R. G. McConnell's Liard River Journal 1887

10/21/2004 1:48 PM Transcriptions of R. G. McConnell?s Liard River report from digital photographs from the Yukon Archives, Whitehorse. GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF CANADA ALFRED R. C. SELWYN, C. M. G., LL. D., F. R. S., DIRECTOR REPORT ON AN EXPLORATION IN THE YUKON AND MACKENZIE BASINS BY R. G. McCONNELL, B. A. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHORITY OF PARLIAMENT. MONTREAL: WILLIAM FOSTER BROWN & CO. 1891.

Note.- The bearings throughtout this report are given with reference to the true meridian. The invertebrate fossils have been determined by Mr. J. F. Whiteaves (for description of the new species see Contributions to Canadian Paleontology, vol. 1, part iii), the fossil plants by Sir William Dawson, and the recent plants by Professor Macoun. The name Pelly-Yukon, as a compromise between the old name and the new, is used in the report to designate the continuation of the Yukon River above Fort Yukon to the junction of the Lewes and Pelly.

A. R. C. SELWIN, C. M. G., LL. D., F. R. S. Deputy Head and Director Geological Survey Department. SIR,--I beg present herewith a report on an exploration in the Mackenzie and Yukon country, carried out during the seasons of 1887-88, in connection with the Yukon exploring expedition. Only one season's work was at first contemplated, and no provision was made before starting for wintering in the north and continuing the work for a second summer, and for the means of doing so, I am indebted to the kindness of the Hudson's Bay Company. Mr. Camsell, Chief Factor of the Mackenzie River District, afforded me every assistance in his power, and my thanks are also due to Mr. Reid, of Fort Providence, with whom I passed the winter; to Mr. Hodgson, of Fort Macpherson, and to all the officers of the company with whom I came in contact. I have to thank the Rt. Rev. Bishop Bompas, the Ven. Archdeacon McDonald and the Rev. Mr. Canahan, of the Church Missionary Society, for ready assistance and advice. It may be mentioned here that the late date at which this report is issued is due to a delay in the drafting of the accompanying index and route maps, caused by the pressure of other work. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your Obedient Servant, R. G. McConnell. Geological Survey Office, May 9th, 1891.

REPORT ON AN EXPLORATION IN THE YUKON AND MACKENZIE BASINS, N. W. T. BY R. G. McCONNELL, B. A. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS The work on which the following report is based, was carried out under the direction of Dr. G. M. Dawson in connection with the Yukon Exploring Expedition,* and occupied parts of the seasons of 1887-88. I separated from the main party on the 25th of June, 1887, at the junction of the Dease and Liard Rivers, with instructions to descend the Liard and make a geological examination of the valley, and with discretionary orders, when this was accomplished, either to winter in the country and continue the exploration the following summer, or to make my way out by Slave River and the Athabasca and return to Ottawa the same season. Both of these plans proved feasible, but as I was able to make satisfactory arrangements with the Hudson's Bay Company to stay at Fort Providence, one of their posts on the McKenzie, I decided to adopt the first mentioned. I arrived at Fort Simpson on the 5th of August, and as there was still time to carry on considerable work before the setting in of winter, I took passage on board the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer Wrigley for Fort Smith, on the Slave River, and embarking there in a bark canoe with a couple of Indians the remainder of the season was spent on Slave River, Salt River, and Hay River, and in coasting around part of the western end of Great Slave Lake. About the 1st of October I returned to Fort Providence and went into winter quarters. ------------------------------------------- *Annual Report Geological Survey of Canada, Vol. III.

