CHAPTER XXVIII 



GEOLOGICAL FORCES AT WORK 



left 



It seems to me that never before have I seen the 

 geological forces of nature so obviously at work. 

 Elsewhere I have seen great valleys, cliffs, islands, etc., 

 held on good evidence to be the results of such and 

 such powers formerly very active; but here on the 

 Athabaska I saw daily ev- 

 idence of these powers in 

 full blast, ripping, tearing, 

 reconstructing, while we 

 looked on. piU 'JUL 1 JCJ i L (r 



All the way down the %]>i\ I " llf 

 river we saw the process ^ „V \ 'J! '1 ,. 

 of undermining the bank, ' \ '/ "7// '/'':*"*V , J//^m 

 tearing down the trees to *i_- ^ ■_''" 'J )/ ! I j" j- % 

 whirl them again on dis- 



, ., i ,, Bank exposing different levels, etc. 



tant northern shores, thus _, . . „ . .. , „ 



/ Showing QOW VSTlOtll U<'<><\* r\n<\ let plowing! h.ivo 



• l • ii • I 1 « Danced the level within recent years 



widening the river channel 



until too wide for its normal flood, which in time 

 drops into a deeper restricted channel, in the wide 

 summer waste of gravel and sand. 



Ten thousand landslides take place every spring, 

 contributing their tons of mud to the millions that the 

 river is deporting to the broad catch basins called the 

 Athabaska and Great Slave Lakes. 



197 



