Mackenzie River east into the Churchill River. The eastern portion of the Mackenzie basin is dominated by vast reaches of lake-studded boreal forest and includes many of the largest lakes in North America. By both volume and surface area, Great Bear Lake is the biggest in the watershed and third largest on the continent, with a surface area of and a volume of . Great Slave Lake is slightly smaller, with an area of and containing of water, although it is significantly deeper than Great Bear. The third major lake, Athabasca, is less than a third that size with an area of
Whitefish River (Northwest Territories) Whitefish River (Northwest Territories) The Whitefish River is a river in the Deline District, Sahtu Region, Northwest Territories, Canada. It is in the Arctic Ocean and Mackenzie River drainage basins, is a tributary of Great Bear Lake and has a watershed of . The river begins at an unnamed lake and flows west then southwest to the west side Man Drowned Himself Lake. It exits the lake at the south, takes in the unnamed left tributary arriving from Kekwinatui Lake, and heads southwest, west and northwest. It passes Whitefish River Airfield on the left bank of the river valley, and