

NATURAL AREAS AND REGIONS 



131 



This recently established preserve, on 

 which natives only are allowed to hunt, 

 includes a rather long and narrow area 

 lying between Arctic Red River and the 

 Peel River divide north to the Mackenzie 

 delta, being entirely in the Mackenzie 

 district. It contains about 3300 sq.mi. 

 Its principal game animal is the moose. 

 Many ducks of several species nest 

 here, but the area is not especially nota- 

 ble as a wild fowl resort. 



F. The Basin of Great Bear Lake. 

 A short account of Great Bear Lake may 

 begin with a portion of the description 

 by Richardson, who examined most of 

 its shore line in 1825 and 1826. He says: 



Great Bear Lake is an extensive sheet 

 of water, of a very irregular shape, 

 being formed by the union of five arms 

 or bays in a common center. The 

 greatest diameter of the lake, measuring 

 about 150 mi., runs from the bottom of 

 Dease Bay, which receives the principal 

 feeding stream, to the bottom of Keith 

 Bay, from whence the Bear Lake River 

 issues, and has a direction of N.E. to 

 S.W. The transverse diameter has a 

 direction from N.W. by W. to S.E. by 

 E., and is upwards of 120 mi. in length. 

 The light bluish-coloured water of Great 

 Bear Lake is everywhere transparent, 

 and is particularly clear near some 

 primitive mountains, which exist in 

 M'Tavish Bay. A piece of white rag, 

 let down there, did not disappear until 

 it descended fifteen fathoms. The depth 

 of water, in the center of the lake, was 

 not ascertained; but it is known to be 

 very considerable. Near the shore, in 

 M'Tavish Bay, forty-five fathoms of 

 line did not reach the bottom. (Narr. 

 Second Exp'd to Polar Sea, Appendix, 

 p. ii, 1828.) 



Great Bear Lake, according to the 

 Canadian Geological Survey, has an 

 area of approximately 11,400 sq. mi. 

 and lies 391 ft. above the level of the sea. 

 Its shores, with the exception of parts of 

 MacTavish Bay, are rather low. Its 

 southern and western shores are well 

 wooded, while its northern and eastern 

 borders are more thinly forested. The 

 immediate shores are mainly of sand or 

 gravel and are usually devoid of trees, 

 but are well clothed with willows and 

 various ericaceous shrubs and herba- 

 ceous plants. In most places along the 



south shore this treeless stretch is only 

 a few hundred yards in width, and in the 

 bays the forest extends to the water's 

 edge. In the vicinity of Leith Point, 

 however, a treeless area stretches from 

 near MacTavish Bay to Me Vicar Bay, 

 and extends inland for several miles. 

 On this area the faunal and floral con- 

 ditions are practically those of the 

 Barren Grounds. 



The junction between the primitive 

 or granitic rocks and the limestone 

 formation crosses Great Bear Lake 

 near its eastern extremity. To the 

 eastward of the dividing line the shores 

 are higher, especially around Mac- 

 Tavish Bay, where the mountains ap- 

 proach closely to the shore. The Griz- 

 zly Bear Mountain, which occupies the 

 peninsula between Keith and McVicar 

 bays, is upwards of 900 ft. high and 

 several hundred feet of its upper portion 

 are devoid of trees. On the opposite 

 side of the lake, between Smith and 

 Keith bays, a broad peninsula is oc- 

 cupied by the Scented Grass Hills, of 

 about the same height and similar in 

 structure to the Grizzly Bear Mountain. 

 The mountains which border Mac- 

 Tavish Bay are so rocky that it is diffi- 

 cult to trace the limit of timber on their 

 sides. 



The northern shores of Great Bear 

 Lake are described as mainly low and 

 thinly forested, although the country 

 at some distance inland is better 

 wooded. 



The tributaries of Great Bear Lake 

 are comparatively few in number. 

 Dease River, which discharges into the 

 northeastern extremity of the lake, is 

 probably the best known of its feeders. 

 It rises on the treeless height of land 

 between Dease Bay and the lower Cop- 

 permine. Several important streams 

 enter the lake from the north. Several 

 others, draining a very large extent of 

 country to the southward, enter Mac- 

 Tavish and McVicar bays. The latter 

 receives also the waters of a chain of 

 large lakes lying north of Marten Lake 

 (which discharges into Great Slave 

 Lake). The country drained by the 



