DOG RIVER. 



47 



Indians about Fort William, and the same may be re- 

 marked of many other routes of which the Indian guides 

 speak and attempt to describe. Thirty-three years ago 

 it was an old " path," and may have been one for cen- 

 turies to the Indians of this region. Communications 

 superior to those now travelled may yet be found, but it 

 seems clear that until the water-shed of Eainy Lake is 

 reached, no connection possessing sufficient water to form 

 a boat route exists, or can be made without numerous 

 dams. 



Mr. Keating, so far back as 1823, relates that his party 

 were shown an arm of the lake which extends to the 

 south-west, and which they were informed connects 

 Great Dog Lake by an uninterrupted water communica- 

 tion with the Thousand Lakes. The route is shorter than 

 that by Prairie Portage, but broken by rapids. The same 

 authority says that there is a communication between the 

 Kaministiquia and Thousand Lakes passing more to the 

 south than that from Dog Lake.* This is doubtless the 

 Matawan Eiver which joins the Kaministiquia at Couteau 

 Portage, and rises within five miles of Milles Lacs. 



So sluggish is the flow of Dog Eiver, that a rise of ten 

 feet in the level of the lake would push back its waters to 

 a distance of thirty- five miles up the tortuous course of that 

 stream, and the voyageurs relate that in the spring of the 

 year they are accustomed to paddle their canoes over the 

 tops of the willows which fringe its banks below the first 

 rapids, fourteen miles in an air line from the mouth of the 

 river; the greater portion of the intervening valley being 

 then under water. 



The banks of Dog Eiver are altogether alluvial for 

 some distance up the valley, with the occasional excep- 



* Narrative of an Expedition to the source of the St. Peter's River, &c, 

 &c, by Wm. H. Keating, A.M.S., 1824. 



