102 EXPEDITION TO TH£ 



a conclusive opinion as to the degree of importance to be 

 attached to this prognostic. As far as one instance of suc- 

 cessful prediction proves the truth of this sign, the rain, 

 which fell during the night, confirmed the preconceived 

 opinion of those who had asserted its universality. The 

 difference in the rocks did not continue long, for, after hav- 

 ing travelled about fifteen miles on the 24th of August, 

 the slate ceased and was replaced by granite, which soon 

 passed into a decided sienite, producing a wilder and more 

 uninhabitable country than any we had as yet seen ; the 

 sienite rises, apparently in great confusion, in steep 

 masses which are rounded at their summit; they are cover- 

 ed with moss, and support but a very thin growth of 

 scrubby pines on their surface. The country cannot be cal- 

 led beautiful, though it is certainly picturesque ; the broad 

 sheet of water, with its rapid current, is the only fine feature 

 which it presents. This place affords no means of suste- 

 nance either to brutes or men. We accordingly observed 

 few, if any, signs of animals. On the whole of Winnepeek 

 river we saw but three trophies indicating the capture of 

 large game ; one of these consisted of the horns of a rein- 

 deer, they were not of full size, the animal having been 

 killed while they were in the velvet. We have made no 

 mention of the tributaries which Winnepeek river receives,- 

 because we consider them as the mere outlets of small 

 lakes situated near our route ; from the information which 

 we have received from those experienced in the charac- 

 ters of this region, and which our own observation fully 

 confirms, as far as we have had an opportunity of judging, 

 the whole of the country may be considered as an immense 

 lake, interspersed with innumerable barren and rocky isl- 

 ands, which were, probably, at some epocha of compara- 

 tively recent date, covered with water. This, which was 



