X INTRODUCTION. 



An arm of this lake, at first broad, lint afterwards contracting in places to a width of a few 

 miles, extends in a nortli-westerly direction for about a hundred miles (Fig. 1, p ix.) It is 

 continued by a chain of lakes for a long distance in the direction of Great Bear Lake ; in 

 fact, a canoe meets with but few interruptions in passing from one lake to the other. This 

 gulf appears to be the boundary between two different geological formations. To the south- 

 west h a limestone tableland, elevated some 300 feet above the level of the lake, and 

 extending to the Mackenzie River. At a short distance from the lake this tableland ends 

 abruptly, and at the foot of the cliff a former beach of the lake is seen. This beach is now 

 20 or 30 feet above the present level of the lake, which appears to be gradually falling. 



On the north-east side of the gulf a plain only slightly elevated above the lake extends as 

 far as the eye can reach. Granite hills rise here and there like islands from the plain, which 

 evidently, at no very distant date, formed a part of the bottom of the lake. 



The surface is generally a fine white sand, sometimes rock (quartz or granite, rounded 

 by the action of ice) and sometimes " muskeg " or swamp. Beyond this, at a distance of 



Q. 



3 IN.TQ I MILE. 



ENVIRONS OF 



FORT RAE. 



^h^^^Xff^. 



