Transactions of The Royal Society of Canada 
SECTION IV 

SERIES III JUNE 1916 VoL: x 

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
Notes on the Geology of Nelson and Hayes Rivers 
BA BB EvReRELL, MA R-S.C;"Sœc: 
(Delivered May Meeting, 1916.) 
Nelson river, with its main tributary the Saskatchewan, is one 
of the largest rivers in Canada, being exceeded in length only by the 
Mackenzie, St. Lawrence, and Yukon, and in the size of its drainage 
basin only by the Mackenzie. One hundred and fifty miles below 
. Lake Winnipeg, at the outlet of Sipiwesk Lake, its flow was measured 
by Mr. A. R. Dufresne, an engineer in the employ of- the Canadian 
Government, on the 6th of October, 1909, and it was found to carry 
118,000 cubic feet of water per second. The water was low at the 
time, and it is estimated that in periods of high water its volume 
would amount to double these figures. It has many large branches, 
such as the North and South Saskatchewan, Red, and Winnipeg 
rivers, all of which meet and mix their waters in Lake Winnipeg, 
which forms a vast storage and settling basin, and from it Nelson river 
proper flows in a moderately clear and fairly constant stream. At 
first it runs northward in a very irregular branching channel or series 
of channels, around many rocky islands and through a number of 
lakes to Split Lake, where it is joined by Burntwood and Grass rivers 
from the west. From the mouths of these comparatively small 
affluents it turns abruptly eastward, adopting their course, and flows 
in a single channel for 200 miles to Hudson Bay. Here the valley 
is in some places between one hundred and two hundred feet in depth, 
and its banks, which are of clay, rise steeply to the level of the adjoin- 
ing plain. 
Hayes river empties into Hudson Bay just east of Nelson river, 
the mouths of the two streams being separated only by a long narrow 
swampy and marshy point a few miles in width. It is about 300 
miles in length on the usual travelled route from Painted Stone 
Sec. IV, Sig. 1 
