Explorations in the Great Bear Lake Region Author(s): J. Mackintosh Bell Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Sep., 1901), pp. 249-258 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1775131 Accessed: 02-05-2016 23:55 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 132.203.227.62 on Mon, 02 May 2016 23:55:45 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The Geographical Journal. No. 3. SEPTEMBER, 1901. VOL. XVIII. EXPLORATIONS IN THE GREAT BEAR LAKE REGION.* By J. MACKINTOSH BELL, M.A. THROUGHOUT the Dominion of Canada still lie immense tracts of country where the white man has never been, and where the few wandering savages who there make their home are still as wild and uncivilized as in the days of Columbus. The day is not far distant when much of this great region will support a thriving population, but the arctic part of it tmust remain, from climatological reasons, as it is now, a great northern wilderness, a home fit only for savages, and a refuge for caribou, musk-oxen, and other northern animals. My recent explorations in the Mackenzie river region of Northern Canada, undertaken in pursuance of instructions received from Dr. Robert Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada, extend northwards from the 60th parallel N. lat. to the Arctic ocean. In this paper I would like to deal more particularly with the country around Great Bear lake to Coronation gulf and the Coppermine river, and southwards towards Great Slave lake. I was preceded in this region by the explorations of Sir John Franklin and Sir John Richardson during the early part of the last century, and towards the middle of the century by the latter, with Messrs. Dease and Simpson, and I had, naturally, some diffidence in doing work in a country which had previously been visited by such able men. However, the eastern part of Great Bear lake was before our visit unknown, and in our journey southward from Great Bear lake to Great Slave lake we passed through a thoroughly unexplored country, rarely visited even by the natives, and known only by the writings of that wonderful traveller, the Abbe Petitot. We started from Fort Resolution, a hludson's Bay Company's post on Great Slave, on April 11, and crossed to the outlet of the Mackenzie * Read at the Royal Geographical Society, May 13, 1901. For discussion see p. 43. Map, p. 352. No. III.-SEPTEMBER, 1901.] S This content downloaded from 132.203.227.62 on Mon, 02 May 2016 23:55:45 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 250 EXPLORATIONS IN THE GREAT BEAR LAKE REGION. river. Here we were obliged to wait till the ice broke up on May 12, and soon after started down-stream by canoe. Below Fort Simpson the Mackenzie, after its junction with the Liard, becomes a magnificent stream, being for the most part over a mile in width, and with a current of from 3 to 6 miles an hour. Its beautiful spruce-clad shores are hemmed in by the eastern Rocky mountains, which rise majestically, a veritable "Mer des Montagues," on either side. We started from Fort Norman, in lat. 64? 55' N., on June 16, leaving behind the last trace of even a semi-barbarous civilization. Soon after our departure from the last-named place we commenced the ascent of the Bear OLD SHORES OF GREAT BEAR LAKE, CAPE MACDONNELL. river, a stream somewhat swifter than the Mackenzie. At the time of our visit, travelling was particularly difficult. The ice of the Bear river had broken up only a few weeks before, and was piled all along the bank, 10, 20, and in places even 30 feet above, the water, so that my men, in hauling our canoes by means of tracking lines, were obliged to walk on the top of this high border of ice. The Bear river is a fine, clear-watered stream, 350 yards in width at its mouth, and about 250 yards at its outlet from Great Bear lake. Leaving the Mackenzie, the river flows through a deep wooded valley, whose steep slopes show exposures of unaltered, horizontally bedded Ter- tiary strata. Some 40 miles up we entered that spur of the Rocky mountains which had crossed the Mackenzie below Fort Simpson, This content downloaded from 132.203.227.62 on Mon, 02 May 2016 23:55:45 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms EXPLORATIONS IN THE GREAT BEAR LAKE REGION. 251 and here for 2 or 3 miles the river runs through a deep canon, having cut its way down in places 300 feet. Just below the rapid of the caiion the mountains rise in a series of peaks of anticlinal structure, called by Sir John Franklin, the Mountains at the Rapid. The highest of these peaks, Mount Charles, does not exceed 1500 feet in height, but its rough, jagged outline, its steep slopes of talus blocks, and its sombre colouring greatly increase its apparent height. The Rocky mountains are here composedof altered limestones, dolomites, breccias, and quartzites, all much contorted. A few fragmentary fossils were found, which show the rocks to be of Ordivician age. The walls of the canon are OLD SHORE LINES (TERRACES), NORTH SHORE, MACTAVISH BAY, GREAT BEAR LAKE. formed of almost unaltered and "nearly horizontal Cretaceous sandstones, shales, and marls, and through these soft strata the Bear river has easily worn itself a deep bed. This erosion is going on rapidly at present, the swift current of the Bear river being materially aided by the intense cold of the subarctic winter. In the 40 miles intervening between the canon and Great Bear lake, the river meanders through a deep wooded valley, with terraces showing the former levels of the stream, which may have been of greater breadth in comparatively recent times. Gravel beds of great thicknesses, sometimes associated with Archaean boulders and sand, are exposed along the river-bank. How these great masses of gravel could have been formed is more or less a matter of conjecture, as they are overlaid by boulder-clays of the later s2 This content downloaded from 132.203.227.62 on Mon, 02 May 2016 23:55:45 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 252 EXPLORATIONS IN THE GREAT BEAR LAKE REGION. glacial period. If of pleistocene origin, they must have been laid down quite early in that epoch. On the other hand, they have been deposited since Cretaceous times, as they overlie Cretaceous strata. It is probable that the deposition of gravel continued uninterruptedly from Tertiary into Pleistocene times. Reaching Great Bear lake on June 23, we were disappointed to find that the ice of the lake was still as continuous as in mid-winter. This was anything but an encouraging outlook to greet our arrival, and it was made the worse by the news which the Indians brought in a few days afterwards. They told us that they had crossed from the north-east end of the lake by dog-team, and that we need not expect the ice to break up for at least three weeks' time. These Indians, belonging to the Hareskin tribe, came under the leadership of their chief, Itzekah, a native of the most objectionable type. He wanted to know whence I had come, what was my reason for being there, and if the great white mother had sent anything for them. He told me that he wished me to understand that we were to kill no caribou in his country, because, if the white man killed one of these animals, all the rest would disappear. Finally, however, by giving him presents of black tobacco, and by amusing him and his band in various ways, they became quite cordial, told us where we would get the best fish, where the most of the caribou were, and, as a last concession, the chief agreed to have some of his band waiting for us on August 15 at the south-east extremity of the lake to guide us across country to Great Slave lake. The Hareskin Indians are, for the most part, a harmless, good-natured race, living on the fish they catch or the deer they kill. As a rule, at least once a year they travel to the Hudson's Bay Company's post at Fort Norman, to trade their dried meat and furs. They are as yet little civilized, though the majority have recently been Christianized by the Oblate Fathers. They are rather a handsome race, being tall and well built, and their picturesque deerskin coats and leggings, ornamented with beads and porcupine quills, give them a pleasing appearance. Fortunately, the Indian forecast as to the break-up of the ice was a little overdrawn. The lake was sufficiently clear to enable us to start around the north shore on July 4, although it was the 12th before we reached Richardson bay, having had numerous delays, occasioned by the ice packing up against the shore.