one to two feet.[26]

The banks of Bear Lake River below the rapid have a more gentle
declivity than those above it, and they occasionally recede from the
stream, so as to leave a grassy slope varying from a few yards to half a
mile in breadth. The sections of these banks by torrents present only
sand or clay; and the hollows of the ravines are lined with boulders
principally of primitive rocks. No stone was observed _in situ_ from the
rapid until we came to the junction of the river with the Mackenzie.

The Bear Lake River flows into the Mackenzie at a right angle, and on
its north bank, at its mouth, there is a hill, which has been already
noticed as forming part of a ridge visible from the one at the rapid,
with which it probably unites to form a great basin. These two hills
seem to belong to the same formation. [Sidenote: 61, 62, 60] The body of
the hill consists of highly-inclined beds of blackish-gray limestone,
with sparry veins, and of brownish-gray dolomite, which cannot be
distinguished in hand specimens from that of the hill at the rapid. The
superior beds are formed of a calcareous breccia.[27] [Sidenote: 57,
58, 59, 63, 64, 65] Associated with these strata, however, there are
beds of limestone, highly charged with bitumen; and at the base of the
hill there are beds of bituminous shale, some of which effervesce with
acids, whilst others approach in hardness, and other characters, to
flinty slate. These shaly beds were seen by Captain Franklin and Mr.
Kendall in autumn 1825, and they also saw, at that time, some
sulphureous springs and streams of mineral pitch issuing from the lower
parts of the limestone strata: but the whole of them were hid by the
height of the waters of the Mackenzie in the spring of 1826.[28]
[Sidenote: 69, 66, 67, 68] The same cause prevented me from seeing some
beds of lignite and sandstone, at the same place, of which Captain
Franklin obtained specimens.

LIGNITE FORMATION.--MACKENZIE'S RIVER.

Having noticed the general features of this portion of the river, I have
next to state, that the formation constituting its banks may be
characterized as consisting of wood-coal in various states, alternating
with beds of pipe-clay, potter's clay, which is sometimes bituminous,
slate-clay, gravel, sand, and friable sandstones, and occasionally with
porcelain earth. The strata are generally horizontal, and as many as
four beds of lignite are exposed in some parts, the upper of which are
ab