288 Topographical Notices. 



birch and oak bushes, which, in antnmn, assume tints of 

 the brightest yellow ^ and _ red. The highest and most 

 distant land in view was to the south-west, some where 

 between the Pittowais lake and the Madawaska river. 



The view towards the Maskinonge valley was confined 

 by the neighboring heights, but the high northern shores 

 of the Ottawa (about the head of the Deep river) were 

 visible for a short way, ranging nearly parallel with the 

 Nesswabic, and to my surprise not more than fifteen miles 

 distant. 1 was not previously aware of the great proximity 

 of the two rivers, which, in fact, are never more than 

 twenty miles asunder, imtil the Nesswabic spreads itself 

 over the table lands, and this sight at last fully convinced 

 me of the futility of searching for canal routs up these 

 furious mountain streams, while the spacious channel of 

 of the Ottawa, calmly dividing the highlands far below 

 any of them, continues its course nearly direct from the 

 desired point. 



From the Pittowais upwards, the Nesswabic is joined by 

 no stream of any conse(iuence, for probably forty miles, 

 imtil within three or four miles of the Trout lake. Here a 

 small tributary flows in from the south, on which, about 

 twelve miles distant, is a considerable lake called la 

 Vieille, and by these the route strikes off which crosses the 

 sources of the Madawaska. The Vieille branch forms 

 hereabouts, nearly the division between the hard-wood and 

 fir countries. No good lands, indeed, are seen on the 

 stream, but they commence at no great distance from it. 



From the Trout lake, the Nesswabic continues in a 

 westerly direction amidst broken stony shoi'es, and inter- 

 rupted by several heavy rapids, the ascent being liardly 

 less than eighty or ninety feet, in the space of four or five 



I* 



