HIS FIRST JOURNEY ACROSS THE PRAIRIES 53 



the usual Sunday service. We had dinner on this island and there 

 I found the ash-leaved maple, the nettle tree, Celtis occidentalis, 

 and an abundance of flowers, twenty-four kinds that I had not 

 seen since joining the expedition and of these, eight with which 

 I was unacquainted. 



Early the next morning, July 29th, we arose early and got 

 ready for the journey. The captain was afraid to take the pas- 

 sage as it was still very rough. The Indians were afraid also and 

 it was finally decided that instead of travelling as we had been 

 used to in a long line, one behind the other, two canoes should 

 be fastened to two barges that were in front of us, thus travelling 

 in a more compact body and, by this means, we passed the 'tra- 

 verse.' The sun came out and we were enabled to travel the 

 remainder of the day and reached North West Angle in the even- 

 ing and immediately retired to rest. 



Early in the morning of the 30th, the wagons arrived to take 

 us to Oak Point, the commencement of the prairies. We had now 

 eighty miles to travel by wagon to Oak Point through a new road, 

 the country being chiefly covered with light forest. For the first 

 twenty miles we travelled over a flat country, much of it marshy, 

 with a dense forest of scrub pine, spruce, tamarac and here and 

 there aspens and white birch. In the open parts of the country 

 many kinds of wild fruit grew luxuriantly, such as strawberries, 

 raspberries, black and red currants, and so forth, and many flocks 

 of wild pigeons and prairie chickens, were sitting on the branches 

 of the different trees by the road side. 



The next section of the country was totally different in 

 character. It was light and sandy for more than ten miles or so 

 west. The following extract will give a general description of the 

 country passed through. "This total change in the character of 

 the soil afforded a rich feast to our Botanist. In the course of 

 the day he came on two or three distinct floras; and, although 

 not many of the species were new, and, in general features, the 

 productions on the heavy and light soils were similar to those of 

 like land farther east in Ontario and the Lower Provinces, yet, 

 the luxuriance and variety were amazing. He counted over four 

 hundred different species in this one day's ride. Great was the 



