14 C GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



hornblendic slates are found to the west of this, hut at about four 

 miles from Grand Eapid portage rusty quartzose gneiss which is 

 believed to he Laurentian, appears, dipping S. 40° E. < 60°. 



Country around The country around Split Lake presents a generally even, hut 

 ^^ * ®' slightly undulating outline. The immediate shore-line is usually rock- 

 hound, but on ascending this a deposit of brownish clay, which appears 

 to afford a good soil, is found to be spread over the country. The tops 

 of the larger and higher islands in the lake are also covered with the 



Temperature of same deposit. On the 24th of July the water of Split Lake had a 

 temperature of ()9°, and on the 11th of September of 59° Fah. 



Elevation. According to my barometric observations, Split Lake would have an 

 elevation of 440 feet above the sea. 



In order to reach the waters of the Churchill Eiver we ascended a 

 creek on the north side of Split Lake, about half w^ay from its west 

 end, and from it made a portage a mile long in a north-westerly direc- 

 tion, over a nearly level surface of brownish clay with small spots of 

 sphagnum, to a pond, from which another portage, one-third of a mile 



Assean Lake, long, With the same bearing, brought us to the shore of Assean Lake, 

 which runs at right angles to the portage trail. The north-eastern 

 part of this lake, which we followed from the portage to the outlet, a 

 distance of nearly seven miles, is narrow and straight. The lake is said 

 to run about an equal distance south-westward from the portage, and 

 it must therefore have a total length of about thirteen miles. It has an 

 elevation of about twenty feet above Split Lake. The rock on either 

 side of the portion which we followed is gneiss, with a general north- 

 and-south strike. 



Leaving Assean Lake we followed a small, crooked stream called the 

 0-na-ton-wi for a distance of eiffht miles northward, in a straight line, 



Assean Lake to ' o ' 



Wa'-kai-ow-a- to a small lake of the same name. From this we reached the south 

 end of Was-kai-ow-a-ka Lake, at the head of the Little Churchill River, 

 by a chain of seven portages and six lakes running north-westward, the 

 whole distance being about seven miles in a straight line. The country 

 traversed consists of brown ish-gj-ey clay, which presents steep banks on 

 same of the lakes, in one case eight feet high. Where the ground is 

 level it is covered with wet sphagnum. 



Was-kai-ow-a- The eastern division of Was-kai-ow-a-ka Lake runs nearly north, and 



ka Lake. *^ ' 



has a length of about twelve miles. The outlet is on the east side, about 

 eight miles from the southern extremity, at which it receives a stream ; 

 and another, called Pickerel Eiver, enters the north end. Opposite to 

 the outlet, a narrow channel connects this with an extension of the 

 lake, which the Indians informed me runs south-eastward six or seven 

 miles, and has a width of three or four miles. The south-eastern shore 



