140 EXPEDITION TO THE 



by the steep 4»teffs on all sides, except in front, where the 

 river passes. The portage road, which is about three quar- 

 ters of a mile long, terminates at this place ; a descent to 

 the level of the water having been made by the North- 

 west Company. After having visited the falls, we stopped 

 in this cove for dinner; we attempted to walk along the 

 edge of the river up to the foot of the fall, but our pro- 

 gress was obstructed by the bluff, whose base is washed by 

 the stream. We were not a little gratified, on being in- 

 formed by our guides that we had passed all the difficult 

 spots. The portages were all over except a short one. The 

 navigation of the river, below this spot, is easy for boats 

 going down stream ; the current being very rapid, in many 

 places as much as eight miles per hour. 



We observed, on the 12th, a very important change in 

 the geological features of the country. In the morning, 

 the rock was a very decided mica-slate, which gradually 

 passed into a clay-slate, whose primitive characters were 

 inferred from a vertical stratification observed in several 

 places, and especially at a portage called the " Portage du 

 Raccourci," or of the short cut ; in one place the rock 

 abounds in iron pyrites. At the Mountain Portage, or that 

 made at the Falls of Kakabikka, the rock was found to be 

 in very distinct horizontal stratification. The connexion of 

 this with the former rocks could not be observed, but we 

 are induced to believe that there is a distinct passage of the 

 one into the other. At the descent of this portage we could 

 study the characters of the rock. We observed that the 

 whole mountain is composed of an alternation of strata ; 

 some are formed of a clay-slate, and others of a grauwacke 

 or sandstone, formed by the union of grains of quartz and 

 feldspar united together by an argillo-calcareous cement. 

 There are a number of small specks of calcareous spar. 



