BORDERING ON THE ST LOUIS RIVER. 311 
sand and sandy loam, with coarse drift. The soil is very light and poor in most 
places. Above the mouth of Swan River, the clay-bed, which is exposed for four 
or five feet above the water-level, is stained of a reddish colour by oxide of iron, 
and contains a great many pebbles and small fragments of limestone, and also of 
clay slate. The limestone is drab-coloured and very compact, and in some of the 
fragments crinoidal remains were found. The clay-beds gradually increase in thick- 
ness as you ascend, the prevailing colour being grayish-blue, but often interstrati- 
fied with red and dark yellow beds. The following section was seen between the 
mouth of Lower Embarras and Two Rivers: 
Sand and soil, . ; : ; ; : : ; 10 
Blue clay, : : : : : : : : 10 
Red clay, é ; A : ‘ ‘ : : 5 
Blue clay, é . F i ‘ : : : 10 
The clays are stratified, and dip to the southeast at a small angle. They are 
finely laminated, and often waved. The red bed is highly indurated. 
On some of the rocky bars in St. Louis River, many thin slabs of drab-coloured 
limestone were found, some of them being over two feet in diameter, and containing 
organic remains of the Silurian epoch. These slabs are so thin and easily broken, 
that they could not have been transported from any considerable distance unless 
they had been enclosed in ice. 
Up to the mouth of Upper Embarras River, the St. Louis has maintained a width 
varying from thirty to eighty yards. Above the mouth of East Savannah River, 
rapids are not frequent, and when they occur are made by accumulations of pebbles 
and boulders. The hills generally come up to the river on one side, while elm and 
soft maple bottoms are spread out on the other. Occasionally, both sides of the 
stream are bordered by bottoms, but I saw no instance in which high banks or hills 
came up to the river on both sides. The timber for the whole distance consists 
principally of aspen poplar, fir, spruce, pine, birch, ash, and some hard maple—the 
growth beingsmall. Above Big Whiteface River, a good deal of cedar was seen on 
the banks for some distance. 
5. Upper Embarras River—We entered this river on the 21st of August, and on 
the 23d reached Ishquagoma, or “End Lake,” as it is termed by the Indians. 
Between these two points the country consists of a coarse yellow sand, with a very 
thin soil, supporting whortleberry, mountain-tea, pipsissewa, and a few other 
plants which flourish in a sandy soil. The trees are all small, and consist of birch, 
ash, and aspen poplar, with some soft maple in the bottoms, and cypress on the 
drift-hills. The river is exceedingly crooked, and much obstructed by drift-wood 
in the lower portion. The banks are generally low, and overhung by the alder, 
willow, chokeberry, and high-bush cranberry. 
Ishquagoma Lake is about three hundred and fifty yards wide in the lower part, 
shallow, and full of rushes; the upper part is clear, deep, and five hundred yards 
wide. It is half a mile long, and surrounded by low shores, covered with small 
