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 w^th 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 yellov^dsh 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. 



