44 TRANSACTIONS. 1906-7. 



hours before. The banks of the river are getting lower, the river 

 widens, and we are fast drifting down towards .the Arctic Sea. 



Some time in the evening we stopped at Arctic Red River 

 Post at the mouth of a stream of the same name. It struck me as 

 the least desirable place to live in of any in all this northland. A 

 few houses, the church, and the graveyard are all crowded on the 

 side of a hill. Perpetual frost is only a foot below the surface and 

 we no longer see that emblem of civilized life, the vegetable and 

 flower garden that has gone so far to make many of those lonely 

 posts seem somewhat cheerful. We only stopped an hour or two 

 at this post and then started for our last and the most northerly 

 post in the country, Fort McPherson. 



About 1.30 a.m., July 21st, I rose as we were rounding Point 

 Separation, so named from the parting here of Sir John Franklin 

 and Dr. Richardson when they separated for their perilous trip 

 around the shores of the frozen ocean. 



The sun was just skirting the northern horizon and I en- 

 deavoured to take a photo of it which I am afraid was a failure. 

 Point Separation lies between the junction of the Mackenzie and 

 Peel Rivers. Below this point is the delta of the Mackenzie which 

 is many miles in width, with numerous islands between here and 

 the sea which is some 80 miles distant. At the point where Frank- 

 lin and Richardson were camped are two spruce trees which were 

 marked as lobsticks at the time of their separation and in com- 

 memoration of that event. Both are still standing, though one of 

 them is dead. Judging from their appearance at a distance I 

 would say that they are each about sixteen inches in diameter 

 and seventy feet in height, and this nearly 100 miles beyond the 

 Arctic Circle. I have been very much interested in the tenacity 

 of life as shown in the growth of trees under the adverse conditions 

 prevailing in this north country. Since crossing the Arctic Circle 

 we have seen no vegetables but trees such as the spruce, birch, 

 tamarac and willows are seen all the way, and as we round Point 

 Separation and ascend Peel river spruce lines the banks. It at- 

 tains a size of twelve to sixteen inches and is used at Fort Mc- 

 Pherson not only for their log buildings but also is whipsawed into 

 lumber for general use. 



After entering the Peel river the steamer stopped to take on 

 wood which delayed us a couple of hours, but very soon after 

 starting we beheld on the high banks of the east side of the river 

 the houses of Fort McPherson with the white tents or tuples of the 



