62 THE GLACIAL LAKE AGASSIZ. 



near its mouth, are approximately 114 aud 108 feet above Lake Wimii- 

 peg, or 824 and 818 feet above the sea. Hind informs us that the name 

 Saskatchewan means "the river that runs swiftly;" and he states that in 

 the Grand Rapids, between Cross Lake and its mouth, it falls 43 feet in 2 J 

 miles/ Its average descent per mile from Medicine Hat eastward is about 

 2 feet. The Saskatchewan and both its north and south branches for 

 several hundred miles above their junction vary commonly from a sixth 

 to a third of a mile in width, and during favorable stages of water are 

 na^^gated by steamboats from Cedar Lake to Edmonton, on the North 

 Saskatchewan, about 2,000 feet above the sea, and beyond the confluence 

 of the Bow and Belly livers, which form the South Saskatchewan, 50 miles 

 west of Medicine Hat, at an elevation exceeding 2,200 feet. The chief 

 hindrances to their navigation in low stages are shifting sand bars, over 

 which they expand in some places to widths of a half mile to 1 mile, being 

 very shallow and divided by low sandy islands. The adjoining country 

 rises within a few miles from these rivers, or at the farthest 10 or 20 miles, 

 to an elevation 300 to 600 feet or more above them, excepting along the 

 last hundred miles of the Saskatchewan, where it flows through a broad 

 lowland region. There the highest parts of the country are only 50 to 100 

 feet above the river, and its shores are generally low and in many portions 

 swampy. 



The smaller tributaries of Lake Winnipeg. — Besides the great affluents 

 of Lake Winnipeg, namely, the Winnipeg, Red, Little Saskatchewan, and 

 Saskatchewan rivers, about a dozen streams, varying in length from 10 

 to 40 miles, enter its west side, and twenty or more of similar or somewhat 

 greater length enter its east side. Of the latter the largest are Berens and 

 Poplar rivers, each about 100 miles long. The recession of the ice-sheet 

 from southwest to northeast uncovered the entire region west of Lake 

 Winnipeg, and probably the whole of the country traversed by these 

 streams on the east, before its melting iiually permitted the waters of the 

 Glacial Lake Agassiz to be drained to the level of this lake. 



Nelson Elver. — The outlet of Lake Winnipeg, as before noted, is bor- 

 dered by no areas of highland along its course of about 400 miles to 



' Report of the Assiniboiue aud Saskatchewau Exploring Expedition, 1859. 



