102 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[no. 27. 



sundial, across whose leaden face have fallen the shadows of many 

 a yearly cycle. Surrounding the post on three sides are the fields, 

 Avhere in former years large crops of potatoes, barley, and other 

 staples were raised, and where a considerable amount of farming is 

 yet carried on. A small herd of cattle is kept for draft purposes. 

 In one of the little-used stores is the museum, containing mounted 

 specimens of many of the native birds, some mammals, and remnants 

 of collections of eggs and fossils. The library, once extensive, but 

 now much reduced, is kept in one of the rooms of the main dwelling 

 house. The most striking modern improvement is the electric light 

 plant, whose dynamo is run by the engine from the steam launch of 

 a disappointed Klondiker. 



Between Fort Simpson and Nahanni River, a distance of 75 miles, 

 the Mackenzie follows a nearly, direct west-northwest course. Its 

 banks are high and well wooded, and gravelly or bowldery beaches 

 are exposed at the ordinary stage of water. Several groups of long, 

 low islands, Avell wooded with spruce, balsam poplar, w^illows, and 

 the usual undergrowth, are encountered in this stretch. The only 

 tributary large enough to bear a name is Martin River, which comes 

 in from the southwest 8 miles below Fort Simpson. 



Near latitude 62° 15' the Mackenzie approaches the mountains, and, 

 making a sharp turn, runs for a long distance nearly due north, at a 

 short distance from their base.'^ At the ' Great Bend ' the Nahanni, 

 emerging from a deep, narroAv valley, mingles its waters Avith those 

 of the main river. The apex between the Nahanni and the Mackenzie 

 is occupied by a mountain called by some of the natives Tha-on'-tha, 

 i. e., 'standing alone' (PI. XI, fig. 2). It rises abruptly from the 

 sw^ampy plain to a height of about 2,500 feet. Its northern face is 

 steep — in places precipitous — and is formed of several superimposed 

 terraces. It is as well wooded as the nature of its soil will allow. 

 The white spruce {Picea canadensis), tamarack {Larix laricina)^ 

 Banksian pine {Pimis di varic at a) ^ and aspen poplar (Popidvs tremu- 

 loides), with their attendant shrubs, ascend the slopes to an altitude 

 of about 2,000 feet, occurring at their upper limit as depauperate 

 shrubs. Willows {Salix myrtillifolia and alaxensis) occu.r in a 



^ On tlie right bank of the Mackenzie, near wliere tlie river bends northward, 

 stood formerly a Northwest Company's post. On tlie map accompanying 

 Franklin's narrative of his second journey (1828) its site is placed opposite 

 the mouth of the Nahanni. Concerning this post, Masson says : " In 1800, Mr. 

 John Thomson, a clerk in the Northwest Company, * * * established a 

 trading post on the Mackenzie River ' in full view of the Rocky Mountains at 

 whose smallness I was greatly surprised ' and called it Rocky Mountain Fort. 

 It was soon after abandoned and in 1805, Mr. Alexander MacKenzie, the 

 Partner in charge of the Great Bear Lake Department, already calls it ' Old 

 Rocky Mountain House.' It was then going to ruin." (Les Bourgeois, II, 

 p. 27, 1890.) 



