232 EXPEDITION TO THE 



route, some of which have been traversed, but the number 

 that remains to be explored is doubtless far greater. 



At the distance of about sixty miles below the Lake of 

 the Woods, Winnepeek river receives a large tributary 

 from the north, called English river, which is of a charac- 

 ter similar to that of the principal, and nearly as large as 

 the latter above their junction. Its head waters interlock 

 with those of Albany river, which empties into James' 

 Bay, and is the principal channel of intercourse between 

 Lake Winnepeek and the trading establishments on that 

 river. 



The Lake of the Woods is about seventy-five miles long, 

 and of irregular widths, from ten to thirty-five or forty 

 miles. Compared with other lakes, it deserves a high rank 

 on the scale of beauty. The scenery is wild and romantic 

 in a high degree, its shores being faced with precipices and 

 crowned with hills and knobs of variable heights, clad with 

 a dense foliage of shrubbery and evergreens. Its surface is 

 beautifully studded with countless islands of various sizes 

 and forms, disclosing between them the continued sheet of 

 its wide-spreading waters, the extent of which enlarges 

 upon the vision as the traveller advances upon the lake, 

 till the main land is shut out from the view by the islands 

 that multiply around him. 



The 49th parallel of north latitude crosses the lake with- 

 in the distance of about twelve miles from its southerly 

 extremity. 



The region bordering upon the waters above described, 

 is one of the most dreary imaginable. Its climate is rigor- 

 ous, its surface exceedingly rugged and broken, and its 

 products so limited and meager, that it seems never to have 

 been claimed as a residence either by man or beast. A so- 

 litary moose, caraboo, or bear, is occasionally to be found ; 



