46 E. Petitot on the Athabasca District. 



ing into three channels, is subdivided into two great median arms, 

 of which the eastern one is called Jean's River, a corruption of 

 the Chipewyan name " Dzan-des-tche," literally Mud-river end, or 

 Muddy mouth. Up to this point standing trees are found in 

 the delta, but they are no longer coniferous, thus showing that 

 the islands are of later formation. As the channels subdivide 

 vegetation decreases with them ; aspens, poplars, and alders have 

 disappeared, and only small willows, six to eight feet high, are 

 found. Still lower down, nothing is found but reeds, bulrushes 

 and at last only mare's-tail (Eqicisetum), an exclusively aquatic 

 growth, entirely covered during floods. 



Such are the products of the last sedimentary formations, 

 which are not yet consolidated. Between them and the lake 

 extends a moving bog, fluctuating with the waters, which cover 

 it for a few inches. Any unfortunate boat running into this mud 

 will infallibly become as firmly imbedded as the innumerable tree- 

 trunks whose roots are horizontally exposed above its surface. 

 Some years hence these unsolid and unfathomable banks will, 

 become firm, and, aided by the accumulations and drying effects 

 of frosts in winter, will form new islands, more and more encroach- 

 ing on the Slave Lake. 



During the 240 miles of the course of the Slave River, it only 

 receives two affluents, one on each bank, viz., the Dogs and the 

 Salt rivers, the first of which is above and the second below the 

 Rapids, interrupting its navigation. 



The maps of Lake Athabasca give indeed its southern affluents, 

 but two of these, the Unknown and Beaver rivers, are not repre- 

 sented to be of large dimensions, nor are the lakes from which 

 they spring shown as being within so comparatively short a dis- 

 tance of the lacustrine enlargement of the Churchill known as 

 Lake Lacrosse, that passage from the latter to the tributaries of 

 Lake Athabasca could be made by the head-waters of the Caribou 

 river. I have thought it right to rename these two great rivers 

 and the lakes from which they spring after Messrs. C. P. Gaudet 

 and R. McFarlane, as a mark of my respect and gratitude. 



III. 



The first person entitled to honour as the explorer of Lake 

 Athabasca, was Samuel Hearne. He discovered it in 1771, and 

 named it " Lake of the Hills." Seven years afterwards, the 



