1908.] 



ROUTES TRAVEKSED MACKENZIE. 



128 



are three in number, rather high and rocky, and are devoid of trees, 

 though apparently well covered with low shrubs. Their constantly 

 changing appearance, as one travels along the coast past them, causes 

 them to be held in some veneration by the natives and probably has 

 given rise to the name. Rising from the clear waters of the lake 

 without a tree to serve as a standard for comparison, the}^ present 

 a weird appearance, and we found it impossible to estimate their 

 distance from any point. Where we passed them they were appar- 

 ently only a mile or two offshore, but the real distance is probably 

 much greater. They remained in sight nearly all the afternoon, 

 and had a different appearance every time we turned to view them. 

 In the afternoon we paddled nearly 20 miles along a rather low, 

 gravelly shore. 



The next day, September 16, we kept on most of the day, though 

 the wind forced us to lie by for several hours. The immediate coast 

 here is low and treeless, but the spruce forest parallels the shore at a 

 distance of a mile or so. We persisted until dark, hoping to find a 

 favorable place to camp, but were finally driven ashore by a thick 

 fog which suddenly swept over us. The next morning when the fog 

 lifted we. found that we were near the outlet of Great Bear Lake, but 

 we could not start until noon, when the wind went down, though 

 huge rollers sweeping in from the main body of the lake still testi- 

 fied to the violence of the storm. We paddled eastward a short dis- 

 tance and then struck across toward the site of Fort Franklin, where 

 we could see the cabins and tents of a party of Hare Indians. It 

 was late in the afternoon before we had our camp established on the 

 shores of Gray Goose Lake, a body of water about a mile in length, 

 which receives a small stream and is connected with Keith Bay by 

 a narrow channel. As I intended to remain here about ten days I 

 pitched camp in a favorable place for working the surrounding 

 country. Fort Franklin is interesting from a zoological standpoint 

 on account of being the type locality of several species of mammals, 

 birds, fishes, and other vertebrates.® 



The first establishment on Great Bear Lake, according to the testimony of 

 FranQois Beaulien, who was one of the principal guides and hunters of Frank- 

 lin's expedition about Great Bear Lake in 1825, was built by a Northwest Com- 

 pany officer named Mackenzie, probably Mr. Alexander Mackenzie (not Sir 

 Alexander), in 1799. During one year, a post of the rival X Y Company also 

 was maintained there, but these companies united in 1804. The post was kept 

 up at least until the autumn of 1812. In the summer of 1825 Fort Franklin 

 was built by Franklin's party on " the site of an old fort belonging to the 

 Northwest Company " — plainly the original site. This was abandoned two 

 years later when the expedition left the country, and the buildings were 

 gradually destroyed by the fishermen who were sent there each autumn by the 

 Hudson's Bay Company. Richardson in June, 1849, found nothing remaining 

 of the buildings but portions of the chimneys, and occupied the fishermen's 



