102 DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 



brought me that La Prise and an Indian in my 

 canoe were quarrelling in a manner that fore- 

 boded a disagreeable termination. My appear- 

 ance rather separated than reconciled them ; 

 since La Prise, in going apart, muttered out, 

 "You may thank the Chief; but it is not finish- 

 ed : we shall meet on the barren lands." The 

 weather becoming more favourable, the journey 

 was continued, and we got to a narrow passage 

 called Tal-thel-leh, or the part that does not 

 freeze, — a fact verified during two successive 

 winters, but for which we could assign no cause. 

 The right shore was particularly bold and impos- 

 ing : it was a continuation of the trap formation 

 from Pipe-stone Point, with this difference only, 

 that here it had the glittering light brown ap- 

 pearance of mica slate, and was piled, terrace 

 upon terrace, to a height of eight hundred feet. 

 The dip of the range was N.E. by E., with the 

 face of the cliffs northerly. To the left, and not 

 more than a mile from the trap, the rocks were 

 principally gneiss, with here and there a jutting 

 mound of red granite or porphyry. A southerly 

 current was perceptible in the narrow ; though 

 the Indian positively affirmed, that it was the 

 reverse in winter, as the ice was invariably 

 packed towards the north, and not towards the 

 south of the strait. A few larch and pine were 

 thinly scattered ; and the general appearance 

 presented was that of rounded hills, intersected 



