INTRODUCTION. 



5 



of either of the routes above described should be improved, so as 

 to be made more available and facile, and to be auxiliary to the 

 works of the road by facilitating the transport of men, supplies, &c. 



" To determine, therefore, the portages to be improved, and 

 the best mode of doing so, and whether the present reaches of 

 canoe or boat navigation may not be further extended by the 

 removal of shoals or the erection of dams, will be points to which 

 you will direct the attention of the engineering and surveying 

 branches of your party. 



"From Eainy Lake by Lake of the Woods, and Lake Winnipeg 

 to Fort Grarry, as before described, is now comparatively a good 

 water communication, but very circuitous ; and should the cha- 

 racter of Eat Eiver, which rises at no great distance from the 

 Lake of the Woods, and falls into the Eed Eiver above Fort 

 Grarry, be found susceptible of its being made a boat channel, a 

 saving probably of 150 miles in length might be effected ; or on 

 an exploration of the country through which that river flows, it 

 may be found more desirable to construct a road along it from 

 Eed Eiver, and should this be so, the nature of the communica- 

 tion between Eed Eiver and Lake Superior eventually would 

 be about 100 miles of road from Eed Eiver to the Lake of the 

 Woods, thence about 140 miles of water communication to the 

 eastern end of Eainy Lake, and from that point a continuous 

 road to Lake Superior of from 160 to 200 miles in length." * 



My duties in connection with this expedition are ex- 

 plained in the following instructions : — 



"Secretary's Office, 

 " Toronto, 22nd July, 1857. 

 "Sir, — I have the honour to inform you that his Excellency, 

 the Administrator of the Government, has been pleased to nomi- 

 nate you Geologist and Naturalist to the party which is to 

 leave this city immediately for Fort William, for the purpose, 

 in the first instance, of examining the lines and state of the 



* Eeport on the Exploration of the country between Lake Superior and 

 the Red Eiver Settlement. Printed by order of the Legislative Assembly, 

 1858. — Instructions and Communications, page 5. 



b 3 



