on the immediate banks of the river after passing the Forks. It is a
round bluff hill about five hundred feet high, with a short
obtuse-conical summit. A precipice three hundred feet high, washed by
the river, is composed of strata of limestone, dipping N.W. by W. at an
angle of 70 degrees; but the strata in other parts of the hill have in
appearance the saddle-formed arrangement. [Sidenote: 127] The limestone
is of a blackish-gray colour, slightly crystalline structure, and much
resembles the stone of the principal beds in the hills at the rapid and
mouth of Bear Lake River. Its beds are from one to two feet thick, and
much intersected by small veins of calc-spar. There are also some larger
veins a foot and a half thick, which traverse the strata obliquely,
having their sides lined with calc-spar, and their centres filled with
transparent gypsum. [Sidenote: 128] I observed a small imbedded pebble
of white sandstone in the gypsum. [Sidenote: 127] Some of the beds of
limestone consist of angular distinct concretions. [Sidenotes: 131, 132]
A small island lying off this rock, having its strata dipping south at
an angle of 20 degrees, presents a bed a foot thick, entirely composed
of these angular concretions, covered by a thin-slaty limestone, and
reposing on thicker beds, all of which are dark-coloured. No organic
remains were observed.
A few miles below the "Rock by the river side," a very rugged ridge
appears on the eastern bank. It has sharp craggy summits, and is about
five or six hundred feet high. For nearly sixty miles below this place
the river continues about eight hundred yards wide, bounded by banks
chiefly of clay; but in some places of a clayey shale having a bluish
colour. The banks are in many places one hundred and fifty feet high,
with a beach beneath covered with boulders. A little above the site of
the Old Fort Norman the river dilates, and is full of islands; and a
short way inland, on the east side, stands Clark's Hill, which is
visible from Fort Franklin, and is supposed to be near 1500 feet high.
It is shaped somewhat like the amphibolic-granite mountain of Criffel in
Galloway, and in its immediate neighbourhood there are some less lofty,
but very rugged and precipitous hills, resembling in outline the ridges
of limestone on Bear Lake River. From this place to the commencement of
the lignite formation, already described, the banks of the Mackenzie are
high and clayey.
MACKENZIE RIVER FROM BEAR LAKE RIVER TO THE NARROWS.
Below Bear Lake River the general course of the Mackenzie for eighty
miles is about N.W. by W., when a remarkable rapid is produced by ledges
of stone which cross its channel. The width of the river varies in this
distance from one to three miles, but the water-course is narrowed by
numerous islands, and the current continues strong. The Rocky Mountains
are visible, running in a direction from S.E. to N.W. Judging merely by
the eye, we did not estimate their altitude above four thousand feet,
and I may remark, that the snow disappears from their summits early in
the summer. A back view of the hill at the mouth of Bear Lake River is
also obtained for upwards of twenty miles, but the ridge of which it
forms a part curves inland, probably uniting, as was formerly remarked,
with the one which crosses Bear Lake River near the middle of its
course. The banks of the Mackenzie are in general from one hundred and
twenty to one hundred and fifty feet high in this part, and there are
occasional sections of them, but we had little leisure to examine their
structure. In the voyage of 1826 we drifted down the stream night and
day, landing only when necessary to cook our provisions; and in the
following geological notices, as far as the passage of the river named
the _Narrows_, I have done little more than describe the specimens
collected by Captain Franklin, when he ascended the river by the
tow-line in 1825. The few notes that the rapidity of our voyage
permitted me to make, as to the direction of the strata, &c., were
inserted in the book that was purloined by the Esquimaux at the mouth of
the river.
About fifty miles below Bear Lake River there is an almost precipitous
cliff of bituminous-shale, one hundred and twenty feet high, strongly
resembling the cliffs which occur near the bases of the hill of
Scented-Grass and Great Bear Mountain in Bear Lake already
described[34], and at the mouth of the Clear Water River in lat. 56-1/2
degrees. In the two former localities the shale is in the neighbourhood
of horizontal strata of limestone; and in the latter it actually reposes
on the limestone, which extends in horizontal strata as far as Great
Slave Lake, is connected with many salt springs, and possesses many of
the characters ascribed to the zechstein formation. [Sidenote: 133]
Captain Franklin observed the beach under the shale cliffs of the
Mackenzie to be strewed not only with fragments of the shale, but also
with much lignite, similar to that which occurs at the mouth of the Bear
Lake River. Twelve or fourteen miles below these cliffs there is a reach
seventeen or eighteen miles long, bounded by walls of sandstone in
horizontal beds. [Sidenotes: 134, 135] Specimens obtained by Captain
Franklin at the upper end of the reach consist of fine-grained quartzose
sandstone[35] of a gray colour, and having a clayey basis, resembling
those which occur in the middle of Bear Lake River. At the commencement
of the "Great Rapid of the Mackenzie" there is a hill on each side of
the river, named by Captain Franklin the eastern[36] and Western
mountains of the Rapid. The Rocky Mountains appear at no great distance
from this place, running about N.W. by W., until lost to the sight; and
as the Mackenzie for forty or fifty miles below, winds away to the
northward, and, in some reaches, a little to the eastward, they are not
again visible, until the river has made a bend to the westward, and
emerges from the defile termed "the Narrows."
The "Eastern mountain of the rapid" seems to have a similar structure,
with the "Hill by the River's side," the hill at the mouth of Bear Lake
River, and the other limestone ridges which traverse this part of the
country. [Sidenote: 136] From some highly inclined beds near its base I
broke off specimens of a limestone, having an imperfectly crystalline
structure, and a brown colour, which deepens into dull black on the
surfaces of its natural seams. [Sidenotes: 137, 138, 139, 141] A piece
of dark-gray, compact limestone, having the peculiar structure to which
the name of "_cone in cone_" has been given, was found on the beach;
also several pieces of chert, and some fragments of a trap-rock,
consisting of pieces of greenstone, more or less iron-shot, cemented by
calc-spar.
Immediately below the rapid there are horizontal layers of sandstone
which form cliffs, and also the bed of the river. Captain Franklin
obtained specimens of this stone, which do not differ from the
sandstones above the rapid. [Sidenote 142, 143, 140] And amongst the
debris of the cliff he found other specimens of the "_cone in cone_,"
such as it occurs in the clayey beds of the coal measures, and also some
pieces of crystallized pyrites.
[Sidenote: 144, 144a, 145, 146, 147, 144b] About forty miles below the
rapid, the river flows through a narrow defile formed by the approach of
two lofty banks of limestone in highly-inclined strata, above which
there is a dilatation of the river, bounded by the walls of sandstone,
which have weathered, in many places, into pillars, castellated forms,
caves, &c. The sandstone strata are horizontal, have slate-clay
partings, and seams of a poor clay-iron stone, but do not differ in
general appearance from the sandstone beds at the rapid, except that a
marly stone containing corallines, and having the general colour and
aspect of the sandstone beds, is associated with them at this place.
The very remarkable defile, below these sandstone beds, is designated
"the _second rapid_" by Sir Alexander Mackenzie, and "the _ramparts_" by
the traders, a name adopted by Captain Franklin. Mackenzie states it to
be three hundred yards wide, three miles long, and to have fifty fathoms
depth of water. If he is correct in his soundings, its bed is probably
two hundred and fifty feet below the level of the sea. The walls of the
defile rise from eighty to one hundred and fifty feet above the river,
and the strata are inclined to the W.N.W., at an angle of seventy or
eighty degrees. It is worthy of remark, that the course of the river
through this chasm is E.N.E., and that just above the eastern mountain
of the rapid it runs about W.S.W. through the sandstone strata, as if it
had found natural rents by which to make its escape through the ridge of
hills which cross its course here. Similar elbows occur in various parts
of the River, and they may be almost always traced to some peculiarity
in the disposition of the hills which traverse the country.
Captain Franklin gathered many specimens of the limestone strata of the
Ramparts, which are specified in a note.[37] [Sidenote: 148, 149] Some
of the beds at the upper part of the Ramparts consist of a granular
foliated limestone, which was not noticed elsewhere on the banks of the
river, but the greater part are of limestone, strongly resembling that
which has been already described, as forming the ridges in this quarter.
Most of the beds are impregnated wholly, or in patches, with bitumen.
Some of these specimens contain corallines and terebratulae; and at the
lower end of the defile there are horizontal strata of limestone,
covered by a thin layer of flinty slate.
Below the _ramparts_ the river expands to the width of two miles, and
for a reach or two its banks are less elevated. In lat. 66-3/4 degrees,
about thirty miles from the ramparts, there are cliffs which Captain
Franklin in his notes, remarks, "run on an E. by S. course for four
miles, are almost perpendicular, about one hundred and sixty feet high,
and present the same castellated appearances that are exhibited by the
sandstone above the defile of the "ramparts." [Sidenote: 159, 160, 161,
162] The cliffs[38] are, in fact, composed of sandstones similar, in
general appearance, to those which occur higher up the river; but some
of the beds contain the quartz in coarser grains, with little or no
cement. [Sidenote: 163, 164, 165, 166] The beds are horizontal, and
repose on horizontal limestone,[39] from which Captain Franklin broke
many specimens in 1825. [Sidenote: 167, 168, 169, 170] We landed at this
place in 1826 to see the junction of the two rocks, but the limestone
was concealed by the high waters of the river. Captain Franklin's
specimens are full of shells, many of which are identical with those of
the flat limestone strata of the Athabasca River. [Sidenote: 171] One
bed appears to be almost entirely composed of a fine large species of
terebratula, not yet described, but of which Mr. Sowerby has a specimen
from the carboniferous limestone of Neho, in Norway. Some of the beds
contain the shells in fragments; in others, the shells are very entire.
About forty miles below these sandstone walls the banks of the river are
composed of marl-slate, which weathers so readily, that it forms
shelving acclivities. [Sidenote: 172] In one reach the soft strata are
cut by ravines into very regular forms, resembling piles of cannon shot
in an arsenal, whence it was named _Shot-reach_.
The river makes a short turn to the north below Shot Reach, and a more
considerable one to the westward, in passing the present site of Fort
Good Hope. The banks in that neighbourhood are mostly of clay, but beds
of sandstone occasionally show themselves. The Indians travel from Fort
Good Hope nearly due north, reach the summit of a ridge of land on the
first night, and from thence following the course of a small stream they
are conducted to the river _Inconnu_, and on the evening of the 4th day
they reach the shores of Esquimaux Lake. Its water is brackish, the tide
flowing into it. The neck of land which the Indians cross from Fort Good
Hope is termed "isthmus" on Arrowsmith's map, from Mackenzie's
information; and its breadth, from the known rate at which the Indians
are accustomed to travel, cannot exceed sixty miles. The ridge is named
the Carreboeuf, or Rein-deer Hills, and runs to lat. 69 degrees, forming
a peninsula between the eastern channel of the Mackenzie and Esquimaux
Lake.
