36 E. Petitot on the Athabasca District 



11 Okitsanak." The eatable Hedysarum with blue flowers, and 

 the poisonous one with yellow (known as the Travelling Vetch) 

 are found there also. The male fern adorns the woods with its 

 large fronds, and others, such as Polypodium, Capillary, and 

 Scolopendrium, carpet the mossy rocks with their elegant plumes. 

 But the most abundant plant all along the river is sarsaparilla. 

 The Tinney of the Beaver tribe know this smilaceous plant as a 

 febrifuge and sudorific, and collect its roots ; but they are not 

 aware of the anti-syphilitic properties of smilacine, a tannic base 

 contained in it, and which I have more than once pointed out to 

 them. 



It is a curious fact that I have never heard a Cicada in the 

 Northwest, though on two occasions (in 1876 and 1879) I satis- 

 fied myself of the occurrence of those insects at the junction of 

 the Clear-water and the Athabasca, though I only found them 

 on that spot. 



The wapiti has become rather uncommon in the forests of the 

 Athabasca, but the moose is frequently met with there. I have 

 never travelled along this noble river (and I have done so six 

 times) without seeing it, sometimes as many as three individuals 

 together. The frugivorous black bear, lynx, beaver, and otter 

 are common. On June 23rd, 1879, I met two Cree hunters who 

 declared that since the spring (i. e., in less than three months) 

 they had between them killed along the river two hundred beavers, 

 twenty-five moose, twenty bears and five wapiti ; and I may add 

 that from experience of the Redskins I know they are more given 

 to diminish than to exaggerate the results of their hunting. This 

 shows that life could still be maintained on the river if there 

 existed inhabitants able to hunt and provision the trading-posts. 

 But from the drainage of the Lesser Slave Lake to Lake Atha- 

 basca there are but thirty-one Crees and twenty-two Chipewyans, 

 women and children all told. 



The original mouth of the Athabasca is now distant a good 

 day's navigation from the lake. It is shown by the simultaneous 

 receding of both the high strands forming the bed of the river, 

 which from this point keep widening away from each other until 

 they disappear in the interior. A flat uniform plain follows, com- 

 posed of accumulations of soil, with no admixture of rock, and 

 covered by dense forest growth. The river has thus actually 



