﻿WATER-SHED. 59 



when we passed, though it was in the second week of 

 the glorious month of May, gave a most unfavour- 

 able impression of the land and its climate. Profes- 

 sor Agassiz has pointed out the sub-arctic character 

 of the vegetation of Lake Superior, by a lengthened 

 comparison with the subalpine tracts of Switzer- 

 land ; but this is due to the nature of the soil, rather 

 than to the elevation or northern position of the dis- 

 trict ; for as we advance to the north at an equal 

 elevation above the sea, but more to the westward, 

 so as to enter on silurian or newer deposits in the 

 vicinity of the Lake of the Woods and Rainy River, 

 we find cacti and forests having a more southern 

 aspect. 



The ascent to the summit of the water-shed be- 

 tween Lakes Superior and Winipeg, by the Kame- 

 nistikwoya River, is made by about forty portages, 

 in which the whole or part of a canoe's lading is 

 carried on the men's shoulders ; and a greater 

 number occur in the descent to the Winipeg. The 

 summit of the water-shed is an uneven swampy gra- 

 nitic country, so much intersected in every direc- 

 tion by lakes that the water surface considerably 

 exceeds that of the dry land. Its mean elevation 

 above Lake Superior is about eight hundred feet, 

 and the granite knolls and sand-banks, which vary 

 its surface, do not rise more than one hundred and 

 fifty or two hundred feet beyond that general level, 

 though their altitude above the river valleys which 