A small stream flows into the Mackenzie some way below Fort Good Hope,
on the banks of which, according to Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the Indians
and Esquimaux collect flints. He describes these banks as composed of "a
high, steep, and soft rock, variegated with red, green, and yellow hues;
and that, from the continual dripping of the water, parts of it
frequently fall, and break into small, stony flakes, like slate, but not
so hard. Amongst these are found pieces of petroleum, which bears a
resemblance to yellow wax, but is more pliable." The flint he speaks of
is most probably flinty-slate; but I do not know what the yellow
petroleum is, unless it be the variety of alum, named rock-butter, which
was observed in other situations, forming thin layers in bituminous
shale.
About twenty miles below Fort Good Hope there are some sandstone
cliffs,[40] which Captain Franklin examined in 1825. [Sidenote: 173,
174] The sandstones are similar to those occurring higher up the river,
but some of the beds contain small pieces of bituminous shale; and they
are interstratified with thin layers of flinty-slate, and of
flinty-state passing into bituminous shale. [Sidenote: 175, 176] The
flinty-slate contains iron pyrites, and its layers are covered with a
sulphureous efflorescence. Some of the beds pass into a slate-clay,
which contains vegetable impressions, and some veins of clay-iron stone
also appear in the cliff.
Sixty miles below Fort Good Hope the river turns to the northward, and
makes a sharp elbow betwixt walls of sandstone eighty or ninety feet
high, which continue for fifteen or twenty miles. Captain Franklin named
this passage of the river "The Narrows."[41] [Sidenotes: 178, 179] The
sandstones of the _Narrows_ lie in horizontal beds, and have generally a
dark gray colour. [Sidenotes: 180, 181, 182] They are parted by thin
slaty beds of sandstone, containing small pieces apparently of
bituminous coal, and some casts of vegetables. [Sidenote: 183] Most of
the beds contain scales of mica, and some of them have nodules of
indurated iron-shot clay which exhibit obscure impressions of shells. A
bed of imperfectly crystalline limestone was seen by Captain Franklin
underlying the sandstones.
MACKENZIE RIVER BELOW "THE NARROWS."
The Mackenzie, on emerging from the Narrows, separates into many
branches, which flow to the sea through alluvial or diluvial deltas and
islands. The Rocky Mountains are seen on the western bank of the river,
forming the boundary of those low lands; and the lower, but decided
ridge, of the Rein-deer Hills holds nearly a parallel course on the east
bank. The estuary lying between these two ranges, opens to the N.W. by
N. into the Arctic Sea. I have already mentioned the specimens of rocks
obtained at the few points of the Rocky Mountains that were visited,[42]
and therefore shall now speak only of the Rein-deer Hills. We did not
approach them until we had passed for thirty miles down a branch of the
river which winds through alluvial lands. At this place there are
several conical hills about two hundred feet high, which appeared to
consist of limestone. Specimens taken from some slightly-inclined beds
near their bases, consisted of a fine-grained, dark, bluish-gray
limestone. After passing these limestone rocks, the Rein-deer Hills were
pretty uniform in appearance, having a steep acclivity with rounded
summits. Their height, on the borders of the river, is about four
hundred feet, but a mile or two inland they attain an elevation of
perhaps two hundred feet more. Their sides are deeply covered with sand
and clay, arising most probably from the disintegration of the subjacent
rocks. [Sidenote: 184, 185] A section made by a torrent, showed the
summit of one of the hills to be formed of gray slate-clay, its middle
of friable gray sandstone much iron-shot, and its base of dark
bluish-gray slaty clay. The sandstone predominates in some parts of the
range, forming small cliffs, underneath which there are steep
acclivities of sand. It contains nearly an equal quantity of black
flinty slate, or lydian stone, and white quartz in its composition, and
greatly resembles the friable sandstones of the lignite formation at the
mouth of Bear Lake River. [Sidenote: 186] In some parts the soil has a
red colour from the disintegration of a reddish-brown slate-clay.
[Sidenote: 187] The summits of the hills that were visited were thinly
coated with loose gravel, composed of smooth pebbles of lydian-stone,
intermixed with some pieces of green felspar, white quartz, limestone,
and chert. In some places almost all the pebbles were as large as a
goose-egg, in others none of them exceeded the size of a hazel nut. The
Rein-deer Mountains terminate in lat. 69 degrees, having previously
diminished in altitude to two hundred feet, and the eastern branch of
the river turns round their northern extremity. White spruce trees grow
at the base of these hills as far as lat. 68-1/2 degrees; north of which
they become very stunted and straggling, and very soon disappear, none
reaching to lat. 69 degrees.
Sir Alexander Mackenzie, who, on his return from the sea, walked over
these hills, says, "Though the country is so elevated, it is one
continued morass, except on the summits of some barren hills. As I
carried my hanger in my hand, I frequently examined if any part of the
ground was in a state of thaw, but could never force the blade into it
beyond the depth of six or eight inches. The face of the high land
towards the river is, in some places, rocky, and in others a mixture of
sand and stone, veined with a kind of red earth, with which the natives
bedaub themselves." It was on the 14th of July that he made these
observations. On the 5th of the same month, in a milder year, we found
that the thaw had penetrated nearly a foot into the beds of clay at the
base of the hills.
ALLUVIAL ISLANDS AT THE MOUTH OF THE MACKENZIE.
The space between the Rocky Mountains and Rein-deer Hills, ninety miles
in length from lat. 67 degrees 40 minutes to 69 degrees 10 minutes, and
from fifteen to forty miles in width, is occupied by flat alluvial
islands, which separate the various branches of the river. Most of these
islands are partially or entirely flooded in the spring, and have their
centres depressed and marshy, or occupied by a lake; whilst their
borders are higher and well clothed by white spruce trees. The spring
floods find their way, through openings in these higher banks, into the
hollow centres of the islands, carrying with them a vast quantity of
drift timber, which, being left there, becomes water-soaked, and,
finally, firmly impacted in the mud. The young willows, which spring up
rapidly, contribute much towards raising the borders of the stream, by
intercepting the drift sand which the wind sweeps from the margin of the
shallow ponds as they dry up in summer. The banks, being firmly frozen
in spring, are enabled to resist the weight of the temporary floods
which occur in that season, and before they are thawed the river has
resumed its low summer level. The trees which grow on the islands
terminate suddenly, in lat. 68 degrees 40 minutes.
I have already mentioned, that a large sheet of brackish water, named
Esquimaux Lake, lies to the eastward of the Rein-deer Mountains, running
to the southward, and approaching within sixty miles of the bend of
Mackenzie's River at Fort Good Hope. This lake has a large outlet into
Liverpool Bay, to the westward of Cape Bathurst, and there are many
smaller openings betwixt that bay and Point Encounter, near the north
end of the Rein-deer Hills, which are also supposed to form
communications betwixt the lake and the sea. The whole coast-line from
Cape Bathurst to the mouth of the Mackenzie, and the islands skirting
it, as far as Garry and Sacred Islands, present a great similarity in
outline and structure. They consist of extensive sandy flats, from which
there arise, abruptly, hills of an obtuse conical form, from one to two
hundred feet above the general level. Sandy shoals skirt the coast, and
numerous inlets and basins of water divide the flat lands, and
frequently produce escarpments of the hills, which show them to be
composed of strata of sand of various colours, sometimes inclosing very
large logs of drift timber. There is a coating of black vegetable earth,
from six inches to a foot in thickness, covering these sandy hummocks,
and some of the escarped sides appeared black, which was probably caused
by soil washed from the summit.
It is possible that the whole of these eminences may, at some distant
period, have been formed by the drifting of moveable sands. At present
the highest floods reach only to their bases, their height being marked
by a thick layer of drift timber. When the timber has been thrown up
beyond the reach of ordinary floods, it is covered with sand, and, in
process of time, with vegetable mould. The _Elymus mollis_, and some
similar grasses with long fibrous roots, serve to prevent the sand-hills
from drifting away again. Some of the islands, however, consist of mud
or clay. Captain Franklin describes Garry's Island as presenting cliffs,
two hundred feet high, of black mud, in which there were inclined beds
of lignite. [Sidenote: 188] Specimens of this lignite have the same
appearance with the fibrous wood-coal occurring in the formation at the
mouth of Bear Lake River, and, like it, contain resin. [Sidenotes: 189,
190] Imbedded in the same bank, there were large masses of a dark-brown
calc-tuff, full of cavities containing some greenish earthy substance.
Some boulders of lydian stone strew the beach. The cliffs of
Nicholson's Island also consisted of sand and mud, which, at the time
of our visit, (July 16th,) had thawed to the depth of three feet. This
island rises four hundred feet above the level of the sea, and is
covered with a thin sward of grasses and bents.
SEA-COAST.--BITUMINOUS ALUM SHALE.
The main land to the east of Nicholson's Island, as far as Cape
Bathurst, presents gently swelling hills, which attain the height of two
hundred feet at the distance of two miles from the beach, and the ground
is covered with a sward of moss and grasses. At Point Sir Peregrine
Maitland there are cliffs forty-feet high of sand and slaty clay, and
the ravines are lined with fragments of whitish compact limestone,
exactly resembling that which occurs in Lakes Huron and Winipeg, and
which was afterwards seen forming the promontory of Cape Parry, bearing
E.N.E. from this place. The beach, on the south side of Harrowby Bay,
not far from Point Maitland, was thickly strewed with fragments of dark
red and of white sandstone, together with some blocks of the
above-mentioned limestone, and a few boulders of sienite.
From Cape Bathurst the coast line has a S.E. direction, and is formed by
precipitous cliffs, which gradually rise in height from thirty feet to
six hundred. The beds composing these cliffs appear to be analogous to
those of the alum-shale banks at Whitby, and similar to those which
skirt the Scented-grass Hill and Great Bear Mountain, in Great Bear
Lake. The Scented-grass Hill is distant from Cape Bathurst about three
hundred miles, on a S.E. bearing, which corresponds, within a point,
with the direction of the principal mountain chains in the country.
[Sidenote: 191] There is evidently a striking similarity in the form of
the ground plan of these two promontories. At the extremity of Cape
Bathurst the cliffs consist of slaty-clay, which, when dry, has a light
bluish-gray colour, a slightly greasy feel, and falls down in flakes.
The rain-water had penetrated the cliff to the depth of three yards from
the summit; and this portion was frozen, on the 17th July, into an icy
wall, which crumbled down as it thawed. On proceeding a little further
along the coast, some beds were observed that possessed, when newly
exposed to the air, tenacity enough to be denominated stone, but which,
under the action of water, speedily softened into a tenacious
bluish-clay.
[Sidenotes: 192, 193, 197, 198, 199] At Point Traill we were attracted
by the variegated colours of the cliff, and on landing found that they
proceeded from clays baked by the heat of a bed of bituminous-alum-shale
which had been on fire. Some parts of the earth were still warm. The
shale is of a brown colour and thin slaty structure, with an earthy
fracture. It contains many interspersed crystals of selenite; between
its lamina there is much powdery alum, mixed with sulphur, and it is
traversed by veins of brown selenite, in slender prismatic crystals.
