SOURCE OF ST. Peter's river. 129 . 



inclining about 65 degrees to the south-east. This, how- 

 ever, may have been a local feature. The principal growth 

 about the lake is the pitch pine, white pine, and spruce. 

 The soil is rather light, but in the immediate vicinity of 

 the fort it is excellent ; potatoes and wheat are cultivated, to- 

 gether with maize, pease, beans, pumjikins, water and musk 

 melons, &c. &c. The wild strawberry seemed to be more 

 abundant there than elsewhere. Our soldiers were kept 

 busy, while encamped at the fort, in fishing for the pike and 

 fresh-water salmon, which are found in great abimdance 

 and excellence at the falls. The Testudo geographica is 

 found there. Among the birds Mr. Say killed the ruby- 

 throated humming bird, black-headed titinouse,* and pile- 

 ated wood-pecker.t There are remains of beaver dams 

 near to the fort ; and it is probable that this was formerly 

 a favourite haunt of this animal, which has been entirely 

 hunted out by the residents on the lake. 



We proceeded through Rainy lake, for a distance of about 

 fifty miles, on a general easterly course. We found it to 

 resemble in its characters the Lake of the Woods ; it con- 

 tains many islands, all resting upon a rock which for the 

 most part is a mica-slate, whose strata are directed north 

 70 degrees east, and nearly vertical ; we have in a few 

 places seen granite, sienite, &c. The islands betray a rapid 

 and constant decomposition by the crumbling of the verti- 

 cal strata, so that we doubt not that the physical characters 

 of the lake, as well as the size and form of the islands, must 

 undergo very striking changes in the lapse of ages. From 

 Rainy lake the voyagers pass into a number of small rivers 

 or narrow channels, separated by portages. Among these 

 rivers they distinguish that of the " New Portage," de la 



• Parus atricapillu<!. j Picus pileatus. 



