56 NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST. 



can be formed of this beautiful slieet of water. He must go 

 to a smaller eminence, known as the Butte du Mileau by the 

 French voyageurs, whence alone the eye can take in the 

 principal contours of the lake. 



*' The greatest extension of Devil's Lake is at least forty 

 miles — but may be more, as we did not, and could not, 

 ascertain the end of the northwest bay, which I left undefined 

 on the map. It is bordered by hills that are pretty well 

 wooded on one side, but furrowed by ravines and coulees, 

 that are taken advantage of by w^arlike parties, both for 

 attack and defence, according to circumstances. The lake 

 itself is so filled up with islands and promontories, that, in 

 travelling along its shores, it is only occasionally that one gets 

 a glimpse of its expanse. This description belongs only to 

 its wooded side ; for, on the opposite side, the shores, though 

 still bounded by hills, are destitute of trees, so as to exhibit 

 an embankment to the east from ten to twelve miles long, 

 upon an average breadth of three-quarters of a mile. The 

 average breadth of the lake may be laid down at fifteen 

 miles. Its w^aters appear to be the drainings of the surround- 

 ing hills. We discovered no outlets in the whole extent of 

 about three-quarters of its contour we could explore. At all 

 events, if there be any, they do not empty into the Red River 

 of the North, since the lake is shut up in that direction, and 

 since we found its true geographical position to be much 

 more to the north than it is ordinarily laid down upon maps. 

 A single depression at its lower end would intimate that, in 

 times of high water, some discharge might possibly take 

 place ; but then it would be into the Shayen-oju. 



"As to the natural history of the waters of the Mini- 

 wakan, it is shortly told. They are too brackish to be 

 drunk, excepting by horses, who swallow them with avidity ; 

 they have a deeper green color than those of the neighboring 



