VISCOUS LAKE. 



51 



streamlet, scarcely ten feet broad, the canoe route lies, 

 while Dog Eiver, still measuring a breadth of forty feet, 

 can be traced far to the north by a succession of small 

 lakes and ponds which mark its course. 



Mr. Murray, of the Canadian Geological Survey, as- 

 cended Dog Eiver up to its feeding marsh in 1847, and 

 describes its course after receiving Prairie Eiver, through 

 which our route lay, " as turning off nearly due north, 

 and widening out into a long narrow lake for about two 

 or three miles, after which there follows in the same line 

 a chain of twelve small lakes, or ponds, connected by 

 short rapid streams, comprised within the distance of ten 

 to twelve miles. The uppermost pond appeared at its 

 northern extremity to terminate in a great marsh, which 

 was supposed to be the ultimate source of the river, and 

 to extend far and wide along the height of land, probably 

 joining the Great Marsh of the Savannah Portage on the 

 Eed Eiver route."* 



Prairie Eiver for a few hundred yards is so thickly 

 fringed with rushes that two canoes cannot proceed side 

 by side, or even pass one another with facility. The 

 distance to Cold Water Lake is about If mile in an 

 air line, and perhaps nearly double that distance by 

 the windings of Prairie Eiver, whose general course is 

 a few degrees to the south of west. Much of the route 

 towards the high barrier of land at Cold Water Lake, 

 which now comes into view, lies through small marshy 

 lakes or ponds, three in number, very shallow, and much 

 encumbered with aquatic plants. The third or last lake, 

 called Muddy Lake, is about 200 yards long and 100 

 yards wide. The voyageurs all complained of the great 

 difficulty they experienced in paddling through this small 



* Report of Progress ; 1846-7. 

 e 2 



