THE OTTAWA NATURALIST. 



Vol. XIII. OTTAWA, NOVEMBER, 1899. No. 8. 



NOTES ON A GEOLOGICAL TRIP OVER A PORTION OF 

 THE CANADIAN NORTHWEST TERRITORIES. 



By T. C. WEsroN, F.G.S.A.* 



It was my privilegfe while a member of the Geolog^ical Survey 

 of Canada to be assigned, in 1889, the task of exploring and col- 

 lecting objects in natural history and archaeology from the banks 

 of those portions of the Red Deer and South Saskatchewan rivers 

 lying between the fifth principal meridian and the South Sas- 

 katchewan landing, a distance of about four hundred miles ; but 

 taking in the hundreds of small turns in those rivers, probably 

 double that distance. Taking the Canadian Pacific train from 

 Ottawa to Winnipeg — that wonderful city which has sprung up 

 within the last few years — we continued by the same line to Cal- 

 gary, which is close to the beautiful Bow River, 2,142 miles from 

 the capital of the Dominion of Canada, in sight of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and 3,413 feet above the ocean. The city of Calgary 

 stands on a beautiful plateau which only a few years ago was the 

 favorite camping ground of those war-making Blackfoot Indians, 

 a portion of which tribe occupies a reservation a short distance from 

 Calgary, while others of the same tribe camp on the outside of 

 town, preferring to pick up a precarious living rather than be con- 

 fined in the. reservation provided for them by the Canadian 

 Government. 



Here I find my half-breed Indian, Mackenzie, with wagon 

 and horses. He has come from his home on the banks of the 

 Red Deer, a hundred miles from this, to meet and accompany me 



* Portions of thi.s paper have been published in another form in Mr. 

 Weston's " Reminiscences Among the Rocks." 



