Mackenzie River
At , the Mackenzie River drainage basin encompasses nearly 20 percent of Canada. About , or 54 percent of the basin, lies above Great Slave Lake. Permafrost underlies about three-quarters of the watershed, reaching up to deep in the Mackenzie Delta. As a whole, the Mackenzie basin receives only meager to moderate rainfall, averaging over the entire basin, though mountain areas experience much higher precipitation, and areas near and north of the Arctic Circle receive much lower precipitation.
List of lakes of Alberta
As with other basins on the planet, the topographical highlights in the drainage divides between these basins can be difficult to discern. For example, there is little elevation change in the short of land between Lac la Biche and Beaver Lake, yet the former is in a watershed that drains north into the Arctic Ocean, while the latter is in a watershed that drains east into Hudson Bay.