116 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 27. 



are high and have many large angular bowlders scattered over them. 

 Other lower islands held mossy swamps on their summits, from 

 which the water trickled down their sloping sides and glittered 

 brightly in the sun. This is the Lake Hardisty of Petitot (1875) 

 and of most maps, and the Lake Key of Bell (1901). 



In reaching these lakes we had again struck Bell's route, which we 

 had left at Lake St. Croix. He entered the latter lake by a westerly 

 route, while we had crossed north from Lake St. Croix by the better 

 known Indian track, leading directly northward. 



From Lake Hardisty northward to (Treat Bear Lake we followed, 

 partially under the guidance of the Indians, a route never before fol- 

 lowed by a white man, as far as I have been able to ascertain, and 

 reached MacTavish Bay through an unmapped inlet to the eastward 

 of where Bell started south. 



After proceeding a few miles along the eastern shore of Lake 

 Hardisty we entered a channel having a very perceptible current 

 northward and encamped on a large, low, rocky island on its 

 western shore. Here we remained during the following day. On 

 August 17 we struck camp and proceeded northward down the chan- 

 nel, soon emerging into a small rounded expansion of the lake. A 

 good-sized stream, said by the Indians to head near the Coppermine, 

 and forming part of one of their hunting routes, enters this bay near 

 its northeast corner. To the northward stands a range of rugged 

 hills, one of which is cut by a deep narrow ravine. We here turned 

 sharply to the west to avoid a westerly promontory which partly in- 

 closes the bay, and then turned northward again and after going a 

 short distance encamped in a small, deep bay. 



On August 18 we were detained until noon and then paddled north- 

 ward along the comparatively even easterly shores for about 15 miles 

 and encamped near the northern extremity of the lake. The principal 

 feature worthy of record was a shallow bay, on whose shores were 

 low ridges and fields of drifting sand. At our night camp the timber 

 was of better growth than we had seen for some time. We were 

 still on the large lake, which I can do no better than call Lake 

 Hardisty. It is of much greater extent than hitherto has been sup- 

 posed. Bell took it to be Petitot 's Lac St. Croix, and, as he did not 

 thoroughly examine it, was unaware of its great extent to the north- 

 ward. 



On August 19, when apparently near the end of the lake, we crossed 

 diagonally toward the northwest and entered its outlet, a rather broad 

 channel running northwestward with a moderate current. This 

 stream soon expanded into a rounded lake, which we left by a strait 

 on its northeastern side. Beyond the point where we left it it extended 

 toward the northwest, but was probably not extensive. Its outlet 

 soon expanded into a rounded lake some 3 miles in diameter, on whose 