6D GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF CANADA Exploratory work was necessarily suspended during the greater part of the winter, but rough traverses were made at intervals to Lake Bis-tsho, Fort Rae, and other places in the vicinity of Fort Providence, and while staying at the post meteorological observations were recorded twice a day. I left Fort Providence on the 1st of May, 1888, traveling on the ice with dogs, and reached Fort Simpson, at the mouth of the Liard, on the 6th, where I remained until the river became sufficiently free from ice to allow traveling by boat. The river broke up on the 13th of May, but continued full of floating drift ice all the month. On the 28th of May, having had a boat built at Fort Simpson in the meantime, I left that post, accompanied by two Indians and spent about a month descending and examining the valley of the Mackenzie as far as the mouth of the Peel, and in ascending the latter river to Fort McPherson. Here a delay of a few days, caused by the non-arrival at the expected time of the Mackenzie River boat, on which I depended for some supplies, enabled me to make a short exploratory trip up the Rat River to the mountains. On the 12th of July, the Mackenzie boat not having then arrived, and it being uncertain how much longer it would be delayed, I decided to risk obtaining supplies at Rampart House on the Porcupine, rather than waste any more of the short summer season, and started across the Rocky Mountains by what is called the Peel River Portage. Lapierre House on the western side of the mountains, was reached on the 15th, and having meanwhile had by boat taken across the mountains by some Indians (who followed a route to the north of mine), I immediately started down the Porcupine, accompanied by an ex-employe of the Hudson's Bay Company named Skee, whom I engaged to go to the coast with me and who proved to be a capable voyageur. We made the descent of the Porcupine in safety and reached the site of old Fort Yukon, at the mouth, on the 24th. From this point the coast and communication can be reached either by descending the Yukon to St. Michael's, or ascending it to the head of the Lewes, about 850 miles, and crossing the Coast Range by the Chilkoot Pass. The former is by far the easier route, as the lower part of the Yukon presents no obstacles to navigation, but as it lay altogether beyond Canadian territory it was decided, if possible, to try and ascend the stream. A second boatman, in the person of a Loucheux Indian, was engaged. No boat was available except the one in which we had descended the Porcupine and which was thoroughly unsuitable for upstream navigation, but in this, by the greatest exertion, we managed to breast slowly the impetuous current of the river and arrived at Forty Mile Creek after a laborious trip of fifteen days. At

P 7D this place, which is the headquarters of the miners on the Yukon, a suitable boat was built and the ascent of the upper part of the river was made with less difficulty. We left Forty Mile Creek on the 14th of August and arrived at Chilkoot Pass on the 15th of September, Juneau on the 21st, and Victoria on the 1st of October. The total distance travelled from the time I left the coast at Fort Wrangell until I reached it again at the head of Lynn Canal was about 4,000 miles, 3,000 miles by water and 1,000 on foot, and the time occupied in actual work was about seven months. Among the more important geographical results of the exploration may be mentioned the traverses of the Liard from Dease River to the Mackenzie, of the lower part of the Hay River, of the Rocky Mountains by the Peel River Portage, and of the Bell River and the Porcupine, from Lapierre House to Fort Yukon. A sketch traverse of the Mackenzie, from Fort Simpson to the mouth of the Peel, was also made, but as this portion was afterward measured with the micrometer by Mr. Ogilvie, I have adopted his survey in the accompanying map, but have used my own notes to sketch in the topography of the adjoining country. Another result of the exploration of some interest to the geographer is the discovery of a great break in the continuity of the Rocky Mountains in about lat. 60 N. The range here is suddenly jogged eastward for a couple of degrees and is then continued northward along nearly the same bearing as before. The geological examination of the routes traversed was necessarily conducted in a somewhat hasty manner and can make little pretension to completeness. Detailed observations are obviously out of the reach of a traveller hurrying along at the rate of twenty to thirty miles a day through a country more or less complicated, and especially when in addition to the ordinary surveying and geological work the duties of pilot and head boatman also fall to his share. Fortunately, in the present case, the effects of haste were compensated to some extent by a familiarity with most of the terranes met with, acquired by several years experience among similar rocks to the south. Also, at the more important points and at the contacts of the different formations short halts were called and more extended examinations made. In this manner it proved possible to obtain at least a general knowledge of the geology of the routes traversed, and to outline approximately the linits of the greater geological divisions. Such notes were collected on the fauna and flora of the country travelled through, and which seem worthy of publication, are, in order to avoid repetition, incorporated in the general description, along with the topographical and geologicalk details. This course,

