14 On the Geography and Geology 



tance to 60 feet. One third of a mile from the lake it undergoes 

 a descent of 25 feet, by two ledges, with moderate heights of 

 greenstone slate* on all sides. From this river to the Crags of Mi- 

 chipicotan (8 miles), the shore is wholly ledges of rock, graduall 

 ascending in the interior. These " Crags" as they have been 

 called, now bound the lake for more than a league and a half 

 westwards. They commence and terminate suddenly, and de-. 

 scend from hills 500 and 600 feet high, in bald shattered rocks 

 150 feet, and occasionally 300 or 400 feet high, always very steep, 

 frequently precipitous, and seldom protected from the waves by 

 beaches. At their west end these hills, turning northward, very 

 slowly leave the lake side. Not far from this end of the crags, 

 a dell of considerable beauty permits the escape of a noisy rivulet. 



The Crags may be assumed as the north-west extremity of Mi- 

 chipicotan Bay, from their being strongly marked, and being the 

 commencement of a gradual change in the direction of the coast. 



A few miles outside of this bay lies the large island of Michipi- 

 cotan, — Maurepas of the French geographers. At Gargantua it 

 is lofty and blue in the horizon, and about 25 rniles west ; but it 

 approaches the main on the north within less than half that dis- 

 tance, some miles beyond the Crags. It is from 15 to 20 miles 

 long. Several high ranges of hills are visible in it. It is only vi- 

 sited by Indian hunters. 



The interval of seventy-five miles between the Crags and the 

 River Peek presents but two localities which have received gene- 

 rally known names, viz., The Otter's Head, 34 miles ; and the 

 " Smaller Written Rocks," 61 miles from the Crags. 



From the Crags to the Otter's Head the coast rounds gradu- 

 ally to the north-west. It is a chain of steep round hills from 100 

 to 400 feet high, naked, with the exception of a few withered 

 spruce, and a denser growth of aspen in the hollows. The emi- 

 nences are usually at a small distance from the edge of the water, 

 which is contained by alternating beaches of sand (or shingle) 

 and low ledges of rock, with here and there a steep islet in front of 



* Direction N.N.W., dip vertical 



