CHURCHILL AND NELSON RIVEKS. 1 - r ) C 



of the lake washes the base of a ridge of drift, which extends for some 

 miles to the north-east and south -west, and presents a hare bank of 

 clay rising about sixty feet above the water, from which the lake 

 derives its name. The water is clear, and on the 26th of July it had a 

 temperature of 67° Fab.-. It abounds with fish, including grey trout, Fish, 

 some of which are very large, whitetish, pike, pickerel, dog-fish and 

 suckers. Its elevation above the sea appears from my barometrical jgievation. 

 observations to be 936 feet. The country around is green, the timber 

 consisting of spruce, white birch, aspen, balsam-poplar and tamarac. Timber. 



The general course of the Little Churchill Eiver, all the way from Little 



. to ... Churchill River 



the southern extremity of Was-kai-ow-a-ka Lake to its junction with 

 the Great Churchill, is nearly north-east, and the distance between the 

 points about ninety miles in a straight line. For three miles below the 

 outlet the river has a tranquil course, and then expands into a small 

 lake, but below this, for some seventeen miles, it is broken, here and 

 there, by rapids, past some of which short portages require to be Rapids, 

 made. Solid gneiss rock occurs at the rapids, but elsewhere the banks 

 consist of clay, gravel or sand. Further on the river flows for a few 

 miles with a gentle current, among islands and lagoons, with occasional 

 banks of clay, covered in some places with peat four feet thick. The 



• , ■ r, ii i! t Wood-cut. 



accompanying wood-cut is from a photograph taken at the lower end 

 of this stretch, looking up-stream. At thirty-eight miles from the 

 southern extremity of Was-kai-ow-a-ka Lake, the Switching Eiver 

 falls in from the left side, and at five miles further we enter the Eecluse Reoluse Lakes. 

 Lakes, which are of small size and connected by a short sluggish por- 

 tion of the river. So far the woods along the river have been generally 

 green, but below these lakes the timber is mostly burnt all the way to Burnt country - 

 the Great Churchill. 



The rock of the east side of Was-kai-ow-a-ka Lake is a coarsely _ 



J Syemtic gneiss. 



crystalline, massive, greyish-red syenitic gneiss, but along the river, 

 especially in the first twenty miles below the lake, other varities of 

 gneiss are exposed at the rapids. The strike is not uniform, but in most 

 cases it approaches a south-westward direction. The Eecluse Lakes lie 

 in the north-eastern part of a valley four miles wide, excavated in the 

 great clay deposit which is everywhere spread over this region. Along 

 the north-west side the banks are from 100 to 150 feet high. On leaving 

 the lakes a few rapids occur, but below these, the river, for a long dis- 

 tance, flows in a crooked channel of uniform breadth with a tolerably 

 swift current, between banks of clay, varying from twent}* to one 

 hundred and fifty feet in height, but averaging from fort}* to fifty feet. 

 The upper part of this deposit appears to be a modified clay, with 

 occasional layers of gravel, and sometimes a ridge of gravel and sah'd 