8D though leading to some confusion can hardly be avoided in an account of a hasty general exploration, such as the one treated of. The meteorological notes are given in the form of an appendix at the end. PRINCIPAL PHYSICAL FEATURES The region travelled through and partially examined embraces the extreme north-western portion of the Dominion of Canada, and has a length from north to south of 650 miles, a width from east to west of 350 miles, and an approximate superficial area of 227,000 square miles. The whole of this great district lies on the arctic slope of the continent, and is included in the drainage basins of the Mackenzie and the Yukon. It is traversed, in a direction a little north of west, throughout its whole length by the Rocky Mountain chain, which constitutes the main water parting in the district. The Rocky Mountains enter the district on the south between long. 126° W. and 126°30' W., as an assemblage of nearly parallel limestone ridges, striking in a north-westerly direction, and rising to altitudes of 3,000 to 4,000 feet, but diminish rapidly both in height and width before reaching the Liard, in lat. 59°30' N., and appear to die away in this latitude shortly after crossing this stream. Two degrees farther east ranges of limestone mountains rise suddenly from the plains up to heights of 3,000 to 4,000 feet, and striking in a northerly direction, extend without any interruption, so far as known, to lat. 67°30' N. and beyond. In the south-western part of the district, the country lying between the Cassiar Mountains and the Rocky Mountains, and drained by the Liard and its tributaries, may be described as an irregular, forested plain, relieved at intervals by short disconnected ranges of rounded lines of rounded hills which appear to become more numerous as the Rocky Mountains are approached. Its surface irregularities and rounded lines of relief are evidently the result of long-continued denudation. This plain slopes gently to the south-east, and has an average elevation of about 1,000 to 1,500 feet higher. The northern extension of the plain is unknown. To the south it is closed by ranges of mountains. In the south-eastern part of the district the Rocky Mountains are bordered by a foot-hill belt about thirty miles wide, which is characterised, here as elsewhere, by long, nearly paralled ridges, often crested with tilted sandstone beds, but also contains some high peaks little inferior in elevation to those of the central range. Of these Mount Prudence, which is situated a few miles south of the Devil's Portage

MCCONNELL.] PRINCIPAL PHYSICAL FEATURES. 9D on the Liard, forms the most conspicuous example, and was estimated to have a height of nearly 4,000 feet above the river. The foot-hill belt is fringed in the latitude of the Liard by a high plateau built of flat-lying Cretaceous beds, through which the river has cut a great gorge, which in some places is fully 1,000 feet deep. The surface of this plateau has been carved by the drainage system into a series of irregular flat-topped elevations. East of the fringe of high plateaus the plains in the neighborhood of the Liard slope uniformly eastwards towards the Mackenzie, while farther to the south-east, along the Lake Bis-tcho trail, they descend to the same level by a series of steps and escarpments. East of the Mackenzie a flat plain stretches eastwards for thirty miles to the base of a steep escarpment called the Horn Mountains. This was not examined, but is reported to be merely the westerly face of a higher plateau running parallel with the Mackenzie,. It corresponds in a general way to those west of the river, but faces in the opposite direction. The whole of the country bordering the Mackenzie in this latitude, on both the lower and higher levels, so far as examined, is thickly mantled with drift. The surface is usually more or less undulating, and is diversified by innumerable shallow lakes of all sizes, while a large proportion is underlaid by muskegs and marshes, covered with sphagnum or bog-moss, which remains frozen throughout the year. The higher lands and ridges separating the lakes and marshes are usually rather densely forested, chiefly with white spruce (Picea alba), the Banksian pine (Pinus Banksiana) and the aspen (Populus tremuloides). The eastern part of the district examined is traversed throughout by the Mackenzie. This great stream is described in some detail in a subsequent part of this report, and need only be referred to here. It ranks among the first dozen rivers of the world, and in length and size of basin is, on the North American continent, second only to the Mississippi. The volume of water carried by the Mackenzie is not known exactly, but such rough measurements and estimates as I was able to make showed it to have, at a medium stage, an approximate discharge of the water, of 500,000 square [sic] feet per second. It issues from Great Slave Lake with a width of several miles, but soon contracts to about a mile, and then maintains this as an average width all the way to the sea, the host of streams which enter it at various parts of its course being apparently incapable of increasing its size to any appreciable extent. The current of the Mackenzie at a high or medium state of water is remarkably uniform throughout its whole length, but in low water its course is interrupted by several small rapids. It has an average fall of about six inches to the mile.

