, I RUPERT RIVER. 21 D 



the end of portage. The timber was slightly better than yesterday, 

 with bluffs of poplar and birch along the lake, and no burnt land. 



31st,— Continuing down stream, the main discharge was reached by 

 a portage one-quarter mile long, past a rapid with ten feet of fall, 

 distant four and one-half miles from camp; the general course from 

 Lake Nemiskow to this point being ST. 20° W. The river now run8 0atmealFa 

 with a swift current, and small rapids, twenty-six miles in a course " 

 N. 50° W. to the Oatmeal Fall. This, like the other falls on the river, 

 consists of a chute, with heavy rapids at the bottom. 



The Oatmeal Fall is passed by a portage one and a-quarter miles 

 long. Below it, at a distance of two and three-quarter miles, another 

 fall, thirty-frve feet high, called the White Beaver, entails a further 

 portage of half-a-mile. Beyond this, the river flows rapidly for seven 

 and a-half miles to where we camped for the night. 



The country passed was very flat, until the Oatmeal Fall was reached, 

 below which the river flows in a valley, between banks from thirty to 

 fifty feet high. Above this no distinct valley was observed. The 

 timber becomes larger and better as we descend, and no burnt woods 

 were seen, except on the portages and between the Oatmeal and 

 White Heaver Falls. 



September 1st. — Proceeding down the river, between banks from 

 twenty to fifty feet high, for six miles, the first portage of " The Fours " 

 was reached. This portage, three-quarters of a mile long, passes a 

 heavy rapid and fall of fifty feet. One-half mile below is the second 

 portage, over a chute of seventy-five feet; then, three-quarters of a 

 mile to the third chute of fifty feet, passed by a portage of half-a-mile 

 and down heavy rapids to the last portage, over rapids with a fall of . 

 thirty feet in quarter of a mile. 



The country was higher to-day and the soil better. The timber was 

 much larger. Balsam-poplar was first seen since leaving Mistassini, 

 also balsam-spruce, with the exception of a few trees on the Marten Timber. 

 river mentioned above. White spruce, having a diameter of twenty 

 inches, three feet from the ground, was observed on the portages 

 at " The Fours." Very little of the timber is burnt, The country 

 seems to be descending in a series of low terraces, similar to those seen 

 on the shores of the St. Lawrence Biver ; each fall on the Rupert being 

 •caused by the passage of the river over an escarpment, 



September 2nd. — For seven miles the river flows with a moderate 

 current, with one small rapid, three-quarters of a mile long, to the 

 Shekash portage, one and a-quarter miles long, passing a rapid and 

 chute of seventy-five feet. Beyond this, the moderate current con- 

 tinues for ten miles, when another chute of twenty feet is passed by 

 the Cat portage, one-quarter mile long. The river then again flows 



