46 j 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Falls and 

 portages. 



Tributaries of 



Ui.perBig 



River. 



current of about three miles per hour, between low, muddy banks, and 

 has an average breadth of four hundred yards. 



Two miles above the lake is a low island three-quarters of a mile 

 long, with two smaller islands at its head. One mile beyond the island 

 is a rapid one-quarter of a mile long with three feet rise. Above the 

 rapid is a broad quiet stretch of nearly a mile, to a chute of ten feet, 

 where the river falls over horizontal ledges of gneiss. The portage 

 past this chute is eleven chains long. Seventy chains above is another 

 chute of fifteen feet, passed by a portage of thirteen chains, and 

 followed by quiet water for three miles and a half* to a small rapid one 

 quarter of a mile long, with more good water for two miles to a chute 

 and rapid of forty feet. Between the last two chutes the river is 

 obstructed by a number of small islands, fourteen in all. The portage 

 past the forty-foot chute is half a mile long and is followed thirty 

 chains above by another of fifteen chains past a fall of thirty feet. 

 From here around the western bend, a distance of four miles and a 

 half, the river is easily navigable with canoes past four large islands 

 to a fall of thirty feet. Beyond this no obstacle occurs in the naviga- 

 tion of the river to the Patitawagau branch, up which the route 

 passes. According to the statement of the guide the river, for a great 

 distance beyond, is free from rapids and is quite easily navigable with 

 canoes. About the last portage the stream averages two hundred 

 yards in width, is comparitively shallow, and flows with a uniform 

 current of between two and three miles per hour. 



The first large tributary of Big Eiver above Sbatchewan Lake 

 is called the Man-i-wan River and flows in from the north one mile 

 and three-quarters above the fifteen feet chute. It is fifty yards 

 wide at its mouth. Two miles and a quarter above, another 

 large branch called Wa-cha ti-mi River enters from the eastward, and is 

 seventy yards wide at its junction with the main stream. Several 

 small brooks fall into the river on both sides between this point and the 

 big bend to the east, where two small rivers, whose mouths are ono mile 

 apart, enter from the north; these are named Mes-ta-oh River and Fish- 

 ing River, the former is ten and the latter twenty yards wide. Another 

 northern branch called the Ka-o-chi-so-wi sto River flows in immediately 

 above the thirty feet chute, this stream is forty yards wide at its 

 mouth. Only one other river, the Ka-wa-chi-wan entered between the 

 last and the Patitawagan 



on the high lands a short distance to the north of 

 enters the valley by a beautiful fall of fifty feet. 



As has been already stated, in passing from the northward to Shata 

 chowan Lake, a sudden fall of over one hundred feet takes place in the 

 general surface of the country. The higher plateau with its rolling 



The Kawachiwan flows out of a large lake 



Big River 



and 