10 D GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF CANADA The principal tributaries of the Mackenzie, north of Great Slave Lake, are the Liard, which originates west of the Rocky Mountains, and breaks through that range on its way to join the parent stream, Bear River, the outlet of Great Bear Lake, and Peel River, which drains the eastern slopes of the northern portion of the Rocky Mountains. The plains bordering the Mackenzie above the Liard have already been referred to. Below the mouth of the Liard the Mackenzie rapidly approaches the Rocky Mountains, and in lat. 62° 15' N. impinges against them and is then deflected more to the north parallel to their course. Thirty miles farther down a high ridge appears on the eastern bank of the river, and this, follower for a short distance, soon developes into a high mountain range crested with bare limestone peaks and ridges exactly similar to those flanking the valley to the west. This point may be considered as the northern limit of the great central plain of the continent. The mountains here rise suddenly from the the plains to heights of 3,000 to 4,000 feet, without any fringing belts of foothills and plateaus such as accompany them elsewhere. North of the point at which the Mackenzie enters the mountains it is flanked on both sides by lofty and almost continuous ranges of limestone mountains to near the Sans Sault Rapid, in lat. 65°40' N. The lowlands between the two ranges through which the river flows have a width of from twenty to sixty miles. They are broken by low plateaus and by a number of short ranges such as Bear Rock, Roche Carcajou, and the Rock by the River Side, but contain no elevations exceeding 2,000 feet in height. North of lat. 65°40' N. the ranges east of the Mackenzie lose their importance and gradually disappear, while those on the western side recede beyond the range of vision, and the river flows through a dreary plain, covered to a large extent by lakes and frozen marshes, which extends northwards to the Arctic Coast. The coniferous forest, varied in places by aspen-covered tracts, still continues, but the trees present a stunted appearance, and except in sheltered localities seldom exceed six to eight inches in diameter. Isolated groves and individual trees were, however, noticed even far within the Arctic circle, which equal in size those found in the upper reaches of the river. North of lat. 67°N. the Mackenzie bends suddenly westward and at the mouth of the Peel River again approaches the Rocky Mountains, but the range here presents few familiar features. It may be described, where crossed in lat. 67°20' N., as a huge ridge, sixty miles wide and 2,500 feet high, surmounted by two longitudinal ranges of mountains rising to heights of from 1,000 to 2,500 feet above the sum-

