A JOURNEY TO THE RED RIVER 75 



picturesque, and was often grand. Not long after 

 leaving the Rat Portage we noticed a small church or 

 chapel, built at the bottom of a sort of inlet, under the 

 rocks. I suppose this has some connection with the 

 Company; but if there are houses here they are not 

 visible from the river. 



The river now rushed onwards between high rocks, 

 riven and pine clad. I am sure that we often flew down 

 the rapids at the rate of fifty or sixty miles an hour ; 

 and some of these rapids were ten or twelve miles long. 

 Once or twice even my daring Indians thought the 

 current too wild to be trusted, and we made some short 

 portages to avoid dangerous spots. 



The rocks, though not remarkably high, were broken 

 into fantastic shapes, and often seemed to have been 

 blasted or riven into great fissures and cavern-like open- 

 ings. The country around was, at this point, thickly 

 clothed with forest, and here were the tallest pines I had 

 yet seen. Even the most rapid running rivers every here 

 and there widened into small lakes or ponds; and on 

 most of these small pools, and all of the larger lakes, 

 gulls were seen of the same species, generally, as those 

 on Superior ; but on Lake of the Woods, and the lower 

 corner of Winnipeg, I shot a gull with a beautiful white 

 plumage lightly tinged with crimson. This gull was 

 afterwards identified as Pagophila eburnea of the English. 

 It is abundant in Hudson Bay and the boreal regions, and 

 also in many of the North- West districts in the winter- 

 time ; for it migrates southward on the approach of cold 

 weather. The fact that I saw it at this season is a proof 

 that, like many other gulls, it occasionally, at least, takes 

 inland journeys at any time of the year. 



At the north corner of the Lake of the Woods we 

 entered the Winnipeg River, and in two days arrived at 

 Fort Alexander, a small similar depot to those at Fort 

 Frances and Rat Portage. It is situated a little way up 

 from the Winnipeg mouth of the river, and though, per- 



