Topogr{tphical Notices. 261 



considerable clearance at the extremity of tlie Portage du 

 Fort road, where two families reside ; and one of the men 

 informed me that he expects eight neighbors by the spring. 



The western shore of the Mnsk-rat lake, along its 

 whole extent, consists of a slightly rising ground, covered 

 near the water with a stout forest of white pine. 1 have 

 not been able to get much information with regard to the 

 country between this side of the lake and the Bonnechere 

 river, about ten miles distant ; but at least a considerable 

 portion of it is composed of hard-wood lands, lying along a 

 stream called the Snake Creek, which winds through this 

 tract, almost on a dead level for many miles, and enters 

 the Musk-rat lake a little above the outlet. 



Along the chain of small lakes, extending between the 

 Mnsk-rat lake and that of the C/uifs, the lands are poor ; 

 on the north shores, little is seen but light sand and red 

 pine ; on the south, the soil is somewhat better, bearing 

 good white and red pine, with a mixture of hard-wood. 



The nature of these little lakes is very singular, the 

 whole bed of their waters being composed of a substance 

 which 1 take to be the linest marl. It appears (u have been 

 formed by a vast dej)osit of ^llells of various sorts. They 

 are yet but jiartially decomposed in many places, the mass 

 being half made up of larger and snniller fragments. In 

 other places it is soft, unctuous, and remarkably white, 

 resembling the finest lime plaster ready for use. It evi- 

 dently forms the main bed of the lakes, being visible at the 

 bottom entirely throughout the small ones, and in the 

 larger to a depth of twenty or thirty feet. The shores, 

 however, are not uniformly composed of the marl, being, 

 in places, lined with a deep mud, of such a consistency, 

 that it iii very difticuU to get n cunoe lo or Irom the solid 



