VALLEY OF THE MACKENZIE. 19 \) 



Cree appellation, being nearly synonymous with Missis- 

 sippi. This basin, in crossing the intermediate primitive 

 rocks, lies nearly parallel to the Nelson River or Katche- 

 wan, which is the lower part of the Saskatchewan. Deer 

 and Wollaston Lakes, which discharge their waters into the 

 Churchill River, lie in the line of lake basins mentioned 

 above as running northwards from Lake Superior ; but 

 their axes do not cross the river valley so nearly at a right 

 angle as Lake Winipeg does the valley with which it is 

 connected. Further up the Missinipi the Methy, Buffalo, 

 Clear, and Isle a la Crosse Lakes, which are situated just 

 to the westwai'd of the primitive rocks, taken in the aggre- 

 gate, lie more in the plane of Lake Winipeg. On the 

 eastern flank of the intermediate primitive ridge lie Big 

 Indian and Waskayow-washgow Lakes, belonging also to 

 the Missinipi river system. 



The Missinipi, by its principal feeder, the Beaver River, 

 has its source lower down the eastern slope than the Sas- 

 katchewan, and drains a comparatively small extent of 

 prairie lands. At the Frog Portage and elsewhere the 

 two basins are divided from each other by rocks only a 

 few feet high, over which, in times of flood, the waters 

 pour ; so that the two may be viewed as one great valley 

 through which two large rivers flow, their trunks running 

 parallel to each other. 



VALLEY OF THE MACKENZIE. 



Further to the north lies the great valley of the Mac- 

 kenzie, extending to the Arctic Sea, but having also its 

 subordinate transverse lake basins, which differ from the 

 southern ones in their heads merely entering the western 

 border of the intermediate primitive rocks, and their dis- 



o 4 