MCCONNELL.] NAVIGABLE WATERS. 11D mit of the ridge. The forests extend only a short distance up the slopes and the greater part of the surface is either bare or covered with mosses and coarse grasses. West of the Rocky Mountains in the north-western part of the district, a rugges mountainous region, clothed on the lower levels with a monotonous coniferous forest, stretches westwards to the Alaskan boundary. This region is drained into the Yukon by the Porcupine and its tributaries, and has an elevation above the sea of from 1,000 to 1,500 ft. It contains numerous short ranges of mountains and hills, but these appear to be entirely independent of one another, and trend in different directions. The tract of country in the western part of the district lying between the Pelly-Yukon and the Rocky Mountains south of the Porcupine, is almost unknown. It is drained principally by the Stewart and its tributaries, and is reported to be hilly and mountainous throughout. One range of high limestone mountains skirts the Pelly-Yukon on the east some distance above the boundary striking a little east of south, while a second range, according to the miners, follows up the north bank of the Stewart. On most maps a range of mountains is shown crossing the Pelly-Yukon below the mouth of the Stewart and continuing on into Alaska. The country bordering the river here is higher than usual as shown by the increased depth of the valley, but no definite range was noticed. NAVIGABLE WATERS The Mackenzie River and its continuation Slave River are navigable from Fort Smith at the foot of the Slave River rapids to the Arctic ocean, a distance of over 1,300 miles. A small steamer built by the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Smith, in the winter of 1886-8, now makes annual trips from that post down Slave River and the Mackenzie as far as the mouth of Peel River, which enters the latter at the head of its delta, and thence thirty miles up Peel River to Fort Macpherson. The navigable season for the whole route barely averages three months as Great Slave Lake is seldom free from ice much before the 1st of July, and in September the rapids at the head of the Ramparts become impassible, while at low water the wide channel at the outlet of Great Slave Lake does not exceed four to six feet in depth. Long stretches of the river are, however, navigable for nearly five months. An account of the breaking up of the ice on the Mackenzie and Liard is given in another place (see page 87 d). The Liard opens at Fort Liard about the 25th April, and is usually clear as far as its

12 D GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY OF CANADA mouth before 10th May. The impact of the moving Liard ice breaks up the sheet covering the Mackenzie, and clears in the course of a month a passage to the sea. Above the mouth of the Liard the ice on the Mackenzie usually remains firm until near the 20th of May. On Great Slave Lake the opening of navigation varies from the 18th June to the 5th July. In the autumn of 1887 drift ice was floating past Fort Providence on the 21st of October, and on the 16th of November the river was frozen across. Great Slave Lake is usually frozen for some distance from the shores before the end of October. It follows from those dates that the Mackenzie, disregarding the obstructions in low water from rapids, cannot be considered as navigable much before the 10th of June nor later than the 20th of October. On Great Slave Lake the navigable season lasts from about the 1st of July to the end of October. The navigation of the Liard, the principal tributary of the Mackenzie, is interrupted about twenty miles above its mouth by a series of strong riffles. These might possibly be overcome by the use of the line, but the Steamer Wrigley has not yet attempted to stem them. Above the riffles the Liard is easily navigable as far as Fort Liard and thence on up the west branch as far as Hell Gate. Above Hell Gate its navigation, owing to the numerous rapids and cañons, is exceedingly difficult and dangerous even with small boats. The Nelson or East Branch of the Liard is reported to be navigable by small steamers for a hundred miles or more above its mouth. Of the other tributaries of the Mackenzie, Peel River is the only one which can be considered as navigable. This is ascended annually as stated above by the steamer Wrigley as far as Fort Macpherson, a distance of about thirty miles, and if necessary could be followed much farther, but the exact distance is not known. On the west side of the Rocky Mountains, Rat River and the Porcupine could easily be navigated for three of four months of the year, by small steamers, from Lapierre House down to the junction of the latter with the Yukon. Above the mouth of the Porcupine the Yukon, beyond a stiff current of from four to five miles an hour, presents no obstacle to navigation as far as Rink Rapids, a distance of over five hundred miles, and below the mouth of the Porcupine it is navigable to the sea. Stewart River, the principal tributary of the Yukon on the east in the district examined, is reported to be navigable for a distance of nearly two hundred miles above its mouth, but has not yet been ascended by the steamers plying on the Yukon. The navigable waters of the Mackenzie are separated from those on

