THE HAMILTON EIVEE AND THE GRAND FALLS 147 



parts which are quite dissimilar in physical character. 

 The lower part occupies a deep, ancient valley, cut down 

 into the hard, crystalline rocks of the plateau, so that the 

 present level of the river is from five hundred to. one thou- 

 sand feet below the general level of the surrounding country. 

 This deep valley varies in width from one hundred yards 

 to more than two miles between the rocky walls. The river 

 flows with a strong current often broken by rapids, espe- 

 cially along the upper stretches. Only in one place has it 

 a direct fall over a rock obstruction, and that is at the 

 Muskrat Falls, twenty-seven miles above its mouth, where 

 a dam of glacial drift has diverted the stream from its 

 ancient course and has caused it to find a new channel on 

 the south side of a rocky knoll where the river falls seventy 

 feet over ledges in a distance of four hundred yards. 



The greater part of the valley below the Grand Falls has 

 been burnt over by frequent fires, which have destroyed 

 much of the original forest of spruce, its place being taken 

 by small second-growth aspen, white birch, and spruce. 

 Where the original forest remains, the trees are fair-sized 

 and of commercial value, in marked contrast to the stunted 

 spruce found partly covering the rolling surface of the 

 plateau above the valley on both sides. The river varies in 

 width, and usually only partly fills the bottom of the valley, 

 being confined between banks of sand or glacial drift form- 

 ing the soil of the bottom. A reference to the accompany- 

 ing map shows that the river valley as far as the junction 

 of Minipi River, eighty miles upstream, conforms in its 

 southwesterly direction with that of Hamilton Inlet (Lake 

 Melville). The general direction then changes to west- 

 northwest, and so continues to the Grand Falls. A more 



