182 FORMATIONS OF 
bullet-moulds and placed them out of doors. Their contents froze in fifteen or 
twenty minutes, and became solid bullets, that could be, and I believe were, shot 
out of a fowling-piece. On the same night, Mr. Smithhurst, in charge of the settle- 
ment of Cree Indians, twenty-six miles below the Lower Fort, placed some mercury 
in the open air ina spoon. In twenty minutes it was frozen, and did not liquefy 
for several minutes after it was brought into a room with a fire init. Captain 
Moody informed me, that several times when their thermometer indicated —40°,—41°, 
or —42°, the mercury was not frozen solid, but only turned of a lighter colour, or 
frosted appearance. I was told that on going out of doors in weather of this kind, 
it had an effect on the breathing somewhat similar to that produced by wading into 
cold water; but since it is usually very calm when the thermometer is so low, the 
cold is not felt so much as when the mercury is higher, with a breeze. 
The mean temperature forthe month of January, 1847,—observations taken at 9 A. 
M., 3 P.M.,and9 Pp. M.,—was —123°. During twenty-two consecutive days of this time, 
from the 5th to the 26th inclusive, the mercury never once rose to zero; the average 
of the sixty-six observations, during this period, gave twenty and a half degrees 
below zero as the average temperature. The highest point reached by the mercury, 
during the month, was 30°; the lowest, —48°; giving arange of seventy-eight degrees. 
From the 17th of June to the 17th of July, 1848, inclusive, the mean temperature 
was 69°. The warmest day was July 17th, when the mercury stood at 96°; the 
coolest was July 2d, which was 48°—giving a range, for the month, of forty-eight 
degrees. The range between the coldest day in January, —48°, and the hottest 
day in July, 96°, was one hundred and forty-four degrees. 
The summers are usually short ; even in the latter weeks of March, and early in 
November, the thermometer often falls to several degrees below zero. The winter 
of 1847-8 was regarded as unusually mild, but even then it sunk to forty below 
zero. 
The houses in this country are usually built of squared logs, the interstices being 
well filled with clay, and the whole whitewashed, and sometimes roughcast. The 
roofs are almost universally thatched with straw. Some of these houses present a 
very neat appearance. 
The soil is of an argillaceous character, well adapted to the growth of wheat, 
barley, oats, beans, peas, and potatoes; but the summers are often so dry that the 
crops suffer much on that account. The grain is ground by windmills, which form 
picturesque and conspicuous objects in the landscape of the plains surrounding the 
settlement. 
Beyond the settlements of Red River, no opportunity is afforded on that stream 
for making further observations on the rock formations of the country. A mile or 
two below the Cree Village, the river enters a tract of low land, and then meanders 
for more than twenty miles through a morass, before it finally disembogues into 
Lake Winnipeg. On the south shore of that lake, however, I again had an oppor- 
tunity of inspecting fossiliferous limestones in situ. At the two localities where I 
succeeded in obtaining a view of them, they were very much disturbed, dipping 
either at a high angle, or, standing vertically. On Poplar Point, they are quite 
thin-bedded, and contain besides small Entrochites, large varieties of Endoceras. In a 
