Harmon's journal. 



171 



are evidently impregnated with sulphur, as ap- 

 pears by the incrustations on their margins. At 

 about twenty miles from the Fork, several bitu- 

 minous fountains are found, into which a pole of 

 twenty feet in length, may be plunged, without 

 the least resistance. The bitumen, which is in a 

 fluid state, is mixed with gum, or the resinous sub- 

 stance collected from the spruce fir, and is used for 

 gumming canoes. When heated, it emits a smell, 

 like that of sea coal. — There are some places, 

 along this river, which are of many miles in extent, 

 where there is scarcely a tree standing. They 

 were killed by the fire, and were then thrown 

 down by the winds. At these places, a few buffa- 

 loes, moose and cariboo, are found. 



Wednesday, 7. Fort Chipewyan. This fort 

 stands on a rocky point, at the south western end 

 of Athabasca Lake, or, as some call it, the Lake 

 of the Hills. — This is the general rendezvous for 

 all Athabasca. Here the goods are set apart for 

 all the different posts, in this extensive depart- 

 ment ; and to this place, the greater number of 

 persons who have the charge of these posts, come 

 every fall, to receive their merchandise from 

 those, who have brought it from the Rainy Lake. 

 — This place is in N. Lat. 58° 40' and W. Long. 

 111 0 . 



A few Crees, and a greater number of Chipe- 



