06 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



western shores and those of Baril and Brule Lakes offer 

 suitable localities for village depots. 



From Brule Lake to French Portage, a distance of four 

 miles, the canoe route lies through a series of lovely lake- 

 lets and short rapid streams fringed with cedar and spruce ; 

 behind these are fair-sized red pine, birch, aspen, and 

 large spruce. French Portage bearing due west, is 1| 

 miles long, and lets us down 99£ feet into French Portage 

 or Pickerel Lake. The timber on this portage consists of 

 aspen, red pine, and spruce. On the shores of the lake 

 low hills appear, wooded with an extensive forest of red 

 pine, varied with patches of spruce, aspen, and birch. 

 Ice formed on the upturned canoes during the night of 

 August 16 th. 



Pickerel Lake, through which in a direction nearly due 

 south-west the canoe route continues, is a fine sheet of 

 water, thirteen miles long by two to four broad ; its shores 

 consist of low hills covered with a thick forest of pine, with 

 spruce, aspen, and birch in the valleys. On the east side 

 of the lake, the remains of an ancient pine forest are often 

 visible in the forms of noble, isolated trees. These occur 

 about six miles from its head, and further on there may 

 be observed small groups of the same trees rising far 

 above the comparatively young growth which now sur- 

 rounds them. The half-burned standing trunks of huge 

 dimensions, show the extent and character of the earlier 

 forest, and the cause which destroyed their companions. 

 White pines in large numbers still remain at the foot of 

 the lake, and were seen at the portage, which is called 

 Portage du Pin, also Portage des Morts. The first name 

 is evidently derived from the prevalence of large red and 

 white pine ; the second has a melancholy reference. It 

 commemorates the death of a voyageur, who being over 

 anxious to cross the portage while supporting the bow of 