[Sidenotes: 200, 194, 195, 196] The bed was much broken down, and hid by
the debris of the bank, but in parts it was several yards thick, and
contained layers of the wax-coloured variety of alum, named Rock-butter.
The shale is covered by a bed of stone, chiefly composed of oval
distinct concretions of a poor calcareous clay-iron stone. These
concretions have a straight cleavage in the direction of their short
axis, and are often coated by fibrous calc-sinter and calcedony. The
upper part of the cliff is clay and sand passing into a loosely cohering
sandstone. The strata are horizontal, except in the neighbourhood of
ravines, or of consumed shale, when they are often highly inclined,
apparently from partial subsidence. The debris of the cliff form
declivities, having an inclination of from fifty to eighty degrees, and
the burnt clays variously coloured, yellow, white, and deep red, give it
much the appearance of the rubbish of a brick-field. The view of the
interior, from the summit of the cliff, presents a surface slightly
varied by eminences, which swell gently to the height of fifty or sixty
feet above the general level. The soil is clayey, with a very scanty
vegetation, and there are many small lakes in the country.
[Sidenote: 201] Ten miles further on, the alum-shale forms a cliff two
hundred feet high, and presents layers of the Rock-butter about two
inches thick, with many crystals of selenite on the surfaces of the
slates. The summit of the cliff consists of a bed of marly gravel two
yards thick, which is composed of pebbles of granite, sienite, quartz,
lydian-stone, and compact limestone, all coated by a white powdery marl.
The dip of the strata at this place is slightly to the northward.
A few miles to the south-east of Wilmot Horton River the cliffs are six
hundred feet high, and present acclivities having an inclination of from
thirty to sixty degrees, formed of weathered slate-clay. Some beds of
alum-shale are visible at the foot of these cliffs, containing much
sulphate of alumina and masses of baked clay.
Two miles further along the coast the shaly strata were on fire, giving
out smoke, and beyond this the cliffs become much broken but less
precipitous, having fallen down in consequence of the consumption of the
combustible strata. These ruined cliffs gradually terminated in green
and sloping banks, whose summit was from one to two miles inland, and
about six hundred feet above the sea level. Considerable tracts of level
ground occurred occasionally betwixt these banks and the beach. Wherever
the ground was cut by ravines, beds of slate-clay were exposed. On
reaching the bottom of Franklin Bay, we observed the higher grounds
keeping an E.S.E. direction until lost to the view, becoming, however,
somewhat peaked in the outline.
SEA COAST.--LIMESTONE.
Parry's Peninsula, where it joins the mainland, is very low, consisting
mostly of gravel and sand, and is there greatly indented by shallow
bays, but it gradually increases in height towards Cape Parry. The bays
and inlets are separated from the sea by beaches composed of rolled
pieces of compact limestone; and which, although they are in places only
a few yards across, are several miles in length. The northern part of
Parry's Peninsula belongs entirely to a formation which appears from the
mineralogical characters of the stone composing the great mass of the
strata, and the organic remains observed in it, to be identical with the
limestone formations of Lakes Winipeg and Huron.
[Sidenotes: 202, 204] On the north side of Sellwood Bay, in lat. 69
degrees 42 minutes, cliffs about twenty feet high are composed of a
fine-grained[43] brownish dolomite, in angular distinct concretions, and
containing corallines and veins of calc-spar. [Sidenote: 203] In the
same neighbourhood there is a bed of grayish-black compact luculite with
drusses of calc-spar, very similar to the limestone which occurs in
highly inclined strata at the "Rock by the River Side," on the
Mackenzie, and in horizontal strata in an island near that rock, where
it forms angular concretions.
After passing Sellwood Bay, the north and east shores of Cape Parry, and
the islands skirting them, present magnificent cliffs of limestone,
which, from the weathering action of the waves of the sea, assume
curious architectural forms. Many of the insulated rocks are perforated.
Between the bold projecting cliffs of limestone there are narrow
shelving beaches, formed of its debris, that afford access to the
interior. The strata have generally a slight dip to the northward, and
the most common Rock is a yellowish-gray dolomite which has a very
compact structure, but presents some shining facets of disseminated
calc-spar. This stone, which is not to be distinguished by its
mineralogical characters from the prevailing limestone of Lake Winipeg,
and at the passage of _La cloche_ in Lake Huron, forms beds six or eight
feet thick, and is frequently interstratified with a cellular limestone,
approaching to chert in hardness, and exhibiting the characters of
rauchwacke. In some parts, the rauchwacke is the predominating rock, and
has its cells beautifully powdered with crystals of quartz or of
calc-spar, and contains layers of chert of a milky colour. The chert has
sometimes the appearance of calcedony, and is finely striped.
[Sidenote: 208, 209] The extremity of Cape Parry is a hill about seven
hundred feet high, in which beds of brownish dolomite, impregnated with
silica, are interstratified with a thin-slaty, gray limestone, having a
compact structure.[44] The vegetation is very scanty, and there are some
spots covered with fragments of dolomite, on which there is not the
vestige even of a lichen. Many large boulders of greenstone were thrown
upon the N.W. point of Cape Parry. The islands in Darnley Bay, between
Capes Parry and Lyon, are composed of limestone.
SEA-COAST.--FORMATION OF SLATE-CLAY, SANDSTONE, AND LIMESTONE, WITH
TRAP-ROCKS.
From Cape Lyon to Point Tinney, the rocks forming the coast-line are
slate-clay, limestone, greenstone, sandstone, and calcareous
puddingstone.
[Sidenote: 214] Near the extremity of Cape Lyon the _slate-clay_
predominates, occurring in straight, thin, bluish-gray layers, which are
interspersed with detached scales of mica. [Sidenote: 215] It sometimes
forms thicker slates, that are impregnated with iron, and occurs alone,
or interstratified in thin beds with a reddish, small-grained limestone.
The strata, in general, dip slightly to the N.E., and form
gently-swelling grounds, which at the distance of about fifteen miles to
the southward terminate in hills, named the Melville Range. These hills
are apparently connected with those which skirt the coast to the
westward of Parry's Peninsula, have rather a soft outline, and do not
appear to attain an altitude of more than seven or eight hundred feet
above the sea. Ridges of naked trap-rocks, which traverse the lower
country betwixt the Melville hills and the extremity of the Cape, rise
abruptly to the height of one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet, and
have, in general, an E.N.E. direction. When these trap ridges reach the
coast, they form precipices which frequently have a columnar structure,
and the nearly horizontal strata of slate-clay are generally seen
underlying the precipices. In many places the softer clay strata are
worn considerably away, and the columns of greenstone hang over the
beach. Columns of this description occur at the north-eastern extremity
of the Cape, and the slate-clay is not altered at its point of contact
with the greenstone. The soil in this neighbourhood is clayey, and some
small streams have pretty lofty and steep clayey banks; the shaly strata
appearing only at their base. A better sward of grasses and carices
exists at Cape Lyon, than is usual on those shores. Many boulders of
greenstone and large fragments of red sandstone strew the beach.
At Point Pearce, four or five miles to the eastward of Cape Lyon, a
reddish, small-grained limestone forms perpendicular cliffs two hundred
feet high, in which a remarkable cavern occurs. Near these cliffs the
slate-clay and reddish limestone are interstratified, and form a bold
rocky point, in which the strata dip to the N.E. at an angle of 20
degrees. The coast line becomes lower to the eastward, and at Point
Keats a fine-grained, flesh-coloured sandstone occurs. This sandstone is
quartzose, does not possess much tenacity, and is without any apparent
basis.
At Point Deas Thompson the limestone re-appears, having reddish-brown
and flesh-red colours, and a splintery fracture. There are some
beautiful Gothic arches formed in the cliffs there by the weathering of
the strata.
Five miles farther along the coast, near Roscoe River, the same kind of
limestone forms cliffs twenty-five feet high, and is covered by thin
layers of soft slate-clay. On the top of these cliffs we observed a
considerable quantity of drift-timber and some hummocks of gravel. The
spring tides do not rise above two feet. The Melville Range approaches
within three miles of the coast there, and presents a few short conical
summits, although the hills composing it are mostly round-backed.
[Sidenotes: 217, 218, 219] At Point De Witt Clinton, a compact
blackish-blue limestone, traversed by veins of calc-spar, forms a bed
thirty feet thick, which reposes on thin layers of a soft, compact,
light, bluish-gray limestone or marl. The cliffs at this place are
altogether about seventy feet high, but their bases were concealed by
accumulations of ice. Veins filled with compact and fibrous gypsum
traverse the upper limestone. Naked and barren ridges of greenstone,
much iron-shot, cross the country here, in the same manner as at Cape
Lyon. The soil consists of gravel and clay; the former mostly composed
of whitish magnesian limestone; and the vegetation is very scanty.
At Point Tinney, in lat. 69 degrees 20 minutes, cliffs of a calcareous
puddingstone, about forty feet high, extend for a mile along the coast.
The basis, in most of the beds, is calc-spar; but in some small layers
it is calcareous sand. The imbedded pebbles are smooth, vary in
magnitude, from the size of a pea to that of a man's hand, and are
mostly or entirely of chert, which approaches to calcedony, and, when
striped, to agate in its characters. Perhaps, much of the gravel which
covers the country is derived from the destruction of this conglomerate
rock.
SEA COAST.--LIMESTONE.
From Point Clifton to Cape Hearne, the whole coast consists of a
formation of limestone precisely similar to that which occurs on Lake
Winipeg and Parry's Peninsula.
Dolomite, the prevailing rock in this formation, is generally in thin
layers, and has a light smoke-gray colour, varying occasionally to
yellowish gray, and buff. Its structure is compact, with little lustre,
except from facets of disseminated calc-spar. It sometimes passes into
milk-white chert, which forms beds. In some places the dolomite
alternates with cellular limestone, which is generally much impregnated
with quartz, and has its cavities powdered with crystals of that
mineral. No organic remains were observed in the strata, but fragments,
evidently derived from some beds of the formation, contained
orthoceratites, like those of Lake Huron. The strata, though nearly
horizontal, appear to crop out towards the north and east, forming
precipices about ten feet high, facing in that direction, and running
like a wall across the country. In many places, however, and
particularly at Cape Krusenstern, the strata terminate in magnificent
cliffs upwards of two hundred feet high, the country in the interior
remaining level. Mount Barrow is a small hill of limestone, of a
remarkable form, being a natural fortification surrounded by a moat. The
coast line is indented by shallow bays, and skirted by rocks and
islands.
In the whole country occupied by this formation, the ground is covered
with slaty fragments, sometimes to the depth of three feet or more.
These slates appear to have been detached from the strata they cover, by
the freezing of the water, which insinuates itself betwixt their layers.
At Cape Bexley, the fragments of dolomite cover the ground to the
exclusion of all other soil; and in a walk of several miles, I did not
see the vestige of a vegetable, except a small green scum upon some
stones that formed the lining of a pond which had dried up. In this
neighbourhood there are a number of straight furrows a foot deep, as if
a plough had been drawn through the loose fragments. After many
conjectures as to the cause of this phenomenon, I ascertained that the
furrows had their origin in fissures of the strata lying underneath.
