1908.] 



ROUTES TRAVERSED MACKENZIE. 



113 



bordered lake. A rapid falling into this lake was next portaged and 

 we soon entered another small lake. Leaving this on the north side 

 we made a portage of a mile and a half over a wooded ridge, avoid- 

 ing a circuitous stretch of rapid water. This portage, the longest 

 on the route, led through small muskegs, where tracks of bears and 

 moose were numerous. 



On August 6 we paddled through a small, irregular lake, out of 

 which we made a short portage, avoiding a rapid, and almost imme- 

 diately entered another small expansion of the channel. From this 

 lakelet a small stream with alternating depths and shallows led us to 

 Lake Mazenod (Nagie Lake of Bell), which is practically the head 

 of the stream we had been ascending. Closely wooded regular 

 ridges border Lake Mazenod to the south, and irregular rocky hills 

 to the north. Its greatest length (about 8 miles) is from east to west. 

 We paddled among its rocky islands to its western extremity and 

 made a series of four short portages between three small muskeg 

 ponds to the shores of a larger body of water, Sarahk Lake. A not- 

 able feature of the small ponds was the difference in color of their 

 muddy bottoms. The first is yellow, the second a brick red, and the 

 third of the usual dark muddy tinge. The waters of all are clear. 

 (See PI. XIV, fig. 1.) 



Sarahk Lake, about 7 miles in length, was explored and named 

 by J. M. Bell in 1900. Its water is beautifully clear, and it is bor- 

 dered on the south and west by long, wooded ridges. We camped 

 on its rocky eastern shore, and the next morning paddled to its foot. 

 Its outlet, which issues from its northeastern bay, flows toward Great 

 Bear Lake, so henceforth the current was with us. As its outlet 

 is a succession of rapids, we did not enter its northeast bay, but 

 took another northern bay, and going nearly to its head made a 

 portage of a few hundred yards over a rocky ridge on the right, 

 entering the- river below the rough water. Passing down this stream 

 we soon entered a large lake with many rocky islands. A hill nearly 

 a thousand feet high stands on its southwest shore and others on its 

 eastern shore. A heavy smoke, the result of forest fires to the west- 

 ward, shut off our view in that direction. This lake was visited 

 by Petitot in 1864 and named by him Lac Faber. Bell, in 1900, 

 passing southward through the chain, explored its eastern shore and 

 renamed it Dawaso-necka Lake. We passed northward close to 

 its eastern shore. In one place the lake is contracted to a narrow 

 channel, on the eastern shore of which, apparently on the mainland, 

 we passed a small collection of log houses, the onl}^ buildings seen 

 on the route. Apparently they had been built only a few years. 

 A short distance beyond here we camped on a low rocky island 

 grown up to Ribes and Rubiis strigosus. 



44131— No. 27—08 8 



