526 DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 
the right bank of the river, bearing northeast and southwest, with an elevation of 
fifteen feet above the water-level. A mile higher up, another range of greenstone 
trap, associated with amygdaloid, forms perpendicular walls on the river, for about 
a quarter of a mile. Here the trap assumes a subcolumnar structure ; and presents 
numerous vertical and transverse fissures, filled with calcareous spar, in which, 
however, no copper ore could be detected. The cavities of the amygdaloid contain 
both epidote and the same soft green mineral mentioned while describing the corre- 
sponding range on Snake River. Over the trap is about twelve feet of drift, sup- 
porting a light sandy soil. The growth of timber on the ridge is chiefly white and 
red pine and scrubby oak ; while on the bottoms, where the soil is richer, pine trees 
were observed, four feet in diameter, interspersed amongst oak, elm, hard and soft 
maple, birch, and aspen. 
Five and a half miles up Kettle River, conglomerate is again exposed, similar 
to that observed near the mouth, accompanied, a few hundred yards above the 
latter place, by trap rocks. 
The navigation of Kettle River is interrupted for eight miles, as well by numerous 
boulders as by a succession of rapids, with only occasional intervals of smooth 
water. 
For five miles above the trap range the soil is of good quality, and supports a 
luxuriant growth of maple, elm, and oak; then succeeds fine forests of pine, for 
several miles, interrupted occasionally by groves of oak and maple. 
Between seven and eight miles above the rapids, a third trap uplift appears, on 
the left bank of the river, for a quarter of a mile, presenting a mural face of about 
thirty feet. Its bearing is nearly the same as the preceding. 
Three miles higher, where the current runs with great swiftness, trap is again 
exposed on the left bank, and after reaching the head of the rapid, reddish-brown 
sandstone is encountered, on the same side, partaking much of the characters of 
some of the members of F.1, as they occur on the Mississippi and Wisconsin 
Rivers, though more highly coloured, and rather more compact. Along the whole 
course of this exposure the strata have suffered considerable disturbance from the 
adjacent igneous range, being both tilted and fractured in various directions. The 
prevalent dip is to the northeast, but the inclination is not uniform. 
Some of the sandstones here are finely ripple-marked, like those brought from 
Lake Superior near the mouth of Montreal River. 
After passing a very swift rapid, estimated to be about twenty-eight miles up 
Kettle River, we reached the “Falls of Kettle River.” An escarpment of from 
ten to fifteen feet of sandstone extends the whole distance of this rapid, traversed 
by fissures and deep chasms. The river, which is about one hundred and twenty 
yards wide above the Falls, is contracted in width, as it enters the gorge, to forty 
yards; widening somewhat as it approaches the cascade, it divides into two sheets 
around a triangular rocky island. The woodcut, on the next page, after a sketch 
by Mr. Meek, conveys a better idea of the appearance of the scene than any written 
description. 
For half a mile above the Falls the sandstone disappears, and then again forms a 
wall, at first ten feet high ; but gradually increasing in height, it attains an elevation 
of one hundred and fifty feet, about a mile and a half above the Falls. 
