CIIUKCIIILL AND NELSON U1VER8. 11 C 



wliirli iniiUiply with extraordinary rapidity in llio warm weather. 



Tlie clanger arising from this cause will increase in the case of the 



rivers under consideration, as the districts through which they flow 



become more thickly inhabited. Almost the entire area drained by (Jeoioffy of tho 



the Assiniboine is believed to bo underlaid by soft flat-lying rocks of "^^^^"^ *^^"'" 



Cretaceous age, while the basin of the Ked J^iver lies principally on 



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



which flows from the eastward, rises in (he nn tamur])hic region to the 



west of Lake Superior. 



A supply of better water miiiht be brouiclit down at some future '^ther poFsihle 

 time from one of the clear streams of the Pembina or the Kidings^uppiy. 

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

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

 (wdiich lies at a very consitlerable elevation above the Lower Eed 

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

 to attbrd 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 



,, ^r IT 1 1111 r> 11 /' Rainwater. 



01 Jlay and June, and probably the quantity oi most excellent soit 

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

 would prove sutflcient for the w\ants 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 ]i^''■'.^d 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 2)art of the cistern might be puddled all round after the manner 

 adopjted by miners to keep out WiUer. 



It may be interesting to com])are the waters of the Eed Eiver and comparison 

 the Assineboine with those of rivers in otlici" parts of the world, both Eurl^i^'sm^^ 

 in regard to their solid constituents and to their hardness. The fol-^^^®"* 

 lowing list shows the number of grains of solid mattei-, of all kinds, 

 ]>er gallon, in a number of the rivers of Kurope : — Thames, above 

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

 Garonne, at Toulouse, 9-5t> ; Loire, at Mehung, 9-52; Scheldt, in Bel- 

 gium, 20-49 ; Ehine, at Basle, IPOT, Spree, at Berlin, 80; Danube, 

 at Vienna, 1015. 



