Wollaston lake is a large body of beautifully clear transparent water lying in a general north-and-south direction, with a greatest length of about fifty-five miles and an approximate area of eight hundred square miles. Though smaller than Reindeer lake, it is very similar to it in general character. Very many rocky islands rise abruptly out of its clear blue water. Wollaston lake is the dividing line between the waters flowing to Churchill river and those flowing to the Mackenzie, for it is not only drained by Cochrane river, toward the Churchill, but Stone river flows from its northwestern side, towards Lake Athabaska.
Lake Athabaska lies in a general east-northeasterly and west-southwesterly direction, its southwestern end being in northern Alberta. This lake has a greatest length of one hundred and ninety-five miles, a greatest width of thirty-five miles, a shore-line of four hundred and twenty-five miles and a total area of two thousand eight hundred and fifty square miles. Its depth has not yet been determined.
Cree lake is a large elongated body of pure transparent water lying in a general northeast and southwest direction, with a greatest length of forty-nine miles and a width as yet undetermined. Cree river discharges its waters towards Lake Athabaska.
Geikie river is, as far as is known, the principal tributary of Wollaston lake. It rises in some small lakes near the source of Foster river, and flows northeastward through a thickly drift-covered country. For long stretches it is straight and without current, giving the appearance of a wide, quiet river, or a chain of long narrow lakes.
The principal tributaries of the Churchill river on the north are Mudjatik, Haultain, Foster and Reindeer rivers. Mudjatik river is a swift, winding stream about eighty miles in length, generally flowing in a shallow channel through a sandy plain, in the bottom of a wide depression between ridges of granite. It is obstructed by comparatively few rapids, and these are for the most part over ridges of boulders.
Mr. Tyrrell, and his assistant, Mr. Dowling, considered the whole of the far northern part of this region as
Absolutely Unsuitable For Agriculture.
It is mentioned, in the report, that, under the trees at White Spruce rapid, on Geikie river, pembina berries, raspberries, etc., were growing in profusion in July, but no areas of arable land were found. All references to the soil are unfavourable, these for instance:—“There is no soil of any value for agricultural purposes along Mudjatik river.”
“The country surrounding Cree river is sandy and very barren.”