352 Our North Land. 



this point you may enter Fox River, thence the Little Churchill, en 

 route for Churchill. This has been but a winter post up to the 

 present time, but has been recently established as a permanent 

 trading-post. There are but two buildings — log shanties. The 

 Indians seldom descend the Nelson below Split Lake for any 

 purpose, as its waters become more and more dangerous. 



For a short distance after leaving Split Lake the Nelson has a 

 uniform width, but it soon expands and has deep bays. Wherever 

 it becomes narrow, there rapids will be found, some large and others 

 small. Directly Gull Lake is reached, which is a part of the river 

 ten miles long and about one mile wide, black bears become so 

 numerous in the neighbourhood that one can depend upon meeting 

 with them at almost every turn. This lake ends where Gull Rapids 

 begin. Here the river is divided into several channels by islands, 

 and the rapids are simply immense. They are about four miles 

 lono-. In the main channel there are no falls. It is a continuous 

 chute over ledges and rocks. By taking the north or smaller 

 channel, these rapids are overcome by six portages. At the foot, 

 one, in looking back, may behold a long thundering gorge of white 

 froth — a spectacle of great beauty. 



From this point to the mouth of the river there is no 

 travel by Indians or whites on account of the extreme dangers to 

 be met with : the current foams and lashes, and the eddies rush 

 backward with such force that the rocks against which they dash 

 tremble from the force. Where Kettle Rapids are reached, the 

 Kettle River falls into the Nelson with a fall of over six feet. 

 Below this are Long Spruce Rapids — a field of rocks extending for 

 miles. Far below are the Limestone Rapids, where the granite dis- 

 appears altogether, and where from the north a river of the same 

 name, some five chains wide, flows into the Nelson. This river rises 

 in Limestone Lake, where the Hudson's Bay Company procure 

 annually a supply of whitefish for use at York Factory. The last 

 of the Limestone Rapids is long and flat, and is the last of the rapids 

 on the Nelson. Fixed limestone extends on the Nelson from the 

 foot of the Long Spruce Rapids to the foot of the Limestone Rapids, 

 some twenty-seven miles. It is poor in fossils, and presents no 

 interesting features. 