At the commencement of this formation between Point Tinney and Point
Clifton, the coast is low, and a stream of considerable magnitude, named
Croker River, together with many rivulets, flow into the sea. Its
termination to the southward of Cape Hearne is also marked by a low
coast line, which is bounded by the bold rocky hills of Cape Kendall.
FORMATION SIMILAR TO THAT AT CAPE LYON.
The beach between Cape Hearne and Cape Kendall is in some places
composed of slate-clay, and of a clay resembling wacke. Many large
boulders of greenstone occur there. Cape Kendall is a projecting rocky
point, about five or six hundred feet high, and nearly precipitous on
three sides, which are washed by the sea. On the north, its rocks
consist entirely of greenstone, but on the south side of the Cape the
greenstone in lofty columns reposes on thin-slaty beds of fine-grained,
bluish-gray limestone. Back's Inlet presents on each side a succession
of lofty precipitous headlands, which have the shape termed, by seamen,
"the gunner's quoin." Most of the islands and points near the mouth of
the Coppermine have this form, and are composed of trap rocks.
[Sidenote: 220] One of Cowper's islands on which we landed consists of
beds of greenstone cropping out like the steps of a stair.
A low ridge of greenstone exists at the mouth of the Coppermine river,
and from thence to Bloody-fall, a distance of ten miles, the country is
nearly level, with the exception of some low ridges of trap which run
through it. The channel of the river is sunk about one hundred and fifty
feet below the surrounding country, and is bounded by cliffs of
yellowish white sand, and sometimes of clay, from beneath which, beds of
greenstone occasionally crop out.
At Bloody-fall, a round-backed ridge of land, seven or eight hundred
feet high, crosses the country. It has a gentle ascent on the north, but
is steep towards the south. The river at the fall makes its way through
a narrow gap, whose nearly precipitous sides consist of tenacious clay,
the bed and immediate borders of the stream being formed of
greenstone.[45] From thence to the Copper Mountains, gently undulated
plains occur, intersected in various parts by precipitous ridges of trap
rocks, and the river flows in a narrow chasm, sunk about one hundred
feet below their level. A few miles above Bloody-fall, strata of light
gray clay-slate, dipping to the north-east, at an angle of 20 degrees,
support some greenstone cliffs on the banks of the river. [Sidenotes:
222, 223, 224] From this place to the Copper Mountains the rocks
observed in the ravines were a dark reddish-brown, felspathose
sandstone, and gray slate-clay, in horizontal strata, with greenstone
rising in ridges. The soil is sandy, and in many places clayey, with a
pretty close grassy sward. Straggling spruce trees begin to skirt the
banks of the river about eighteen or twenty miles from the sea.
COPPER MOUNTAINS.
The Copper Mountains rise perhaps eight or nine hundred feet above the
bed of the river, and at a distance, present a somewhat soft outline,
but on a nearer view they appear to be composed of ridges which have a
direction from W.N.W. to E.S.E. Many of the ridges have precipitous
sides, and their summits, which are uneven and stony, do not rise more
than two hundred, or two hundred and fifty feet above the vallies, which
are generally swampy and full of small lakes. The only rocks noticed
when we crossed these hills on the late journey, were clay-slate,
greenstone, and dark red sandstone, sometimes containing white
calcareous concretions, resembling an amygdaloidal rock. On our first
journey down the Coppermine River, we visited a valley where the Indians
had been accustomed to look for native copper, and we found there many
loose fragments of a trap rock, containing native copper, green
malachite, copper glance, and iron-shot copper green; also trap
containing greenish-gray prehnite with disseminated native copper,
which, in some specimens was crystallized in rhomboidal dodecahedrons.
Tabular fragments of prehnite, associated with calc-spar and native
copper, were also picked up, evidently portions of a vein, but we did
not discover the vein in its original repository. The trap-rock, whose
fragments strewed the valley, consists of felspar, deeply coloured by
hornblende. A few clumps of white spruce trees occur in the vallies of
the Copper Mountains, but the country is in general naked. The
Coppermine River makes a remarkable bend round the end of these hills.
After quitting the Copper Mountains, and passing a valley occupied by a
chain of small lakes in lat. 67 degrees 10 minutes, long. 116 degrees 45
minutes, we travelled over a formation whose prevailing rocks are
spotted sandstone and conglomerate, and which forms the _height of land_
betwixt Bear Lake and the Coppermine River. The ascent to this height
from the eastward is gradual, but the descent towards Bear Lake is more
rapid. The country is broken and hilly, though the height of the hills
above the sea is perhaps inferior to that of the Copper Mountains. The
vallies through which the small streams that water the country flow, are
narrow and deep, resembling ravines, and their sides are clayey. The
ground is strewed with gravel.
The _sandstone_ has very generally a purplish colour, with gray spots of
various magnitudes. It is fine grained, hard, has a somewhat vitreous
lustre and contains little or no disseminated mica.
The _conglomerate_ consists of oval pebbles of white quartz, sometimes
of very considerable magnitude, imbedded in an iron-shot cement. Many of
the pebbles appear as if they had been broken and firmly re-united
again. The conglomerate passes into a coarse sandstone.
Porphyry and granite form hills amongst the sandstone strata.
The _porphyry_ has a compact basis, like hornstone, of a dull brown
colour, which contains imbedded crystals of felspar and quartz, and
occasionally of augite. It forms some dome-shaped and short conical
hills.
The _granite_ is disposed in oblong ridges, with small mural precipices.
It has, generally, a flesh-red colour, and contains some specks of
augite, but little or no mica. The granite and porphyry were observed
only on the east side of the height of land, the brow of which, and its
whole western declivity, is formed of sandstone. Boulders of granite and
porphyry, precisely similar to the varieties which occur _in situ_ on
the height of land, are common on the beach at Fort Franklin, and on the
banks of the Mackenzie above Bear Lake.
To the westward of the height of land, the country on the banks of Dease
River is more level, and few rocks _in situ_ were seen, until within
five or six miles of Bear Lake, where the stream flows through a chasm,
whose sides are composed of a soft, fine-grained red sandstone, like
that which occurs in the vale of Dumfries, in Scotland. Several ravines
here have their sides composed of fine sand, inclosing fragments of soft
sandstone.
About three miles from the mouth of Dease River we came to a limestone
formation, which has been already noticed in the account of the
geological structure of the shores of Great Bear Lake.
EASTERN CHAIN OF PRIMITIVE ROCKS.
The preceding part of the paper describing the rock formations which
were noticed on the route of the expedition from Great Slave Lake down
the Mackenzie along the shores of the Arctic Sea, the Coppermine, Great
Bear Lake, and Great Bear River, being a distance of three thousand
miles, I shall, by way of supplement, mention very briefly some of the
more southern deposits.
The first I have to speak of is the chain of primitive rocks to which I
have alluded in page 289, as extending for a very great distance in a
north-west direction, and inclining in the northern parts slightly
towards the Rocky Mountain Chain. Dr. Bigsby, in his account of the
geology of Lake Huron says, that "The primitive rocks on the northern
shores of that lake are part of a vast chain, of which the southern
portion, extending probably uninterruptedly from the north and east of
Lake Winipeg, passes thence along the northern shores of Lakes Superior,
Huron, and Simcoe, and after forming the granitic barrier of the
Thousand Isles, at the outlet of Lake Ontario, spreads itself largely
throughout the state of New York, and there joins with the Alleghanies,
and their southern continuations." It is not my intention to say any
thing further of the rocks in the districts of which Dr. Bigsby speaks,
although in travelling from the United States to Lake Winipeg the
expedition passed over them. That zealous geologist has already given,
in various publications, many interesting and accurate details of the
formations on the borders of the great lakes; an account of those which
lie some degrees farther to the north is inserted in the second volume
of the Geological Transactions,--and there are some notices of them in
the Appendix to the narrative of Captain Franklin's First Journey. My
object at present is, merely to trace the western boundary of the
primitive rocks in their course through the more northerly parts of the
American continent.
I have already quoted Sir Alexander Mackenzie's original and important
remark, of the principal lakes in those quarters being interposed
betwixt the primitive rocks and the secondary strata, lying to the
westward of them--Lake Winipeg is an instance in point. It is a long,
narrow lake, and is bounded throughout on its east side by primitive
rocks, mostly granitic, whilst its more indented western shore is formed
of horizontal limestone strata. The western boundary of the primitive
rocks, extending on this lake about two hundred and eighty miles, has
nearly a north-north-west direction. From Norway Point, at the north end
of the lake, to Isle a la Crosse, a distance of four hundred and twenty
miles in a straight line, the boundary has a west-north-west direction.
For two hundred and forty miles from Isle a la Crosse to Athabasca Lake,
the course of the primitive rocks is unknown to me; but from Athabasca
Lake to M'Tavish's Bay, in Great Bear Lake, a distance of five hundred
miles, their western edge runs about north-west-by-west, and is marked
by the Slave River, a deep inlet on the north side of Great Slave Lake,
and a chain of rivers and lakes, (including great Marten Lake,) which
discharge themselves into that inlet.
Captain Franklin on his voyage crossed this primitive chain nearly at
right angles to its line of direction, in proceeding from Hudson's Bay
to Lake Winipeg--it was there two hundred and twenty miles wide.
The hills composing the chain are of small elevation, none of them
rising much above the surrounding country. They have mostly rounded
summits, and they do not form continuous ridges; but are detached from
each other, by vallies of various breadth, though generally narrow, and
very seldom level. The sides of the hills are steep, often precipitous.
When the vallies are of considerable extent, they are almost invariably
occupied by a lake, the proportion of water in this primitive district
being very great; from the top of the highest hill on the Hill River,
which has not a greater altitude than six hundred feet, thirty-six lakes
are said to be visible. The small elevation of the chain may be inferred
from an examination of the map, which shows that it is crossed by
several rivers, that rise in the Rocky Mountains, the most considerable
of which are the Churchill and the Saskatchewan, or Nelson River. These
great streams have, for many hundred miles from their origin, the
ordinary appearance of rivers, in being bounded by continuous parallel
banks; but on entering the primitive district, they present chains of
lake-like dilatations, which are full of islands, and have a very
irregular outline. Many of the numerous arms of these expansions wind
for miles through the neighbouring country, and the whole district bears
a striking resemblance, in the manner in which it is intersected by
water, to the coast of Norway and the adjoining part of Sweden. The
successive dilatations of the rivers have scarcely any current, but are
connected to each other by one or more straits, in which the
water-course is more or less obstructed by rocks, and the stream is very
turbulent and rapid. The most prevalent rock in the chain is gneiss; but
there is also granite and mica-slate, together with numerous beds of
amphibolic rocks.
LIMESTONE OF LAKE WINIPEG.