GEOLOGICAL SUMMARY. 13D The Yukon in lat. 67°20 N. by a distance of about sixty miles only. A cart trail was staked out some years ago by the Hudson?s Bay Company across the interval separating these rivers with the intention of supplying the Mackenzie River district with goods by way of the Yukon, but the project fell through and the road was never built. GEOLOGICAL SUMMARY. CRYSTALLINE SCHISTS. The region examined lies to the west of the great Archæan axis of the continent, and the rocks of this system were only seen at two points east of the Rocky Mountains. At the foot of the rapids on the Slave River they consist of coarse grained granitoid gneisses indistinctly foliated, and at Fort Rae of a medium grained biotite granite-gneiss. At both those places the gneisses evidently belong to the Laurentian, or oldest division of the Archæan. In the Rocky Mountains themselves no pre-Cambrian rocks were observed. West of the Rocky Mountains crystalline schists are largely developed along the valley of the Pelly-Yukon. They were first met with, in ascending the river, near the International Boundary, and were then traced southward by numerous exposures as far as Fort Selkirk, and the junction of the Lewes and the Pelly and they continue up the Lewes about thirty miles farther. The belt of crystalline rocks has a width of something over a hundred miles and strikes in a south-easterly direction from the International Boundary, or lon. 141° W. diagonally across the Pelly-Yukon and up the Pelly to near its head, and then continues on across the Frances River*. The extension of the belt beyond the Frances River is not known. It does not reach the Liard, however, as no crystalline schists were noticed on the at stream. South of the latitude of the Liard the crystalline rocks, like the Rocky Mountains themselves, do not continue along their old strikes, but along parallel strikes a couple of degrees farther west. The break in the continuity of the Rocky Mountains, which is referred to on another page, has its counterpart in a break in the continuity of the belt of crystalline rocks which usually accompanies them on the west. The disp of the crystalline rocks along the Pelly-Yukon are usually westerly and at high angles. Along the eastern edge of the crystalline belt the rocks are characterized by a general greenish colour and consist largely of altered volcanic -------------------------------------------------------------------- *Annual Report Geol. Survey, 1889-88, part B.

14D GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY OF CANADA. rocks. The most important variey is a sheared and altered greeninsh quartzose schist. With this are associated greenish chlorite bearing schists, lustrous mica-schists, diabases and serpentines. The schists are interbedded with occasional bands of slates and crystalline limestones, and are broken through in many places by igneous intrusions. The green schists are underlain in ascending the river by a great thickness of well foliated mica-gneisses alternating with mica and hornblende schists, which are distinctly Archæan in appearance and lithological characters. They bear a strong general resemblance to the Archæan rocks, recently described by Dr. Dawson from the western part of the Selkirks. Granite intrusions occur in the gneissic area, but less frequently than in the green schist belt.--(see pp. 143-144). CAMBRO-SILURIAN. Thye greater part of the unfossilliferous dolomites, limestones and calc-schists found along the Liard, west of the Rocky Mountains. are identical in lithological characters with the Castle Mountain group of the Bow River section, and are probably Cambro-Silurian or later Cambrian age. Similar rocks also form the base of the geological section of the Nahanni Butte, and in the mountains near the bend of the Mackenzie, seventy miles below Fort Simpson. The Cambrian slates and quartzites which underlie the limestones and dolomites of the Castle Mountain group along the Bow River are not brought to the surface, so far as is observed, in the mountains along the Liard and the Mackenzie. No rocks holding Silurian fossils were found in any part of the district. DEVONIAN. Devonian rocks were not definitely recognized west of the Rocky Mountains. East of the mountains they have a wide distribution and underlie the greater part of the country bordering the Mackenzie, all the way from Great Slave Lake to below old Fort Good Hope, a distance measured in a straight line of over 700 miles. They were found all around the western arm of Great Slave Lake and were traced up Hay River to the falls and up the Liard to the "Long Reach." South of the Liard and extending as far south as the Peace River, the Devonian outcrops at the surface in a broad band, averaging fully 150 mniles in width, striking in a north-westerly and south-easterly direction, parallel to the western margin of the Archæan axis. On the

