FORT CONFIDENCE. 63 



direct line from Fort Confidence, stands the Scented 

 Grass Hill, between Smith's and Keith's Bays. It 

 consists of bituminous shale, and is one of the 

 extreme points of that shaly formation, which 

 constitutes so large a part of the banks of the 

 Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers, and which has 

 been thought to be equivalent to the Marcellus 

 shale of the New York system of rocks. 



The summits of the higher eminences are mostly 

 naked, but on the edges of streams and small lakes 

 a thin forest of spruce fir covers the ground. In 

 wet places there is a tolerable growth of willows. 

 Little underwood of any other kind exists. Birch 

 is very scarce ; neither the balsam spruce nor bank- 

 sian pine were observed on the lake, and only a 

 few young aspens. Except where the forest has 

 been destroyed by fire, the spruce firs are from 

 three to four hundred years old, as ascertained 

 from their annual rings. One of the best-grown 

 trees that I saw, measured fifty-seven inches in 

 circumference, at the height of four feet from the 

 ground. The tallest of them are between forty 

 and fifty feet high. 



The observations of Mr. Simpson in 1837-8 

 place Fort Confidence in 66° 54/ of north latitude, 

 and 118° 49' of west longitude, which corresponds 

 pretty closely with the position I assigned to the 

 mouth of Dease River on the chart constructed in 



