106 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 27. 



and when we descended the river late in June were well lined with 

 immense blocks of ice. On the right bank 100 miles below Fort Nor- 

 man stands Wolverene Bock, or Roche Carcajou. It is about a thou- 

 sand feet high and presents sheer cliffs rising several hundred feet 

 directly from the water. On its precipitous face nest innumerable 

 cliff swallows, besides duck hawks, ravens, and other cliff-loving spe- 

 cies. A weathered knob, whose summit from some points resembles 

 the figure of a wolverene, gives its name to the mount. Twenty-five 

 miles below a range of low mountains is encountered. On either side 

 of the river stand low peaks called the East and West Mountains of 

 the Rapid, and the river falling over a rocky barrier forms the Sans 

 Sault Rapid, a rather formidable one in Ioav water. By following the 

 left bank, however, it may be run easily and safely in canoes, as the 



Fig. 8. — Entrance to Ramparts, Mackenzie River, near latitude 00°. 



descent, though swift, is gradual. Here the river turns northward 

 again, and it presents no features of especial interest until the Ram- 

 parts, GO miles below Sans Sault Rapid, are reached. Beaver River, 

 36 miles below the rapid, and a larger unnamed river 12 miles lower 

 down, come in from the west, while a mile or tw T o above the latter, on 

 the eastern side, is the mouth of a small stream called locally Blue- 

 fish Creek. The Rampart Rapid, just below, is formidable in low 

 water, especially in the middle and toward the western bank, but in 

 ordinary stages of water is scarcely discernible near the eastern bank. 

 Just below T it the Mackenzie enters the defile called the Ramparts. 

 (See figs, s and 0.) 



Here the river, which has expanded to a width of several miles, 

 contracts to about 500 yards and flows with a steady current between 

 perpendicular walls of limestone upward of 250 feet in height. The 



