No. 4.] SELWYN — THE NOllTIl-W K8T TERRITORV. -H 



•calc-spar, and hokliiig fossil shells (^/aocenwiKs, kc), are here 

 met with, but without associated coal or liunita beds, or, so I'm- 

 as I observed, any plant remains. These are, I believe, a hiiiher 

 series, and overlie the great brown-eoal and lignite forniatioti 

 seen on the upper portion of the river. Similar strata are then 

 seen wherever sections occur the whole distance to tlie Elbow, 

 about fifty miles above Carlton. Hero (at the Elbow) the river 

 leaves tlie eastern limit of the third or uppermost prairie level, 

 formed by the Eagle Hills on the south, and by the Thickwoocl 

 Hills on the north side of the valley, and making a sharp h.'ud 

 to the uortli-east, more or less parallel with the trend of the 

 eastern slopes of the hills named, it flows across the second prairie 

 level, making for the nearest point of its easteiii limit, which it 

 reaches about forty-five miles below Fort a la Corne. B.^tween 

 the Elbow and this point, and especially b^low Carlton, t'le im- 

 mediate b inks of the river are either low and flat, or rise in 

 well-wooded slopes to the prairie level. In a few places, especially 

 at Cole's Falls and for short distances both above and below Fort 

 a la Corne, the valley closes in, and high cliffs rise steeply from 

 the water's edge nearly to the prairie level. They are, however, 

 all of drift, consisting of gravel underlaid by sand and clay, in 

 which there are occasionally seen one or two layers of iuibedded 

 boulders of Silurian limestone, gneiss, and other rocks. The 

 average level of the plains here, above the river, and at some 

 distance back, does not probably exceed 300 feet. And accord- 

 ing to my barometric observations, the river at Fort a la Corne 

 is about 1172 feet above sea level, giving a fall between Carlton 

 and Corne of about 172 feet in a distance b}' the river of 102 

 miles. 



After leaving the eastern limit of the second prairie level, the 

 river banks rarely rise to an elevation of fifty feet above the 

 water, and the adjacent country is everywhere low and swampy 

 and scarcely elevated at all above the flood level of the river, the 

 marks of which were occasionally observed on the trees and bushes 

 some eighteen inches or two feet above the surface which is 

 formed of a deep, rich, alluvial silt. Similar low, swampy coun- 

 try everywhere intersected by water channels extends, with but 

 few intervals to Cedar Lake, at the entrance to which ledges of 

 the white, flat-lying Silurian limestones first make their appear 

 ^nce. Thence, to the mouth of the river, these limestones are 

 ■either at the surface, or only thinly covered by soil or drift. 



