52 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



gneiss, and schists, over many falls, cascades, and rapids, and through 

 numerous lakes. In descending order these include Jacks Falls, the Upper 

 Falls, "which for beauty are second only to the Lower Falls;" Slave Falls, 

 "computed at 20 feet;" Lac du Bonnet, "about 15 miles long and from 

 600 yards to 4 miles in breadth," and the Lower Falls.^ 



On each side the country rises to a moderate elevation in low hills and 

 ridges, with frequent outcrops of the bed-rocks. The highest land crossed 

 by the Canadian Pacific Railway south of the Winnipeg River, fi-om 18 to 

 28 miles west of Rat Portage, is about 200 feet above the Lake of the 

 Woods and about 550 feet above Lake Winnipeg, rising thus nearly to the 

 highest level of Lake Agassiz. English River, which flows through Lac 

 Seul, or Lonely Lake, is a large tributary of the Winnipeg from the east. 

 The only important affluent from the south is the Whitemouth River, drain- 

 ing a considerable area west of the Lake of the Woods. The water of 

 Winnipeg River is very clear, and is strongly contrasted with the muddy 

 water of Lake Winnipeg, with which it mingles at its mouth. 



Bed Lake River. — Originally the name Red River was applied by the 

 Indians to the outlet of Red Lake, flowing westerly to Grand Forks and 

 thence northerly to Lake Winnipeg, and the stream now called Red River 

 was known to them as the Ottertail River from Ottertail Lake to its junc- 

 tion with the Red Lake River. Beltrami affirms, with poetic license, that 

 the aboriginal names of Red Lake and of its outflowing river, the latter 

 translated by him Bloody River, refer to the "blood of the slain" in the 

 wars between the Ojibways and Dakotas." This stream is the largest trib- 



'Keating's Narrative of Long's Expedition, Vol. II, pp. 82-102. 



*A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, leading to the discovery of the sources of the Mississippi 

 and Bloody River, Vol. II, pp. 335-340. Also see Keating's Narrative of Long's Expedition, Vol. 

 II, p. 34. 



Rev. J. A. Gilfillan, however, states that the Ojibway name of Red Lake perhaps alludes to 

 "reddish, fine gravel or sand along the shore in places, which in storms gets wrought into the v/ater 

 near the edges," or to the reddish color of streams flowing into the lake from bogs on its north side. 

 (Fifteenth Annual Report, Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Minnesota, for 1886, p. 460.) 



D. D. Oweu, in the description of his c:inoe journey down the Red River, writes of its junction 

 with thetRed Lake River at Grand Forks: "The Red Fork of Red River, which flows from Red Lake, 

 * * * is the stream to which the name of Red River properly belongs. The stream which we 

 navigated is known to the Indians by the name of Ottertail River. The color of the waters of Red 

 River proper also shows the origin of the name. They are of a reddish brown cast, and contrast 

 strongly with the whitish, milky appearance of the stream coming from Ottertail Lake, and which 

 henceforth assumes a darker hue." — Report of a Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minne- 

 sota, 1852, pp. 176, 177. 



