4 Sketch of the Geology of the Arctic Regions. 
direction is parallel with the Rocky Mountain chain. Between the 
cliffs of the rapid, and the limestone hills, a rivulet flows whose bed 
presents accumulations of bowlders, some of them very beautiful, 
consisting of varieties of granite, gneiss, mica slate with garnets, 
greenstone and porphyry ; the latter much resembling some of the 
rocks in the gneiss district of Fort Enterprise. The Bear Lake Riv- 
er flows into the McKenzie through banks of blackish grey limestone 
with sparry veins. ‘The superior beds are calcareous breccia, asso- 
ciated with limestone charged with bitumen, also bituminous shale. 
*Sulphureous springs, and streams of mineral pitch” are seen issuing 
from the lower limestone strata on the banks of the McKenzie when 
the waters are low. 
McKenzie’s River. 
“Wood coal, in various states, alternating with pipe clay, potters’ 
clay, bitumen, slate clay, and porcelain earth” forms the banks of the 
river at the junction of Bear Lake River. The lignite when recent- 
ly detached is compact, but on exposure, soon splits into rhomboidal 
pieces. It burns with little smoke but an offensive odor, leaving 
brown red ashes, less than one tenth of the original bulk of the coal. 
The same bed presents brown coal that in different specimens is 
fibrous, conchoidal, trapezoidal, and earthy. Some of them have 
the appearance of compact bitumen, but exhibit the fibrous structure 
of wood. The beds of lignite take fire on being exposed to the 
atmosphere. The gravel, intermixed with it, consists of pebbles of 
lydian stone, flinty slate, white quartz, and conglomerate. Pipe clay, 
potters’ clay, slate clay, and pink clay, are all found in the lignite de- 
posits. The pipe clay is of a light yellowish cream color, and is 
used by the natives for food when provisions are scarce. It is not 
unpleasant to the taste and is said “to have sustained life for a con- 
siderable time. The traders use it for whitening their houses. It is 
associated with bituminous shale on the shores of the Frozen Sea.” 
Lignite formations occur near the Rocky Mountains* “along their 
eastern edge, in a narrow strip of marshy, boggy, uneven ground,” 
and again on a branch of Peace River, and on the Saskatchawan in 
latitude 52°, and on Garry’s Island, near the mouth of the McKenzie. 
It lies over beds of bluish grey sandstone, and white clay. 
* McKenzie. 
