The Study Area
The
four ASTt collections described herein were found in the southwest Anderson Plain, a portion of the lower Mackenzie Valley
of the Northwest Territories bounded on the south by the Mackenzie
River, on the east by the Anderson River, on the north by the Eskimo
Lakes and Liverpool Bay, and on the west by the Mackenzie Delta.
The area is marked by moderate relief, rolling
hills and numerous large lakes. These water bodies form the headwaters of secondary drainage systems which lead north to the
Beaufort Sea (Kugaluk River), east to the Anderson River (Wolverine and
Carnwath Rivers), and south and east to the Mackenzie River (Travaillant
and Rengleng Rivers).
Three of the four ASTt assemblages were found on
Hyndman Lake, the headwater
lake of the east-flowing Wolverine River. The fourth ASTt-yielding site
is the complex Vidiitshuu site on Vidiitshuu or Trout Lake, the
headwater lake of the north-flowing Kugaluk River. These two water
bodies lie within 50 km of each other.
The area is today well within the limits of the
boreal forest, albeit one characterized as an open spruce-lichen forest.
The faunal resources found here reflect the ecotonal situation it
occupies. There are good fisheries
of whitefish, lake trout and pike. The lakes are used as staging areas
for migrating waterfowl,
especially in the spring). A wide variety of mammals provide ample
supplies of food and furs. The
area today supports both woodland
caribou and wintering members of the Bluenose barrenlands caribou
herd. Moose are also found and have been present here for at least the
last 6 centuries (Pilon 1989: 30).
