have an ellipsoidal form and smooth surface, are from cine to two feet in
diameter, and appear to consist of the same material with the basis, but impregnated
with much silica, and not shewing evident slaty structure. When
broken, they present an even fine grained fracture.
In the sheltered valleys on this part of Point Lake, a few clumps of good-
sized Spruce fir (pirms alba) occur ; farther to the eastward, at Obstruction
Rapid, where the gneiss formation of Fort Enterprise seems to cross the river,
and extend beyond Rum Lake, there is no wood.
During our first and second day’s journey down Point Lake from the above-
mentioned . encampment, being eleven and a half miles on a W.N.W. course,
the rocks we had an opportunity of examining, consisted of greenish-grey
transition clay slate, generally having, a curved structure, and splitting into
slates of very unequal thickness.
On the following day, June 27th, our route lay to the N.W. for ten and a
half miles through a part of the lake, whose bounding hills bore a strong resemblance
in altitude and form to those about Fort Enterprise. The rocks we
examined were grey gneiss, red granite, hornblendic'gneiss, and a crystalline
greenstone. These rocks form high and precipitous islands and shores at the
west end of Point Lake, but the appearance of the country alters immediately
on entering Red Rock Lake. The strata here belong, most probably, to the
transition series, which, at the lower end of Point Lake, had given place to,;
or perhaps alternated with, primitive rocks. The hills which bound Red Rock
Lake are four hundred or five hundred feet high, have an even round-backed
outline, present few cliffs and little naked rock, have rather moderate acclivities,
and are thinly covered with small white spruce trees. The cenomyce
rangiferina, and other lichens, so abundant on the barren grounds, become rare
here, and continue so throughout the remainder of the Copper-Mine River.
A bed of reddish clay slate was observed at the upper end of the lake, :and
large fragments of the same rock thickly strew its shores. At the lower end
of the lake, a greenish-grey faintly glimmering clay slate occurs, dipping
W.b.N. at an angle of 30°.
• We passed through Rock-Nest Lake on June 30th. With the exception of
the Rock Nest, and one or two hills adjoining it apparently composed of trap
rocks, the borders of this lake are low, consisting of long even gentle élévations,
every where well clothed with spruce trees. The strata, where we had
an opportunity of examining them, consisted of clay, slate. At the place of
our encampment, on the 30th, the clay slate had a coloqr intermediate between,
greenish grey and clove brown; the surface of the slates feebly glistening,
cross fracture dull, structure rather thick slaty^ and dip of its strata E.N.E. at.
an angle of. 40°. The Rock Nest,bore an exact resemblance in altitude and
form to Salisbury Craigs in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. I am inclined
to think that the cliff which crowned it was transition greenstone, and the steep
acclivity clay slate, but we had not an opportunity of examining them.
After leaving Rock-Nest Lake, the Copper-Mine River flows for six or
seven miles between banks, consisting of gentle elevations and dales, wooded
to the edge of the, stream, and flanked on both sides, at the distance of
three or fqur miles, by a range of very barren hills, with steep acclivitieg and
rounded summits. The channel of the river is rocky, producing a series of
rapids ;, but unfortunately the notices respecting the strata have been lost, and
we have only a general impression that a hornblendic gneiss, probably of the
transition series, was abundant. On descending the river still farther, the
high hills recede a .little, and the rocks on the immediate borders of the stream
give place to fine sand, in which the river has made sections from one hundred
to two hundred feet deep. Sandy plains, on .a level with the summits of the
cliffs, thus produced, extend six or seven miles backwards, and are bounded
by irregular ranges of hills eight hundred or a thousand feet high. These
hills are round-backed, with moderately steep acclivities, but they are sometimes,
though not frequently, terminated by high cliffs. We were precluded
from visiting them, by their distance. The plains are chequered with small
clumps of wood, and produce a short grass which attracts the musk oxen
thither at certain seasons, but few rein deer frequent this part of the country.
About twenty or twenty-five miles below the Fairy-Lake River, the woods become
thinner and more stunted, and the barren hills approach the water’s edge.
The sandy banks re-appeared, however, at intervals, and in some places the
river expanded considerably, flowing with a gentle current over a fine sandy
bottom. Its medium breadth may be stated at three hundred yards, which in
the rapids was diminished to half that width. A few; miles farther down we
approached hills from twelve to fifteen hundred feet high, running in ranges
nearly parallel to the river or about N.W. These were the first hills we had
seen in the country that can be said to possess the form of a connected moun