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.
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.
82A 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.
83Specimens 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 | 14½ | ||
| Clay and Sand | 50 | ||
| Irregular slope from top of cliff to summit of bank | 90 | ||
| 154½ |
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 | 2½ | ||
| Potter's clay | 10 | ||
| 94 | Friable sandstone and clay | 20 | |
| Sandstone a little more durable | 12 | ||
| Sloping Summit | 40 | ||
| 121½ |
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 |
| 99 | 2 Potter's clay slightlybituminous | ||
| 100, 101 | 2½ | ||
| 3 Thin-slaty lignite, with two seams ofclay-iron stone, an inch thick | |||
| 104 | |||
| 105 | 4 Pipe clay, (nine inches) | ¼ | |
| 106 | 5 Porcelain clay | 3 | |
| 6 Bituminousclay | 3 | ||
| 107 | 7 Lignite, with a conchoidal fracture | 2 | |
| 8 Pipe clay | ¼ | ||
| 110 | 9 Porcelain clay | 3 | |
| 10 Bituminousclay | 3 | ||
| 11 Lignite, earthy paste, enclosing fibrous fragments | 2 | ||
| 12 Porcelain earth | 9 | ||
| 13 Bituminous clay | |||
| 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.
108Over 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.
[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° 27', longitude 139° 53' 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.
[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 sphæroidalis, 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. 66¾°.
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.
[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.