HISTORICAL SKETCH. 43 



1823, Keating.] 



mission, states that it exists on the shore of the lake.* In Rainy-lake river 

 he mentions two places only, where canoes are lightened and towed up, the 

 current of this river being generally steady and of greater depth. The face 

 of the country also changed very perceptibly, becoming more cheerful, and 

 the grass " of a livelier green." At its mouth the banks of the stream are 

 low and marshy; beyond this eastward they rise somewhat, but do not 

 become hilly; the river having often a pebbly bed, leading to an anticipa- 

 tion of limestone rocks in situ. The rocks, however, seldom appeared in 

 place along the river, and when seen consisted of mica slate and syenite ; 

 the slate containing, according to Dr. Bigsby, the mineral staurotide.f The 

 fall at Rainy Lake fort is surpassed by two or three only of those on Win- 

 nipeg river. " The whole of the waters of the lake discharge themselves 

 into the river by these falls, the hight of which is about twenty-five feet. 

 The beauty of the spot depends much on the wildness of the rocky scenery, 

 occasioning a foaming or dashing of waves that are very striking. The rock 

 is chiefly sienite, in which we thought we could distinguish a tendency to 

 a stratification directed about northeast and inclining about 65 to the 

 southeast. This, however, may have been a local feature. The principal 

 growth about the lake is the pitch pine, white pine and spruce. The soil is 

 rather light, but in the immediate vicinity of the fort it is excellent ; potatoes 

 and wheat are cultivated, together with maize, pease, pumpkins, beans, water 

 and musk melons, &c., &c. The wild strawberry seemed to be more abun- 

 dant there than elsewhere. Our soldiers were kept busy, while encamped at 

 the fort, in fishing for the pike and freshwater salmon, which are found in 

 great abundance and excellence at the falls." Throughout Rainy lake are 

 many small islands, which, according to Keating, are based on a rock which 

 for the most part is a mica-slate, with strata directed north 70 east,, and 

 nearly vertical ; but in a few places may be seen granite and syenite, the 

 lake thus resembling in most of its characters the physical features of the 

 lake of the Woods. East of Rainy lake the party pursued the boundary 

 line canoe-route as far as the east end of Sturgeon island and there diverged 

 northward, reaching Fort William through a region of successive lakes, and 

 a rocky country, descending what was known as Dog river, but now as 

 Kamanistigoia. 



*Dr. J. J. Bigsby reports limestone in situ on the shores of the southwest part of the lake, "some miles off in a low 

 country, and buried beneath mounds of quartzose, sand, clay, and immense assemblages of blocks from the north." 



t See Bigsby's List of minerals and organic remains, in Am. Jour. Sci. (1) VIII, p. 60, and Jour. Qeol. Soe. London, 



