190S.] 



EOUTES TRAVERSED MACKENZIE. 



103 



dwarfed state on the extreme summit. Other plants of interest are 

 mountain avens XDryas integrifolia and drummonclii) ^ P ediciilaTiH 

 euvhvasioides^ Pingiiicida vulgaris^ and . A^iemone richardsoni. 



From the summit of Mount Tha-on'-tha (see PL XII), which 

 I ascended on June 4, 1904, an interesting prospect presented itself. 

 Ten or 15 miles to the westward Mount Camsell (PI. XI, fig. 1), 

 on whose barren summit much snov\' yet remained, loomed Tip to a 

 height of about 4,000 feet, or over a thousand feet higher than the 

 peak on which I stood, and beyond other still higher peaks could be 

 seen. To the north and northwest extended lofty rugged mountains, 

 the highest caj^ped with snow. Farther back it is impossible to see 

 whether or not the mountains are arranged in definite series, but the 

 most easterly ranges are very well marked and lie parallel to the 

 Mackenzie. To the eastward, beyond the broad river, stretches a vast 

 rolling plain, well forested and dotted here and there with lakes. 

 To the south is a low, level, wooded plain, with thousands of small 

 lakes, bordered on the west by the Xahanni Mountains and the 

 low foothills back of Fort Simpson. Between the Mount Camsell 

 range and the mountains to the northward lies the deep valley of the 

 Xorth Xahanni Eiver, with its broad, mudch^ flood plain, through 

 which the river, spread out in numerous channels, pursues its mean- 

 dering course. 



Below the mouth of the Xahanni Eiver (PI. XII, fig. 2) the Mac- 

 kenzie makes its abrupt turn above referred to, and for some miles 

 parallels closely the Xahanni Mountains. A number of long, narrow 

 islands, closely v/ooded with spruces, lie close to the western bank. 

 The largest of these is about 20 miles long. Boot Eiver enters the 

 Mackenzie from the west 16 miles below the Xahanni, and 4 miles 

 below, opposite the lovv^er part of Twentymile Island, Willow Lake 

 Eiver comes in from the east, both being small streams. Here the 

 high mountains ha ax receded from Adew, and the sides of the A'alley 

 are only moderately elcA^ated. Twenty-fiAx miles belovr a slight rapid 

 occurs, inclosing an island, and here on the right bank, at the time of 

 our A'isit, stood Fort Wrigley.*^ (See PL XIII, fig. 2.) It is a small 

 and unimportant post and may be passed by without further comment. 

 Below here the Mackenzie pursues a general northerly course, with 

 rather high banks on the right. Twenty-five miles below the Little 

 Eapid the ' Eock by the EiA^rside,' or Eoche Trempe-l'eau (fig. 6), 

 as it is generally called, forms a part of the right bank. It is an 

 uplift of DeA^onian limestone, rising directly from the water to a 

 iieight of 1,500 feet, BeloAv this point the left bank becomes higher 



« Fort Wrigley was establisliecl in 1877, and was at first known as ' Tlie 

 Little Rapid.' Its site proved to be nnhealtliy and lately (antnmn, 1904) it 

 has been abandoned and. the post reestablished 25 miles lower down, on the left 

 bank opposite Roche Trempe-l'eau. 



