02 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



and shallow sheet of water. It has long been celebrated 

 as the Viscous Lake. Mr. Keating notices this supposed 

 property of the Viscous Lake, but remarks at the same 

 time that no such character was observed when he passed 

 through it. A lake with a similar reputation occurs at 

 the height of land on the Pigeon Eiver route. During 

 our voyage through it in 1858, the voyageurs then per- 

 sisted in the statement that they experienced great diffi- 

 - culty in urging the canoes forward ; one of the gentlemen 

 attached to the expedition, after practically testing the 

 resistance, expressed a strong opinion in unison with 

 that of the voyageurs. The lake was only about three 

 feet deep, and a paddle could be thrust into the soft slime 

 as far as it would reach. 



The barrier behind Cold Water Lake, stretching far to 

 the north and south, may rise 220 feet, the western ex- 

 tremity of the portage path, according to measurement, 

 being 157 feet above the lake. It constitutes the great 

 and formidable prairie, or height of land Portage, two 

 miles and five-eighths of a mile long. Cold Water Lake 

 is well named on account of its temperature. Careful 

 observation made it 41 -5°, and the large spring or source 

 which feeds it, and gives rise to the Prairie Eiver, one 

 of the sources of the great St. Lawrence, gushes out 

 of the rocky side of the barrier, about 50 feet above the 

 lake, with a temperature of 39-5°. Prairie Portage passes 

 over the height of land, but not the highest land on the 

 route, and its course lies first south-west up a steep 

 wooded hill, without rock exposure, but composed of 

 drift clays, sand, and numerous boulders ; it then enters 

 a narrow valley, which terminates in a small lake, about 

 five acres in area and 20 feet deep, occupying a hollow 

 among the hills on the height of land. The portage path 

 continues on in the same direction until the Height of 