To the westward of the chain of primitive rocks, through a great part,
if not through the whole of its course, lies an extensive horizontal
deposit of limestone.
Dr. Bigsby, in the Geological Transactions, has described, in detail,
the limestone of Lake Huron, and is disposed to refer "the cavernous and
brecciated limestone of Michilimackinac to the magnesian breccia, which
is in England connected with the red marl;" whilst the limestones of St.
Joseph, and the northern isles, he considers as more resembling the
well-known formation of Dudley, in Staffordshire. The limestone of
Thessalon Isle, in which there occurs the remarkable species of
orthoceratite which he has figured, he describes as decidedly magnesian.
I observed this orthoceratite in the limestone strata of one of the
isles forming the passage of La Cloche in Lake Huron. The limestone
deposits of Lake Winipeg and Cape Parry exactly resemble that of La
Cloche in mineralogical characters, and in containing the same
orthoceratite which was also found by Captains Parry and Lyon at
Igloolik.
The colour of the limestone of Lake Winipeg is very generally
yellowish-white, passing into buff, on the one hand, and into ash-gray
on the other. A reddish tinge is also occasionally observed. Much of it
has a flat fracture, with little or no lustre, and a fine-grained
arenacious structure. A great portion of it, however, is compact, and
has a flat conchoidal and slightly splintery fracture. This variety
passes into a beautiful china-like chert. [Sidenote: 1001, 1014] Many of
the beds are full of long, narrow vesicular cavities, which are lined
sometimes with calc-spar, but more frequently with minute crystals of
quartz. The beds of this formation seldom exceed a foot in thickness,
and are often very thin and slaty. The arenacious and cherty varieties
frequently occur in the same bed; sometimes they form distinct beds. The
softer kinds weather readily into a white marl, which is used by the
residents to whitewash their houses. Wherever extensive surfaces of the
strata were exposed, as in the channels of rivers, they were observed to
be traversed by rents crossing each other at various angles. The larger
rents, which were sometimes two yards or more in width, were however,
generally parallel to each other for a considerable distance.
Professor Jameson enumerates _terebratulae_, _orthoceratites_,
_encrinites_, _caryophyllitae_, and _lingulae_, as the organic remains in
the specimens brought home by Captain Franklin on his first expedition.
Mr. Stokes and Mr. James De Carle Sowerby have examined those which we
procured on the last expedition, and found amongst them
_terebratulites_, _spirifers_, _maclurites_, and _corallines_. The
maclurites belonging to the same species, with specimens from Lakes Erie
and Huron, and also from Igloolik, are perhaps referrible to the
_Maclurea magna_ of Le Sueur. [Sidenote: 1015, 1019] Mr. Sowerby
determined a shell, occurring in great abundance in the strata at
Cumberland-house, about one hundred and twenty miles to the westward of
Lake Winipeg, to be the _Pentamerus Aylesfordii_.
The extent to the westward of the limestone deposit of Lake Winipeg is
not well known to me; but I have traced it as far up the Saskatchewan as
Carlton House, and its breadth there is at least two hundred and eighty
miles. For about one hundred miles below Carlton House, the river
Saskatchewan flows betwixt banks from one to two hundred feet in height,
consisting of clay or sand, and the beds of limestone are exposed in
very few places. The plains in the neighbourhood of Carlton abound in
small lakes, some of which are salt. The country which the Saskatchewan
waters for one hundred and ninety miles before it enters Lake Winipeg,
is of a different kind. It is still more flat than that about Carlton,
and is so little raised above the level of the river, that in the
spring-floods the whole is inundated, and in several places the river
sends off branches which reunite with it after a course of many miles.
In this quarter the soil is generally thin, and the limestone strata are
almost every where extensively exposed. To the southward of Cumberland
House, the Basquiau Hill has considerable elevation. I had not an
opportunity of visiting it; but in the flat limestone strata, near its
foot, there are salt springs, from which the Indians sometimes procure a
considerable quantity of salt by boiling; and there are several
sulphureous springs within the formation.
I observed no beds of conglomerate in it, and no sandstone associated
with it; but the extensive plains which lie betwixt Carlton House and
the Rocky Mountains are sandy, and beds of sandstone are said to be
visible in some of the ravines.
The line of contact of the limestone with the primitive rocks of Lake
Winipeg, is covered with water; but at the Dog's-Head, and near the
north end of Beaver Lake, they are exposed within less than a mile of
each other. To the southward of the Dog's-Head in Lake Winipeg, and in a
few other quarters, some schistose rocks, belonging to the transition
series, are interposed between the two formations.
Before quitting the formations of Lake Winipeg, I may remark, that the
height of that lake above the sea is perhaps equal to that of Lake
Superior, which is eight hundred feet.
LIMESTONE OF THE ELK AND SLAVE RIVERS.
The next formation I have to mention is one which appears to possess
most of the characters ascribed by German geologists to the zechstein.
It extends from the north side of the Methy carrying-place down the
Clearwater, Elk, and Slave Rivers, and along the south shore of Great
Slave Lake to the efflux of the Mackenzie. The line I have traced was
the route of the expedition, and is also very nearly that of the eastern
boundary of the limestone. Primitive rocks occur in Lake Mammawee,
Athabasca Lake, and on the Stony River; and on several parts of the
Slave River they are separated from the limestone only by the breadth of
the stream. On Great Slave Lake, the Stony Island, on the north-east
side of the mouth of Slave River, is composed of granite, whilst the
limestone strata are exposed at Fort Resolution on the south-west side.
[Sidenote: 1027, 1028] The limestone in this extensive tract is commonly
in thin and nearly horizontal beds, and much of it exactly resembles in
mineralogical characters the dolomite and chert of Lake Winipeg. It is
interstratified with thin beds of soft white marl; and in a few places
with a marly sandstone. Extensive beds of stinkstone also occur, and
many beds of limestone containing fluid bitumen in cavities. The bitumen
is in such quantity, in some quarters, as to flow in streams from
fissures in the rock; and in an extensive district, around Pierre au
Calumet on the Elk River, slaggy mineral pitch fills the crevices in the
soil, and may be collected in large quantities by digging a well.
A calcareous breccia also exists in various places, particularly on the
Slave River. Springs depositing from their waters sulphur, and sulphate
of lime, slightly mixed with sulphate of magnesia, muriate of soda, and
iron, are common and copious. A few miles to the westward of the Slave
River, there is a ridge of hills several miles long, and about two
hundred feet high, having several beds of compact, grayish gypsum
exposed on its sides. From the base of this hill there issue seven or
eight very copious, and many smaller springs, whose waters deposit a
great quantity of very fine muriate of soda by spontaneous evaporation.
The collected rivulets from these springs form a stream which is, at its
junction with the Slave River, sixty yards wide and eight or ten feet
deep.
[Sidenote: 1020 to 1026] The organic remains, in this deposit, according
a list kindly furnished by Mr. Sowerby, consist of _spirifers_,
[Sidenote: 1029 to 1032] one of which is the _spirifer acuta_; several
new _terebratulae_, of which one resembles the _T. resupinata_, a
_cirrus_, some crinoidal remains, and corals.
At the union of Clearwater and Elk Rivers, the limestone beds are
covered to the depth of one hundred and fifty feet with bituminous
shale.
I have stated, that on Slave River this limestone formation succeeds
immediately to primitive rocks, but I am not acquainted with the rocks
that lie to the eastward of it on the Elk River. The traders report that
there are extensive deposits of sandstone on the eastern arm of the
Athabasca Lake, and, perhaps, these sandstones extend nearly to
Clearwater River. Sand covers the limestone on that river to the depth
of eight or nine hundred feet, and the fragments of sandstone in it are
large, numerous, and not worn.
The quantity of gypsum in immediate connection with extremely copious
and rich salt springs, and the great abundance of petroleum in this
formation, together with the arenacious, soft, marly, and brecciated
beds interstratified with the dolomite, and above all, the circumstance
of the latter being by far the most common and extensive rock in the
deposit, led me to think that the limestone of the Elk and Slave Rivers
was equivalent to the zechstein of the continental geologists. My
opinion, however, on this subject is, from a total want of practical
acquaintance with the European rock formations, of little weight; and
several eminent geologists are, after an examination of the organic
remains and mineralogical characters of the specimens brought home,
inclined to consider the formation as analogous to the carboniferous or
mountain-limestone of England.
As to the limestone formation of Lake Winipeg, I have no doubt of its
identity with that occurring in the islands at the passage of La Cloche,
in Lake Huron, and also with that at Cape Parry and at Cape Krusenstern,
on the coast of the Arctic Sea. It is probable, also, that these four
deposits belong to the same epoch with the limestone of Elk and Slave
Rivers, although they differ in containing little or no petroleum. It is
proper to mention, however adverse it may be to the opinion I have
ventured to hint at above, of these extensive horizontal deposits of
limestone being referable to the zechstein, that the limestone of Lake
Huron is generally considered as belonging to the mountain-limestone;
and Professor Jameson, from a review of the organic remains occurring in
the Lake Winipeg deposit, considered that it also belonged to that
formation. The formation of Cape Lyon may be, with less danger of a
mistake, referred to the transition or mountain-limestone.
THE END.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[20] This was estimated by allowing one foot descent per mile for Bear
Lake River, whose length is seventy miles; and three inches per mile for
the descent of Mackenzie River, from the junction of the former river to
the sea, being a distance of five hundred miles.
[21] In our former journey, we sounded near the Rein-Deer Islands in
Slave Lake, with sixty-five fathoms line, without reaching the bottom.
[22] Section of the cliffs at Limestone Point--strata dipping to the
N.N.W.
[Illustration]
In the section the strata are represented much more inclined than they
really are.
231 Fine-grained, nearly compact, yellowish-gray dolomite, forming the
summit of the hill, but the first, or lowest stratum, in the language of
geologists.
232 Compact, splintery dolomite, with a conchoidal fracture, and
wax-yellow colour--second stratum.
233 A cherty dolomite; containing calc-spar--third stratum.
234 Bluish-gray dolomite, traversed by calc-spar--is nearly compact, and
has an uneven, splintery fracture--forms the uppermost portion of the
fourth stratum.
235 Talcose? limestone, having a curved slaty structure, and containing
cherty portions--from the lower part of the fourth stratum.
236, 237 Earthy greenstone? forms the fifth stratum.
238 Brownish-red dolomite, with an uneven fracture; scarcely splintery.
It has a compact structure, and is intersected by veins of
calc-spar--from the sixth stratum.
239 Light yellowish gray dolomite, passing into chert--seventh stratum.
240, 241 Thin slaty beds of brownish-red dolomite, like 238--eighth
stratum.
242 Bluish-white porcelain chert, sometimes mixed with red
dolomite--243--ninth stratum.
[23] _List of boulders gathered on the beach at Fort Franklin._
261 Coarse crystalline granite; felspar flesh-red in large crystals;
quartz gray; mica black.
262 Granite; felspar paler, and less distinctly crystallized; quartz in
small quantity, gray; mica blackish, and rather abundant.
