of Lake Aylmer, forming hills of 

 some magnitude, which decline to the north-west, and 

 indicate the height of land that feeds Sussex Lake, — 

 the source of the Thlew-ee^cho-dezeth. 



Sussex Lake is small, and encompassed by low shelv- 