McConnell] GEOLOGICAL SUMMARY 15D southwest it is generally overlain by the Cretaceous, and to the northeast overlaps all the older Palæozoic formations and comes directly in contact with the Archæan. In all this region the beds are practically undisturbed and are seldom affected b y dips exceeding a few feet to the mile. North of the Liard the Devonian has become involved in the foldings of the Rocky Mountains, but in the plain followed by the river between the ranges, the beds, except in a few places , such as Rock Island opposite Fort Wrigley, Rock by the River Side, and Bear and Caracajou Mountains, are horizontal or nearly so, and rocks older than the Devonian are seldom brought to the surface. For some miles above the mouth of Bear River the Devonian, which forms the top of the Palæozoic system in the district, is overlain unconformably by the cCretaceous, and the Cretaceous outliers of limited extent recur at intervals all the way to the Upper Ramparts. Below the Ramparts Devonian rocks are traceable by numerous exposures as far as old Fort Good Hope, wheer they disappear beneath the Cretaceous. Throughout the Mackenzie distric t, the Devonian is generally divisible lithologically into an upper and lower limestone, separated by a varying thickness of shales and shaly limestones, but in some cases limestones occur throughout. The upper division haa an approximmate thickness of 300 feet and consists of a compact yellowish weathering limestone occasionally almost wholly composed of corals, interstratified with some dolomitic beds. This limestone is well exposed at the falls on the Hay River and also at the Ramparts on the Mackenzie. In both these places it is underlain by several hundred feet of of greenish and bluish shales, alternating with limestone beds. At the "Grand View" on the Mackenzie the shales are hard and fissile, and are blackened and in places saturated with petroleum. At the Rock by the River Side, and at other places where the beds are tilted and the rocks exposed, the middle division is underlaine by 2,000 feet or more of grayish limestones and dolomites interbedded occasionally with some quartzites. No fossils were collected from the lower partg of this series, and rocks older than the Devonian may possibly be represented in it. Representative collections of fossils, showing a mixture of Hamilton and Chemung forms, were obtained from the upper [part of the shales on Hay River, at a point about forty miles above its mouth, and from the same horizon at the Ramparts on the Mackenzie. The lithological characters and the stratigraphical relations of the limestones at these two points, notwithstanding the fact that they are separated by a distance of over 570 miles, are almost identical. The

16D GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY OF CANADA. fossil faunas also, at the two points, show similar cloase relations, the principal differences being the presence of Rhymchmella cuboides and Spirifera disjuncta at Hay River, and Stringocephalus Burtinni at the Ramparts. This might seem to indicate that the beds at the Ramparts are slightly older than those at Hay River, but Mr. Whiteaves thinks that both are referable to the Carboides Zone. A number of smaller collections of fossils were obtained at various points along the Mackenzie, and a complete list as determined or described by Mr. Whiteaves is given below. SPONGÆ

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33 D DESCRIPTION OF ROUTES. LIARD RIVER. Mouth of Dease River to the Devil’s Portage. The Liard River is one of the three principal tributaries of the Mackenzie, the other two being the Athabasca and the Peace. It has its sources west of the Rocky Mountains, one of its branches reaching to within one hundred and fifty miles of the sea, and drains the eastern part of the broken country lying between that range and the coast mountains. Its branches spread through four degrees of latitude from 58° N. to 62° N., and interlock with those of the Yukon, Stikine, Skeena, and Peace Rivers. In its upper part, it divides at intervals into four nearly equal streams, the Mud or Black River, Dease River,

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Geological Survey Department, Canada Honourable Edgar Dewdney, Minister Alfred R. C. Selwyn C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S., &c, Director. 1891 INDEX MAP Shewing the ROUTES followed by The Members of the YUKON EXPEDITION 1887-1888 Part of route followed by G. M. Dawson, LL.D., F.G.S., &c Route followed by R. G. McConnell, B.A. do Wm. Ogilvie, D.L.S. This map is based upon surveys made during the progress of the Yukon Expedition as indicated by the route lines, supplemented by a map of the Mackenzie Basin by Rev. E. Petitot, O.M.J., from the U. S. C. & G. chart of Alaska, 1890, and from other authorities.