THE BED EIVER EXPEDITION. 311 



poplar being the prevailing timber, interspersed here 

 and there with poor birch and stunted pines. The 

 syenite rocks and granite boulders were very grand 

 at places; and occasionally river-scenery was presented 

 upon the largest imaginable scale. 



Several large-sized rivers join the Winnipeg, par- 

 ticularly from the west, up some of which the Hud- 

 son Bay Company have outlying posts. About half- 

 way to Fort Alexander is an English missionary 

 establishment, with a good farm attached, and a 

 few Indian log -shanties scattered around it. No 

 clergyman resides there, but it is presided over by 

 a catechist, who has a school where he teaches Eng- 

 lish to about twenty or tliirty children. Now and 

 then we came to a spot capable of cultivation ; but, 

 as a general rule, the land on the Upper Winnipeg is 

 poor, and unsuited for settlement. 



We had a good deal of rain whilst descending it ; 

 but as we neared Fort Alexander the weather mended 

 considerably, the days being warm and balmy, al- 

 though the nights were always cool and sometimes 

 extremely chilly. 



The locality most celebrated for its danger is at 

 the " seven portages," where the boats have to be 

 unloaded and everything portaged that number of 

 times, although the entire distance from the top of 

 the first to the bottom of the seventh is only two 

 and a half miles. The work was most wearing upon 

 both men and boats : every one looked forward to 



