CHURCHILL AND NELSON RIVERS. 11 C 



which multiply with extraordinary rapidity in the warm weather. 



The danger arising from this cause will increase in the case of the 



rivers under consideration, as the districts through which they flow 



hecome more thickly inhabited. Almost the entire area drained by Geology of the 



the Assiniboine is believed to be underlaid by soft flat-lying rocks of nver asin 



Cretaceous age, while the basin of the Eed Eiver lies principally on 



Silurian strata. Its largest branch, however, the Eed Lake Eiver, 



which flows from the eastward, rises in the metamorphic region to the 



west of Lake Superior. 



A supply of better water might be brought down at some future other possible 



rr J ° ° sources of 



time from one of the clear streams of the Pembina or the Eiding supply. 

 Mountain; or it might be conveyed from the Broken-head, White- 

 mouth or Winnipeg Eiver, or even from the Lake of the Woods 

 (which lies at a very considerable elevation above the Lower Eed 

 Eiver Valley,) should the city become sufficiently populous and wealthy 

 to afford the great expense which would be involved in the operation. 

 The streams flowing entirely through the Laurentian country, beyond 

 the Winnipeg, could, no doubt, furnish a still purer and softer water 

 than any of the sources which have just been mentioned. 



A large amount of rain falls in Winnipeg, especially in the months 



»',,,.». , , ln n „ r, Rainwater. 



oi May and June, and probably the quantity of most excellent soft 

 water which is shed from the roof of every house and lost, if husbanded, 

 would prove sufficient for the wants of its occupants. In order to 

 preserve this supply, a large cistern might be dug below the bottom Cisterns, 

 of the cellar floor, so as to protect the water from frost in winter and 

 evaporation in summer. This should be lined with hydraulic cement 

 and covered with iron, over which a thick layer of earth ought to be 

 spread. A quantity of scrap iron might be pinned in the bottom. 

 The only openings should be those admitting the feed-pipe and pump- 

 tube. The water might be made to pass through a filtering box before 

 entering the cistern. If the cellar should be liable to be flooded, the 

 upper part of the cistern might be puddled all round after the manner 

 adopted by miners to keep out water. 



It may be interesting to compare the waters of the Eed Eiver and comparison 

 the Assineboine with those of rivers in other parts of the world, both European* 8 

 in regard to their solid constituents and to their hardness. The fol- nvers- 

 lowing list shows the number of grains of solid matter, of all kinds, 

 per gallon, in a number of the rivers of Europe : — Thames, above 

 London, 15 to 18-5; Seine, at Paris, 20-0; Ehine, at Lyons, 12-88; 

 Garonne, at Toulouse, 9-56; Loire, at Mehung, 9-52; Scheldt, in Bel- 

 gium, 20-49; Ehine, at Basle, 11-97; Spree, at Berlin, 8-0; Danube, 

 at Vienna, 10-15. 



