138 Canadian Record of Science. 



down stream to the first cache for a second load. When 

 this load and the canoes had been hauled to the foot of the 

 open water, the loads were put int o canoes, and they 

 were tracked and poled up to the lake, — a novel and dis- 

 agreeable mode of travel, with the thermometer standing 

 a few degrees below zero. From Lake Winokaupow the 

 extra men were sent home on the 1st of April, and the 

 party continued on alone, each person hauling four loads 

 weighing from 250 to 400 lbs. On this account the ground had 

 to be covered seven times and progress was consequently 

 slow, so that the Grand Falls were not reached until the 

 2nd of May. These Falls are probably the highest and 

 grandest in America. The river here rivals the Ottawa 

 in volume, and has a total fall of eight hundred feet in 

 eight miles, with one sheer drop of three hundred feet 

 where it descends from the table land into a narrow 

 canyon, with perpendicular rocky walls, through which 

 it rushes for five or six miles, until it runs out into the 

 wider and older valley. 



On the 19th of May hauling was abandoned, owing to the 

 rotten state of the ice, and the next ten days were passed 

 awaiting open water. At the end of that time the river 

 opened and the party started up it in their canoes, but 

 experienced considerable danger and difficulty from the 

 thick ice coming down from the lakes above. Double 

 loads were made until June 18th, when part of the pro- 

 visions were cached at Sandy Lake, where several canoe 

 routes meet. 



The next twenty-five days were spent exploring the 

 South-west or Ashounipi branch, which was ascended to 

 near the large lake of that name at its head, passing on the 

 v/ay through a bewildering network of lakes. Returning 

 to Sandy Lake, a trip was made to the north-eastward some 

 seventy -five miles to Michikamow Lake. This lake was 

 found to be second only to Mistassini, and is over eighty 

 miles long and thirty miles wide in the broadest part, it is 

 free from islands, and like all the lakes and rivers of this 

 region, abounds with large fish, lake trout, brook trout, 