263 Granite; felspar partly reddish, partly yellowish-white, quartz in
small grains; mica equalling the quartz in quantity, black.
264 Granite, fine-grained: quartz and felspar, white, the former nearly
transparent, black mica in small specks, garnets.
265, 268 Granite; quartz in regular crystals; mica blackish, in small
quantity.
266 Granite? red felspar in large crystals; quartz gray; mica replaced
by chlorite?
267 Granite; felspar gray; chlorite? in small quantity.
269 Granite, small grained, passing into gneiss; reddish-brown felspar
and gray quartz, intimately mixed, and having in the aggregate, a
vitreous lustre; mica in layers.
270 Granite coarser grained than the preceding, containing more quartz;
the mica disseminated.
271, 273 Granite with little mica, some portions of the felspar tinged
green.
272, 274, 275, 277, 278, 279, 280, Granite grayish and small grained
mica black.
276 Granite; brick-red felspar; quartz; and augite?--no mica.
The mica is mostly black in all the granite boulders that occur here,
the felspar most frequently reddish.
281 Porphyritic granite? felspar imperfectly crystallized, containing
large, imbedded crystals; quartz; and chlorite?
282 Granite? composed of felspar, of quartz, with, perhaps, a few minute
grains of chlorite?
283 Granite? contains little quartz, and a few scales of mica, with some
chlorite?
284 Sienite; felspar somewhat granular, a little quartz and chlorite?
285 Porphyritic sienite? having a basis of slightly granular felspar,
with light-coloured crystals of felspar, some quartz and disseminated
grains of chlorite?
286 Reddish-brown hornstone porphyry.
287 Crystalline greenstone.
288 Fine-grained greenstone.
289 Porphyritic greenstone.
290 Pitchstone porphyry.
291 Greenstone slate with pyrites.
292 Amygdaloidal claystone porphyry.
293 Compact grayish-blue dolomite.
294 Splintery dolomite.
295 Cellular dolomite.
296 Swinestone.
297 Limestone with corallines.
298 Chert.
299 White quartz.
300 Quartz-rock.
301 Coarse sandstone.
302 Fine-grained white sandstone.
303 Fine-grained red sandstone.
304 Fine-grained striped sandstone.
305 Fine-grained spotted sandstone.
306 Slaty sandstone verging towards slate-clay.
307 Dark-red claystone.
308 Light-coloured claystone.
[24] _List of Specimens from Diluvial Gravel, Fort Franklin._
1 Amphibolic granite, rather coarse crystalline, felspar flesh-red.
2 Ditto, approaching to gneiss.
3 Gneiss approaching to mica-slate, felspar white, and in small
quantity.
4 Greenstone with much felspar and minute disseminated pyrites.
5 Quartz rock? having brownish and imperfect crystals, and a reddish
disintegrated mineral disseminated.
6 Brownish-red and fine granular quartz-rock, with a somewhat splintery
fracture. It has the aspect of compact felspar.
7 Quartz rock, reddish crystalline texture, and vitreous lustre, but
with small rounded grains imbedded in it, bringing it near to sandstone.
8 Coarse sandstone; rounded grains of quartz united by a clayey basis.
9 Fine-grained purplish sandstone, with grayish spots. This sandstone
occurs _in situ_ near the Copper Mountains, between Dease Bay and the
Coppermine River.
10 Fine-grained yellowish-white sandstone.
11 Yellowish-gray sandstone, composed of small rounded grains of quartz
united by a powdery white basis.
12 Yellowish-gray sandstone, composed of fine grains of vitreous quartz.
13 Sandstone, having different shades of brownish-red colour, in layers.
14 Lydian stone.
[25] Mr. Sowerby, who inspected all the specimens containing organic
remains, says of this species of ammonite, "it is, as far as I can
discover, new. It contains sulphate of barytes, and is probably
referrible to some of the Oolites near the Oxford clay." Although it was
found lying on the beach, I have no doubt of its having fallen from some
of the beds of clayey sandstone, which form the walls of the rapid.
[26] 33 This limestone appears as if composed of an aggregate of small
crystals, and presents many drusy cavities.
34 Is an adjoining bed of a similar colour, of a fine crystalline
texture, but without the drusy cavities. It appears to be a dolomite.
These two beds dip to the northward.
35, 36 Calcareous breccia. The two preceding beds (33 and 34) were from
the summit of the portion of the hill which forms the cliff, but taken a
little farther to the N.W. In the cliff the beds dip, as has been
stated, to the S.W. The following beds occur in going to the
north-westward, towards the summit of the highest peak, commencing near
its base, in a valley behind the cliff.
37 A fine-grained blackish-gray dolomite, having interspersed many
nodules of chert, or grayish-white quartz, not crystallized.
38 A very compact, opaque limestone, of a smoke-gray colour, having a
flat and slightly splintery fracture. Effervesces briskly.
39 Blackish-gray rather compact limestone, having a flat and dull
fracture, and intersected by small veins of calc-spar. This is a
prevalent stone in the hill, and also occurs in quantity in other
limestone ridges in the neighbourhood.
40 An ash-gray, fine-granular dolomite.
41 A conglomerate, forming the summit of the highest peak.
[27] 57 This breccia has a white calcareous basis, which incloses
angular fragments of compact, yellowish-gray limestone, with smooth dull
surfaces.
58 Grayish-white limestone, having a fine crystalline texture, with
drusy cavities, incrusted with bitumen.
59 Limestone, apparently composed of crystalline fragments, highly
charged with bitumen, cemented by a whitish carbonate of lime in minute
crystals. I could not satisfy myself whether this variety of colour
proceeded from partial impregnations of bitumen, or from a brecciated
structure. Specimens 58 and 59 were from beds near the western part of
the hill.
60 A fine-grained dolomite, approaching to compact, having a flat and
somewhat splintery fracture, and a brownish-gray colour.
61, 62 Limestone in the body of the hill, resembling No. 39 in the hill
at the rapid in Bear Lake River, but with larger veins of calc-spar.
63, 64 Dark blackish-brown bituminous shale, veined with calc-spar, and
passing into bituminous marl-slate. It contains nodules of iron pyrites.
65 Thin bed of indurated shale, approaching to flinty-slate, lying at
the foot of some beds of bituminous limestone. Their connection not
clearly made out.
66, 67, 68 Bluish-gray, fine-grained sandstone, some of them passing
into slate-clay, and scarcely to be distinguished from those at the
rapid in Bear Lake River. Capt. Franklin took these specimens from
horizontal beds at the foot of the hill facing Bear Lake River.
[28] Sir Alexander Mackenzie, in p. 95 of his Voyage to the Arctic Sea,
states, that he saw several small mineral springs running from the foot
of this mountain, and found lumps of iron ore on the beach.
[29] Travels in the Arkansa, p. 52-54.
[30] Section I.
The section of the bank at the mouth of the Bear Lake River
is as follows, beginning with the lowest bed:--
81 Gravel, with thin layers of sand rising from the water's
edge in a perpendicular cliff, to the height of 30 feet
Lignite (70 to 80 and 84) 1
83 Potter's clay of a bluish gray colour, alternating
with layers of sand 40
A sloping uneven brow, covered with soil, extends
to the summit of the bank 20
----
91
Lydian stone is the most abundant, and whitish quartz the least so of
the pebbles mentioned in the text as entering into the composition of
the gravel.
[Sidenote: 82] A little farther up the Mackenzie, this bed of gravel
passes into sand, which, in some spots, has sufficient coherence to
merit for it the name of sandstone. During a great part even of the
summer season, all the beds of sand are frozen into a hard sandstone;
but a piece having been broken off and put into the pocket, speedily
thawed into sand.
[Sidenote: 83] Specimens of the clay, which I have denominated potter's
clay, taken from near the beds of lignite, have a colour intermediate
between yellowish-gray and clove-brown, a dull earthy fracture, and a
slightly greasy feel. It is not gritty under the knife, and acquires a
slightly shining smooth surface, adheres slightly to the tongue, and,
when moistened with water, assumes a darker colour, and becomes plastic.
Section II.
About five miles above Bear Lake River, the cliff consists
of Slaty sandstone evidently composed of the same materials
with the friable kinds described in the text, but having
tenacity enough to form a building stone. It incloses some
seams of lignite 10 feet
Lignite 4-1/2
Clay and Sand 50
Irregular slope from top of cliff to summit of bank 90
---------
154-1/2
Section III.
A little farther up the river than the preceding:--
85 Pipe-clay on a level with the water 1 foot
86 Lignite 1
90 Potter's clay 14 feet
87 Pipe-clay 1 foot
89 Lignite 1
91 Potter's clay 10 feet
Lignite 1 foot
Sandstone 8 feet
Lignite 2-1/2
Potter's clay 10
94 Friable sandstone and clay 20
Sandstone a little more durable 12
Sloping Summit 40
---------
121-1/2
The pipe-clay, when taken newly from the bed, is soft and plastic, has
little grittiness, and when chewed for a little time, a somewhat
unctuous but not unpleasant taste. When dried in the air it acquires the
hardness of chalk, adheres to the tongue, and has the appearance of the
whiter kinds of English pipe-clay, but is more meagre.
Section IV.
A little above the preceding:--
A precipitous bank of gravel 12 feet
Lignite and clay, the beds concealed by debris 40
Friable sandstone 30
----
Height of the cliff 82
Section V.
Ten miles above Bear Lake River, at the junction of a small torrent
with the Mackenzie, there is a cliff about forty feet high, in which
the strata have a dip of sixty degrees to the southward.
98 Bed, No. 1 Porcelain clay 2 yards
2 Potter's clay slightly bituminous
99 3 Thin-slaty lignite, with two seams of 2-1/2
100, 101 clay-iron stone, an inch thick
4 Pipe clay, (nine inches) 1/4
104 5 Porcelain clay 3
105 6 Bituminous clay 3
106 7 Lignite, with a conchoidal fracture 2
8 Pipe clay 1/4
107 9 Porcelain clay 3
10 Bituminous clay 3
110 11 Lignite, earthy paste, enclosing 2
fibrous fragments
12 Porcelain earth }
13 Bituminous clay } 9
14 Porcelain earth }
----------
31 yards.
The three last beds it is probable, once inclosed seams of coal which
have been consumed, but the quantity of debris prevented this from being
ascertained satisfactorily during the hurried visit I paid to them.
[Sidenote: 108] Over these inclined beds there is a shelving and
crumbling cliff of sand and clay covered by a sloping bank of vegetable
earth. A layer of peat at the summit has a thin slaty structure, and
presents altogether, except in colour and lustre, a striking resemblance
to the shaly lignite, forming bed No. 3 in the preceding Section.
104, 98. The substance composing beds Nos. 1 and 5, which I have
denominated Porcelain clay, has a fine, granular texture, and the
appearance of some varieties of chalk. It adheres slightly to the
tongue, yields readily to the nail, is meagre, and soils the fingers
slightly. There are many specks of coaly matter disseminated through it,
and some minute scales of mica, and perhaps of quartz. When moistened
with water, it becomes more friable, and is not plastic. It does not
effervesce with acids.
