THE HAMILTON RIVER 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 
