E. Petitot on the Athabasca District. 37 



filled up its own ancient estuary with the material it has carried 

 along, for no other in the world is more loaded with muddy 

 deposits, vegetable detritus, and floating trees. 



Almost immediately after this the river divides into two arms, 

 of which only the right-hand one retains the name of Athabasca, 

 the left taking that of Embarras, because of the frequent bars 

 made across it by the timber borne on its waters. Further on, 

 the Athabasca channel is subdivided into three other branches, of 

 which the central was the principal channel in 1879, whilst the 

 left one, known as the Brochets (or Pike) River, rejoined the 

 Embarras branch. But all these channels are interconnected by 

 a multitude of creeks, not reckoned by the natives, as they are 

 only navigable by bark canoes. 



Some maps make the river Athabasca communicate with Lake 

 Mamawi (or Mamawa), which is also represented as an expansion 

 of one of the mouths of the Peace River ; but this is a double 

 error. Lake Mamawi (meaning in Cree, Reunion or Assemblage) 

 receives its waters from Clear Lake, with which it communicates 

 by a very short arm called the Hay River (" Klope-djiethe' ") ; 

 and Clear Lake itself is fed from Bark Mountain, having no 

 connection with the Peace River. But before entering Mamawi, 

 the waters of Clear Lake bifurcate, the left channel discharging 

 under the name of the " Des Enfants " or Children River, into 

 the most eastern mouth of the Peace River, called " Aux (Eufs " 

 or Egg River, which flows into Lake Athabasca. 



The waters of Mamawi are also drained into the latter basin 

 by four channels, of which the right-hand one passes direct into 

 it, the other three eventually uniting and emptying into the east- 

 ern mouth of the Peace River, which, before reaching Lake 

 Athabasca, sends out an arm towards Lake Mamawi. This quad- 

 ruple channel bears the name of the Four Forks, and is the cause 

 of the Cree name for Mamawi. Very curious tidal fluctuations 

 result from this arrangement. In ordinary weather, with things 

 in their normal condition, the above description is correct. But as 

 the level of Lake Athabasca is materially heightened at the period 

 of flood, the waters of its basin, or more correctly the currents of 

 the Athabasca which cross it, flow back in the direction of the 

 Four Forks, reaching Lake Mamawi and even Clear Lake itself, 

 so that they connect the first with the eastern or Embarras chan- 



