VALLEY OF THE WINIPEG. 



VALLEY OF THE WINIPEG OR SASKATCHEWAN. 



The next great transverse excavation includes the 

 whole valley of the Saskatchewan and Nelson Rivers ; 

 and from the sources of the former near Mount Hooker, 

 one of the Rocky Mountain peaks said to be 15,700 feet 

 high, to the mouth of the latter in Hudson's Bay, the 

 axis of the valley runs in a direct line about east-north- 

 east for 660 geographical miles. Lake Winipeg, the 

 principal lake basin in connection with the river, lies at 

 right angles to that axis, is nearly parallel to the Rocky 

 Mountain chain, and forms one of a series of great lakes 

 succeeding one another in a north-north-west direction. 

 Their names are Lake Superior, Lake Winipeg, Deer 

 Lake, Wollaston Lake, Athabasca Lake, Great Slave 

 Lake, Marten Lake, and Great Bear Lake ; the northern 

 coast line being moreover indented on the same bearing by 

 Liverpool and Franklin Bays. 



Lake Winipeg itself is 230 geographical miles long and 

 about 40 wide, but its width would be increased to 120 

 miles, if Moose Lake, Muddy Lake, Winepegoos and 

 Manitoba Lakes, which differ very slightly from it in level, 

 and are evidently component parts of the same lake basin, 

 were included in the measurement. Into this great lake 

 the Saskatchewan, by its two diverging branches, gathers 

 a wide extent of prairie drainage, its northern tribu- 

 taries being conterminous with the affluents of the Elk 

 or Athabasca River, and its southern ones with those 

 of the Missouri. The Assinaboyn also traverses much 

 prairie land, one of its branches originating on the 

 banks of the great southerly bend of the Missouri ; and 

 the Red River, which the Assinaboyn joins, rises, as has 



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