CHURCHILL AND NELSON RIVERS. 23 



(1.) 58° 44' r)4"0l 



(2.) 58' 44' 22 "80 



(:5.) 58" 44' 31 ''-70 



(4) 58° 44' 55"-20 



(5.) 58° 44' 50"-90 



Mean 58"^ 44' 43/'04 



The inoiilh <>1" the river is about 4' further north. I also ascertained 

 that the variation oi' the compass at this locality is at present ab()utt\'J;"on?pa!s[. 

 11°K., hut on the livcr, at twenty-seven miles southward of the mouth, 

 I tound ii t») he only G° 30'. 



Completion of Track Survey of the Nelson Ricer. 



On the 'JTth of August I K't't Voi'k Factory, and caniptMl on Point of Ascent of the 

 Marsh, or the extremity of Beacon Point, between Hayes and Nelson ^*''^'*° ^''^'■• 

 i-ivers, and the next mornini;- started to ascend the latter to Lake 

 Winnipeg. M}- repoi-t for 1878 contains a description of tlie lower 

 part of the Nelson, which was ex[>loi-ed during that season. It will 

 not be necessary, therefore, again to describe this section. In regard 

 to the question of the navigation of this stretch of the river, it was '"'^^'K^?'^' 



I '^ ' part of river, 



stated that the shallowest place discovered by my soundings was at the 



head of the tide, abreast of '^ Gillam's " or the Lower Seal Island. When 'Soundings. 



at this locality again, last August, I carefull)' sounded the whole width 



of the river and foun<l the deepest water to be ten feet, as before. The 



b<>ttom consists of shingle, resting appai-ently on boulder clay, ^vhich ''^®*' ^^'*"^'^- 



here forms both banks of the river and the Seal Islands. "Gillam's" 



Island and the south bank opposite to it were found, by barometer, to 



have eacli a height of eighty feet, while the north hank rises to upwards ., . ,. 



*^ ^ "^ ' i Derivation ol 



of 100 feet above the river. The boulders and the pebbles of the drift ''^"J'lers- 



in this neighbourhood are made up largely of the i-ocks of the supposed 



equivalent of the Nipigon series of the east side of Hudson's Bay. 



Specimens of almost ever}' variety of these strata may be j>icked up 



along the banks in this part of the river. Three miles above the Seal 



Islands I found a large piece of white quai-tz exactl}' like that of the 



veins in the grey quartzite of the mouth of the ('hurchill. It also 



contained scales of specular iron precisely similar to those of the 



Churchill veins. At "The Cache," which is on the north side of the 



river opposite Deer's Island, or sixteen miles from the Seal Islands, Churchill 



there are numerous lai"ge and a few immense angular and partially *^"**^ " *' 



rounded blocks of this grey (quartzite. One of them contains some 



white (juartz pebbles similar to those occasionally observed in the rock 



in place at Churchill. The accompanying illustration, from a photogi-aph 



taken on the north-west of the river at bixty-threc miles from Point of lo^g^/ji'^jgy® 