Bed No. 9 is the same mineral that forms beds 1 and 5; but it has a
grayer colour from the greater quantity of coaly particles, and its
structure is slightly slaty.
The bituminous clay of bed No. 6, has a thick-slaty structure, a
grayish-black colour, and a shining resinous streak. It is sectile, but
does not yield to the nail. Pieces of lignite occur imbedded in it, and
it is traversed by fibrous ramifications of carbonaceous matter.
Specimens 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, are of substances altered by contact
with beds of burning coal.
[31] See Page 50 of the Narrative.
[32] Noticed in page 267.
[33] List of specimens, collected by Captain Franklin, on the sea-coast,
to the westward of the Mackenzie.
_From Mount Fitton in the Richardson Chain._
344 Grauwacke-slate in columnar concretions, detached from the rocky
strata by an Esquimaux.
348 Grauwacke-slate, resembling the preceding, from the same place. Used
by the Esquimaux as a whetstone.
345, 346 Globular balls of dark, blackish-gray, splintery limestone, and
of flinty-slate, traversed by minute veins of calc-spar. Picked up at
the base of the mountain.
347 Worn pebbles of quartz, lydian stone, splintery limestone, and
grauwacke, from the same spot.
349 Fine-grained, mountain-green clay-slate, approaching to potstone;
quarried by the Esquimaux in the Cupola Mountain of the same chain, and
used to form utensils.
350 Rock-crystal from the same chain of mountains.
_From the beach between Point Sabine and Point King._
351 Brown-coal, woody structure scarcely perceptible. There are beds of
this coal in the earthy cliffs where the party was encamped on the 13th
and 14th July near Point King.
352 Clay-iron stone, forming boulders in the channels of the rills,
which cut the earthy banks containing coal.
353, 354 Pitch-coal, having a fibrous structure and a very beautiful
fracture, presenting a congeries of circles. (This coal was recognised
by Professor Buckland to be a tertiary pitch-coal, and is precisely
similar to specimens brought from the upper branches of the
Saskatchewan, by Mr. Drummond: see page 284.) The specimen was picked up
from the gravelly beach at the mouth of the Babbage River.
355 Greenish-gray limestone, with a somewhat earthy granular aspect;
containing shells which Mr. Sowerby considers to be very like the
_cyclas medius_ of the Sussex weald-clay. Picked up at the same place
with the preceding specimen.
Captain Franklin remarks, that "the Babbage flows between the mountains
of the Richardson Chain, and that there were no solid strata nor any
large boulders near its mouth. The gravel consisted of pebbles of red
and white sandstone, slaty limestone, greenstone, and porphyry, much
worn by attrition."
_From Mount Conybeare, in the Buckland Chain._
356 Greenish-gray grauwacke slate, (resembling No. 348,) with specks of
effervescent carbonate of lime. The surfaces of the slates exhibit
interspersed scales of mica. The specimens were broken from the summit
of Mount Conybeare, at the western extreme of the Buckland Chain:
latitude 69 degrees 27 minutes, longitude 139 degrees 53 minutes west.
358 Fine-grained grauwacke-slate in columnar concretions, from the same
place with specimen 356.
357 Grauwacke-slate, in thick slaty columnar concretions, besprinkled
with scales of mica. Taken from a bed about the middle of Mount
Conybeare. The resemblance of this stone to that of Mount Fitton (No.
344) is very remarkable.
360 Similar rock to 358, with an adhering portion of a vein of
crystallized quartz, and on one side a bit of bluish-gray slate. From
the middle of Mount Conybeare.
359 Columnar concretion of a slaty rock, like 356, but more quartzose,
breaking into rhomboidal fragments. From the middle of Mount Conybeare.
361, 362 Grauwacke-slate, with a thin adhering vein of carbonate of lime
and numerous particles of disseminated mica. From the middle of Mount
Conybeare.
363 Bluish-gray grauwacke-slate, resembling Nos. 348 and 344. From the
Upper Terrace, at the base of Mount Conybeare.
364 Dark-bluish gray and very fine-grained grauwacke-slate, with a
glimmering lustre, traversed by a vein of quartz. From the same place.
365 A thick-slaty angular concretion of a very quartzose
grauwacke-slate, (similar to Nos. 348 and 358,) decomposed on the
surface and breaking into rhomboidal fragments. From the middle Terrace
at the base of Mount Conybeare.
366 A somewhat rhomboidal portion of flinty-slate, apparently part of a
bed. From the Lower Terrace of Mount Conybeare, which is composed of
this rock. The terrace is ten miles distant from the sea-coast, and the
intervening ground is swampy.
The whole series of specimens from Mount Conybeare, (Nos. 356 to 366,)
appear to belong to transition rocks; and the continuity of the
formation with that of Mount Fitton is rendered probable, both by the
resemblance of the specimens and the geographical situation of the
mountains.
Captain Franklin saw no rocks, _in situ_, on the coast to the westward
of the Richardson Chain; but he gathered boulders of the following rocks
from the bed of the Net-setting Rivulet, which flows from the British
Chain of the Rocky Mountains, and falls into the Arctic Sea, between Sir
P. Malcolm River and Backhouse River.
367 Greenstone; 368, yellowish-gray sandstone; 369, dark-coloured
splintery-limestone; 370, 371, 372, dolomite; 373, quartzose sandstone,
like the old red sandstone; 374, grauwacke-slate; 375, quartz and iron
pyrites.
Boulders of the under-mentioned rocks were gathered on Flaxman Island.
378 Fine-grained, greenish clay-slate, obviously of primitive rock,
abundant in the neighbourhood, and supposed to have been brought down by
the rivulets which flow from the Romanzoff Chain. 379, quartz.
376 and 377 were from Foggy Island, and are rolled specimens of
flinty-slate; one of them containing corallines.
[34] Page 268.
[35] 134. These specimens have a wood-brown colour internally, and
appear to be composed of minute grains of quartz, variously coloured,
white, yellowish-brown and black, cemented together by an earthy basis.
It is a hard and apparently durable stone, occurring in layers an inch
thick, and having its seam-surfaces of a grayish-black colour, with
little lustre, as if from a thin coating of bituminous clay.
135, are specimens of a more compact, harder, and finer-grained
quartzose sandstone, with less cement, and of a deeper bluish-gray
colour.
[36] Mackenzie attempted to ascend this hill, but was compelled to
desist by clouds of musquitoes, (July 6th, 1789. _Voyage to the Arctic
Sea_, p. 40.)
136 This limestone effervesces strongly with acids, breaks into
irregular fragments, but with an imperfect slaty structure, and has a
brown colour, with considerable lustre in the cross fracture.
The specimens collected by Captain Franklin were as follows:--
144a Sandstone of an ash-gray colour, composed of rounded grains of
semi-transparent quartz of various sizes, imbedded in a considerable
proportion of a powdery basis which effervesces with acids. This bed
weathers readily.
145 Thick-slaty sandstone passing into slate-clay, having a very
fine-grained earthy fracture, and a light bluish-gray colour. It is very
similar to some of the softer sandstones that occur in the coal field at
Edinburgh, particularly in the Calton Hill.
146 Sectile ash-gray slate-clay which forms the partings of the beds.
144b Bluish-gray marl, impregnated with quartz, forming a moderately
hard stone, and containing corallines (_amplexus_.)
[37] _Upper part of the ramparts._
148 A fine-granular, foliated limestone, of a white colour, having large
patches stained yellowish-brown, apparently by bitumen.
149 A yellowish-gray slightly granular limestone, with disseminated
calc-spar.
150 Compact, white limestone, which, when examined with a lens, appears
to be entirely composed of madrepores.
151 Specimens of limestone, having a crystalline texture, a brownish
colour and slaty structure.
152 The seams are dark, as if from the carbonaceous matter--portions of
this bed have the appearance of old mortar; but contain obscure
madrepores.
_From the middle of the ramparts._
153 Fine-granular limestone, having a pale, wood-brown colour, and a
splintery fracture. It resembles the limestone of the hill at the mouth
of Bear Lake River.
154 Pale yellowish-brown limestone, with a dull fracture, but
interspersed with small, shining, sparry plates, and traversed by
concretions of calc-spar, that appear to have originated in corallines.
155 Yellowish-gray limestone, passing into a soft marl slate.
156 Some beds contain a shell, which Mr. Sowerby refers, though with
doubt, to the species named terebratula sphaeroidalis, a fossil of the
cornbrash. The substance of the shells is preserved.
Some of the specimens contain _producti_, and fragments of the coral
named _amplexus_.
_Lower end of the ramparts._
157 Fine-grained limestone, of a dark-brown colour, containing some
small, round, smooth balls of dark limestone--occurs in horizontal
strata.
158 Brownish-black flinty-slate, which forms a layer an inch thick, and
covers the horizontal beds of limestone last mentioned. (157.)
[38] _Specimens from the cliffs in lat. 66-3/4 degrees._
159 Very fine-grained sandstone, with much clayey basis--portions of the
bed iron-shot.
160 Sandstone fine-grained, and appearing, when examined with a lens, to
be composed of minute grains of whitish translucent quartz, black Lydian
stone, and ochre-coloured grains, probably of disintegrated felspar.
161 Rounded grains of nearly transparent quartz united without
cement--this stone is friable.
162 Sandstone composed of grains like the preceding, united by a basis,
and forming a firmer stone.
163 Hard, thin, slaty, bluish-gray sandstone, much iron-shot.
164 Fine-grained, bluish-gray sandstone, not to be distinguished in
hand-specimens from some of the sandstones which occur at the rapid in
Bear Lake River.
[39] _Horizontal limestone beds lying under the sandstone._
166 Fine-grained limestone, with an earthy fracture, coloured brown and
grayish-white in patches.
167, 168 Similar stone to preceding, containing many shells. Some beds
contain only broken shells.
169 Bed of imperfectly crystalline limestone, of a brownish-gray colour,
traversed by veins of calc-spar.
170 Fragments containing madrepores and chain coral--occur amongst the
debris of the limestone cliffs.
[40] _Sandstone cliffs twenty miles below Fort Good Hope._
173 Friable sandstone, composed of grayish-white quartz, in smooth,
rounded grains, cemented by a brownish basis. Some carbonaceous matter
is interspersed through the stone, and it contains small fragments of
bituminous shale.
174 Calcareous sandstone passing into slate-clay--bluish-gray colour.
175 Black, flinty-slate, with a flat conchoidal cross fracture. Some of
the pieces appear to be rhomboidal distinct concretions.
176 Dull, flinty-slate, with an even fracture.
178 Thin-slaty blackish-gray sandstone, much indurated, containing
scales of mica.
179, 180 Bluish-gray sandstone, containing many minute specks of
carbonaceous matter; also, in patches, grains of chert, and
flinty-slate, and imbedded pieces of iron-shot clay, which has obscure
casts of shells. Scales of mica are interspersed through this stone.
