296 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
most interesting part of the country through 
which we passed. 
The north side of the Methye Portage is inlati- 
tude 56° 41’ 40” N. and longitude 109° 52 0” W. 
It is, by our course, one hundred and twenty-four 
miles from Isle 4 la Crosse, and considered as a 
branch of the Missinippi, five hundred and 
ninety-two miles from the Frog Portage. The 
Clear Water-River passing through the valley, 
described above, evidently rises not far to the 
eastward. The height, computed by the same 
mode as that of the Echiamamis, by allowing a 
foot for each mile of distance, and six feet on an 
average, for each fall and rapid, is two thousand 
four hundred and sixty-seven feet above the level 
of the sea, admitting it to be nine hundred feet 
above the Clear Water River. The country, in 
a line between it and the mouth of Mackenzie's 
River, is a continual descent, although to the east- 
ward of that line, there may be several heights 
between it and the Arctic Sea. To the eastward, 
the lands descend to Hudson’s Bay ; and to the 
westward also, till the Athabasca River cuts 
through it, from whence it ascends to the Rocky 
Mountains. Daring was the spirit of enterprise 
that first led Commerce, with her cumbrous train, 
from the waters of Hudson’s Bay to those of the 
