1870.] MISCELLANEOUS. 119 



miles from its mouth, but above that point its navigation was 

 interrupted by rapids. On arriving at the lake, the view was 

 found to bo very grand. Owing to the existence of magnetic rocks 

 the surveying party could make but litlle use of their compasses ; 

 the angles, however, were taken and its distances measured by a 

 micrometer ; the latitudes were also taken by various observations 

 of the sun and polesstar, and meridian lines were also laid down. 

 Lake Nipigon lies directly north of the northern extremity of 

 Lake Superior, and is more than half the size of Lake Ontario ; 

 its general outline is elliptical. Its area was 3,700 square miles, 

 or about four-sevenths of the size of Lake Ontario ; its lens-th 

 70, and its breadth 50 miles. As an illustration of the size of 

 Lake Nipigon, there are nine lakes in Canada — amongst them, 

 Lake St. John, Lake Metapedia, Lake Temiscouta, Lake 

 Megantic, Lake St. Francis and Lake Memphremagog — but Lake 

 Nipigon is four times as large as the whole nine put together. 

 Lake Nipigon is by far the most beautiful of all the great lakes, 

 and is studded throughout its whole extent by islands, large and 

 small, and high and low, some rocky and some thickly wooded. 

 They could not, of course, survey the whole of these during one 

 season ; but, in connection with their triangulations of the coast, 

 they managed to located 460 of these with tolerable accuracy, and 

 more roughly over 100 others. Some of these islands were large 

 enough to form whole townships. One of them was eight miles 

 in diameter, several were from five to six miles across, while those 

 from two to three miles in breath were ([uite common. They 

 were all covered with good soil and well timbered, and some day 

 will, no doubt, be converted into well-cultivated farms. The 

 coast line of the lake measures 580 miles, or, perhaps, considerably 

 more than the coast line of Lake Ontario, and, therefore, a great 

 deal of the country round the lake is accessible from the water. 

 Sixteen rivers, with unpronounceable Indian names, flow into the 

 lake, and the average size of these streams is as large as the 

 Grand River of Ontario. The Gull River is much larger. As 

 far as these rivers were examined, the country through which 

 they flow was found to be level, with clayey soil, and a light 

 surface of sand. ]jike all rivers flowing; throuiih level countries, 

 the feeders are very crooked, and when the water is low they 

 resemble great winding ditches with muddy banks. On one river 

 which they ascended they met no rapids for ten miles up, and 

 that was but a small one. Some distance up this same river they 