181, 182 Sandstone containing specks of bituminous? coal, and casts of
some vegetable? substance.
183 Gray limestone, much impregnated with quartz, and having an
imperfect crystalline structure.
[41] Mackenzie notices the precipices of "gray stone," which bound the
river here, p. 71.
[42] See page 288.
[43] Specimens from Sellwood Bay.
202 Fine-grained dark brownish-gray dolomite, with corallines filled
with white calc-spar.
203 Lucullite grayish-black, compact, and without lustre.
204 Gray dolomite.
205 A rolled piece, evidently of the same rock with the preceding,
containing the impression of a _cardium_.
206
[44] Specimens from the Promontory of Cape Parry, which rises into a
hill, seven hundred feet high. Strata dipping lightly to the northward.
207 Yellowish-gray dolomite, imperfectly crystalline, being similar to
the limestone of Lake Winipeg.
208 Brownish dolomite impregnated with silica.
209 Thin-slaty, gray limestone. Very common also in Lake Winipeg.
210, 211 Boulders of dolomite.
212
213 Brown dolomite, with drusy cavities and veins, lined by calc-spar.
[45] In the geological notices appended to the narrative of Captain
Franklin's Journey to the Coppermine, I have termed this rock a dark
purplish-red felspar rock. On examining it again on this journey, I
perceived it to be a greenstone, whose surfaces weather of a rusty brown
colour.
Transcriber's Notes:
The original makes extensive use of sidenotes, and several sidenotes
are often associated with a single paragraph, especially within the
final chapter. Because of this, inline sidenotes have been used and
are positioned as close to the relevant passage as was possible during
proofing.
Old spellings are retained, e.g. musquitoes, felspar, Esquimaux,
kaiyacks, imbedded, incloses, inclosing, inquiry, inquiries, moveable,
incrusted, trowsers, bivouack, referrible, teazing. Both vallies and
valleys are used interchangably and this has not altered. Names with
suffixes "Mc" or "Mac" written as "M'" throughout text; this convention
is retained. Only printer's errors have been corrected.
"A.M." and "P.M." are shown without an internal space--spaces have been
removed where they were present in manuscript. Usage was inconsistent,
perhaps to better justify text. Internal spaces have also been removed
from initials such as R.N., F.R.S., K.G., &c., to improve rewrap
behaviour. Decimal points were locally denoted by commas. This
convention is replaced by standard decimal point notation throughout.
Degree, minute and second have been spelled out, replacing symbols in
the original.
Lengthy quotations were denoted by a leading quotation mark in the first
column of each line. They are replaced with standard opening and closing
quotation marks for each quoted passage.
Italic text is surrounded by _underscores_. Greek letters are only used
in a single paragraph concerning astronomy on page 244 and have been
written as their English names. Small caps have been rendered as upper
case. The oe ligature symbol in the original is represented by oe in
this text.
"Dog-Rib" Indians were sometimes referred to as "Dog-rib". Usage is now
"Dog-Rib" throughout.
Specific corrections made to text follow. Note that examples are given
after a colon and are the corrected text. All other printer's errors
remain.
Page Comment
----------------------------------------------------------------------
14,51,79 "water-proof" changed to "waterproof".
16 "depot" changed to "depot".
17 "Hudsons's Bay Company" corrected to "Hudson's Bay Company".
"bat-/teau" corrected to "bateau" to be consistent with rest
of text. Typo was across end of line hyphen.
24 "Hudson's Bay-Company" corrected to "Hudson's Bay Company".
25 "was dragged by other eight men" corrected to "was dragged by
another eight men".
26 "Riviere" corrected to "Riviere".
"Hudson" corrected to "Hudson's".
27 "or" corrected to "on": "live on dried provision".
28 "depend" corrected to "depends".
29 "chace" corrected to "chase". Whilst both forms are acceptable
for the time, both were used in the book. The change makes
everything consistent. See also page 65.
"of" inserted: "under the roof of our hospitable friend".
30 "Winnipeg" corrected to "Winipeg" to be consistent with rest
of manuscript.
32,51 "northwest" corrected to "north-west" for consistency.
34 "eastermost" corrected to "easternmost".
39,53,65,96,202 "day-light" changed to daylight".
42 "sandbanks" changed to "sand-banks" for consistency with rest
of manuscript.
48,51 "rein deer" corrected to "rein-deer" twice on this page to
be consistent with rest of manuscript.
52,299 "lydianstone" corrected to "lydian-stone".
49 "Rocky mountains" capitalised to "Rocky Mountains".
52 "occurence" corrected to "occurrence".
53 "chissel" changed to "chisel": "ice-chisel".
Inserted comma after "ice-chisel" to correct list punctuation.
54 "Cannon-shot" changed to "Cannon-Shot" for consistency in
place name "Cannon-Shot Reach".
56 "where-ever" across end of line changed to "wherever" twice on
this page.
62 "skreening" amended to "screening": "screening us from the
snow".
65 "bag-pipes" to "bagpipes".
"chace" corrected to "chase".
70 "Chepewyan" corrected to "Chipewyan".
"invariable" corrected to "invariably": "the needle almost
invariably remained stationary".
77 "temperature in the shade +8 degrees 5 minutes": odd use of
minutes noted. It is not immediately obvious what is
intended.
80 "dimunition" corrected to "diminution".
83 "canvass" corrected to "canvas": "waterproof canvas".
88 "aud" corrected to "and": "iron-work, knives, and beads".
92 "northeast" changed to "north-east".
94 "Francois" changed to "Francois".
"westermost" changed to "westernmost".
95 "36' N" changed to "36' N.".
101 "mall" corrected to "small": "so small a number".
109 "mases" to "masses": "the larger masses".
111 "Copper-mine" to "Coppermine": "the Coppermine River".
"tatoed" to "tattoed": "men being tattoed".
112,119,130,132,172,173,190 "oomiacks" changed to "oomiaks".
115 "Rocky mountains" capitalised to "Rocky Mountains".
117 "liittle" to "little": "our little friend".
122 "seperated" corrected to "separated".
124 "ancle" amended to "ankle".
126 "Dip" made lower-case "dip" since mid-sentence.
129 "British chain" changed to "British Chain" for consistency.
132 "visiters" corrected to "visitors".
"oomiack" corrected to "oomiak".
132,148,152,190 "oomiack" corrected to "oomiak".
146 "ice chissel" changed to "ice-chisel".
147 "and the main, that when" changed to "and the main than when"
to correct typos.
148 "Humphreys" changed to "Humphrys" to be consistent.
156 "Capitalised start of sentence: "be killed? You are active".
Added closing quotation marks after "depart instantly".
157 "hair skins" changed to "hare skins" since "their dress
consisting principally of hare skins" is noted on page 247.
160 Degree symbol used instead of minute symbol. Correct form:
"latitude 69 deg 34 min & 69 deg 44 min N."
163 Comma changed to full-stop since it occurs at end of sentence:
"white spruce trees. Our voyage amongst these".
166 "Richard's" changed to "Richards'" since the governor was John
Baker Richards.
"island" changed to "Island": "Richards' Island".
167 Comma changed to full-stop since it occurs at end of sentence:
"intimidation and extortion. When the interview".
"kaiyaks" changed to "kaiyacks".
173 "harassing" changed to "harrassing".
174 It is unclear whether these Eskimo words were meant to have oe
or ae. The printer seems to have used the oe ligature
indifferently for ae, as sometimes happened at this period.
Cf. sertulariae p. 179 etc. And the only such word in
non-italic has ae: Narrakazzae p. 266. At any rate, later
writers certainly seem to have read them all as oe.
"peechaw-ooloo" has a macron (overscore) diacritical mark on
its final letter; this has been omitted.
177 "ice-bergs" changed to "icebergs".
180 "Wednesday 12th" changed to "Wednesday, 12th" to be consistent
with other sidenotes.
184 "grounded-ice" amended to "grounded ice".
185 "K'Kinley" corrected to "M'Kinley": "Captain George M'Kinley".
189 "sine" changed to "side".
190 "ecstacy" changed to "ecstasy".
"their wide boots" changed to "their wide hoods", cf. pp. 44,
110.
195 "head-land" changed to "headland".
199 "preservance" corrected to "perseverance".
"from" changed to "form": "those which form its western".
200 "short-voyage" changed to "short voyage".
Comma changed to full-stop since it occurs at end of sentence:
"south-east direction. We landed a little to the eastward".
202 "head-lands" changed to "headlands".
"day-light" changed to daylight".
204 "closenes" corrected to "closeness".
207 "lime-stone" corrected to "limestone".
208 "deers-meat" corrected to "deer-meat".
211 "semed" corrected to "seemed": "seemed to contain".
214 "lime-stone" corrected to "limestone".
225 "several of of them" changed to "several of them". Word was
repeated across end of line.
"dimunition" corrected to "diminution": "suffered some
diminution".
226 Comma changed to full-stop since it occurs at end of sentence:
"on their route to Bear Lake. The ridges of hill".
227 "ecstacy" corrected to "ecstasy".
230 "68" changed to "66": 3 days ago they were at 67 deg. 10', heading
SW; the northernmost point of Great Bear Lake is at about
67 deg..
232 "Thursday 24th" changed to "Thursday, 24th" to be consistent with
other sidenotes.
"I I therefore embarked" changed to "I therefore embarked";
repeat was across line break.
237 "Krusensten" changed to "Krusenstern" since the latter is used
in the rest of the text.
240 "indvalids" corrected to "invalids".
244 "extrordinary" corrected to "extraordinary"
"Corona" corrected to "Coronae".
245 "+30.5 degrees." changed to "+30.5 degrees,".
246 "re-appearance" corrected to "reappearance".
257 "house changed to "House".
261 "depots" changed to "depots".
268 "sulphat" corrected to "sulphate": "crystals of sulphate of
iron".
271 "moses" corrected to "mosses": "is covered a foot deep, or
more, by mosses".
274 "off" corrected to "of": "at the bottom of the cliff".
278 "sandsone" corrected to "sandstone".
279 "sand-stones" corrected to "sandstones".
"oscasionally" corrected to "occasionally".
280 "clay-stone" to "claystone".
283 "long;" changed to "long.;".
284 "formation" corrected to "formations": "similar formations
which occupy".
285 "limetone" corrected to "limestone".
290 "swells gently into a hill several feet high"; should this be
"several hundred feet high"?
"Horn Mountain" changed to "Horn Mountains".
"sienities" changed to "sienites".
293 "in some, reaches" changed to "in some reaches,".
Footnote 36: "very-fine grained" changed to "very fine-grained.
295 "specifind" corrected to "specified".
"sphoeroidalis" corrected to "sphaeroidalis".
"corbrash" corrected to "cornbrash".
296 Removed spurious opening quotation mark before "ramparts",
thereby balancing quotation marks.
297 "terrebratula" corrected to "terebratula".
303 "coasted" changed to "coated".
308 "othoceratites" changed to "orthoceratites".
318 "Sowbery" changed to "Sowerby".