From Lake Winnipeg to Hudson's Bay. 357 



one foot at each, are passed in the above interval. The boats are 

 unloaded and hauled over the little watershed, and launched into 

 what is regarded as a continuation of the same channel. The White 

 Water "River, which discharges Little Lake Winnipeg, joins the 

 eastern Echimamish on the south side, at seven miles from the 

 watershed. From this point to Oxford Lake the stream is called 

 Franklin's River, after the late Sir John Franklin, who had a narrow 

 escape from drowning in it near the White Water, in 1819.* 



Around Rainy Lake, and on either side of the valley of the 

 Echimamish, low domes of rock occur occasionally near the route, 

 and ridges which appear to rise to a height of seventy or eighty feet 

 are seen in some places at a distance of two or three miles back. The 

 Echimamish cuts off a small border along the southern edge of the 

 Huronian trough, which will be described further on ; but from the 

 confluence of the White Water, gneiss was the only rock observed 

 along Franklin's River all the way to Oxford Lake. Franklin's 

 River flows successively through Robinson's, Pine and Windy Lakes. 

 Robinson Portage, the most formidable one on the whole route, 

 occurs at the foot of the lake of the same name. The carrying-trail, 

 which is as wide and smooth as a good waggon road, passes over the 

 light grey clay soil which prevails everywhere in this part of the 

 country. 



A swampy lake, without any name, extends for some miles 

 eastward from the foot of Robinson Portage. Seven miles below 

 this portage the river enters a narrow and nearly straight ravine, 

 with walls of gneiss from thirty to seventy feet high, through which 

 it flows for a distance of seven miles to Pine Lake, two rapids 

 occurring in the interval. The south side of Pine Lake is bordered 

 by small hills; but to the north-eastward a low tract extends all the 

 way to Windy Lake, around which the country has a slightly 

 undulating aspect. From this lake the river runs north-west, or at 

 right angles to its usual course, and at the end of Four Miles Falls 

 into the head of a marsh on the level of Oxford Lake. Here there 

 is a chute called Wapinaipinis, or the Angling Place, with a descent 



* Dr. Bell's Report. 



