1908.] 



ROUTES TRAVERSED MACKENZIE. 



Ill 



The first part of this route, wliich follows a chain of lakes, lias been 

 previously traversed by so few travelers that brief mention ma}^ be 

 made of the earlier explorations. 



In May, 1864, Emile Petitot, a Catholic missionary, accompanied 

 a party of Dogrib Indians from. Fort Eae northward toward Oreat 

 Bear Lake. They traveled on snowshoes and penetrated a short dis- 

 tance north of a lake which he named Lac St. Croix. On this lake 

 he remained a short time, and on a prominent point erected a large 

 wooden cross. His return journey was made in June, mainly by 

 canoe. A brief account of his journey, with a map, was published 

 in 1875. and other fuller accounts later. The principal streams and 

 lakes were named by him, and until 1900 his accounts and maps con- 

 stituted the only sources of information in regard to the tract in 

 question. 



In the winter of 1866 the Eev. ^Y. C. Bompas, an Episcopal mis- 

 sionary, and ^y. C. King, a Hudson's Bay officer, traveled with dogs 

 along Petitot "s route and northwestward to Fort Franklin on Great 

 Bear Lake. I have seen no published account of this journey. 



In 1900 J. Macintosh Bell, of the Canadian Geological Survey, trav- 

 ersed the region from MacTavish Bay southward to Great Slave 

 Lake. On entering the territory first explored by Petitot he at- 

 tempted to apply his names, but owing to discrepancies between the 

 positions of the lakes as located by his own observations, and the loca- 

 tion of those described by Petitot, who traveled by dead reckoning, he 

 was unable to correlate his own and the latter's discoveries, and con- 

 sequently applied Petitot's names incorrectly to some lakes and 

 renamed others, 



A^>lien I made this traverse in 1903 I chanced to discover Petit ot's 

 cross, now fallen and disjointed, but readily identified by its position 

 and the remains of the date, inscribed by him in Eoman letters on 

 the crosspiece. This fortunate circumstance positively identifies this 

 lake as his Lac St. Croix, and also aids in identifying the other lakes 

 to the north and sotith. In view of the positive nature of the evi- 

 dence it seems best in the interests of acctiracy to use the names 

 applied by Petitot to the various lakes on this route. 



Accompanied by James MacKinlay and two Indians I left Fort 

 Eae late in the afternoon of July 30, 1903, and encamped on the 

 eastern shore a few miles to the northward. On July 31 we trav- 

 ersed the remaining part of the Xorthern Arm and passed through 

 the short narrow channel which connects with Lake Marian." 



Lake Marian is about 20 miles in length and nearly 10 miles broad 

 in its widest part, and contains a mtdtitude of rock}- islands. Its 

 shores are rocky, and altogether it is exactly similar to the Xorthern 



« Tliis lake is sometimes called Lake Brochet, but tliis name is applied to so 

 many that the name Lake IMarian, nsed by Bell, seems preferable. 



