ATHABASCA, iitlfa-biteka. (N. Amer. In dian, place of hay and reeds). A district in Canada, formed in 1882 out of the Northwest Territories, and enlarged in 1895, so as to con tain 251,300 square miles, including 11,800 square miles of water area (Map: Canada, H 5). The district lies between latitude 55° and 60° N. and longitude I00° and 120° W. It is bounded on the north by the district of Mackenzie, on the cast by the district, of Keewatin, on the south by the districts of Saskatchewan and Alberta. and on the west by the Province of British Columbia. It is a part of the great American Plain, and only in the southwest corner, where it approaches the mountains of British Columbia, does it attain any consider able elevation. Much of its surface, however, is decidedly broken and hilly. The greater por tion of the district drains northward into the Mackenzie River system. The western half of the district is crossed by the Athabasca and Peace rivers. There are numerous lakes within the district, of which Reindeer Lake, in the east, and Athabasca, in the north, are very large. An arm of the southern prairie extends from Al berta for a distance up the valley of the Peace River; other portions of the district are wooded.
Aspen trees of noble proportions compose the forests of the west, while to the east the trees are more sparse and belong mostly to the three varieties of spruce, banksian pine, and poplar. The climate is subject to great extremes of heat and cold, but is clear and bracing. There is little rain or snow, but the rainfall is greatest when most needed, during the growing summer months. In the west the soil is highly fertile, and wheat, potatoes, and other of the hardier varieties of cereals and vegetables can be suc cessfully raised. In the east the soil is rocky and sandy, and less fertile. Salt and gypsum are found in the Slave River region. The in habitants are mostly Indians and •alf-breeds, who live by hunting, the product, of the chase constituting almost the only revenue-producing resource of the district. Dunvegan, in the south west, is the principal settlement. See NORTH WEST TERRITORIES.