80 



BED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



Eainy Lake, or Lac la Pluie, as it is more frequently 

 called by the voyageurs, is 225 miles west of Lake Supe- 

 rior, and from the head of Eainy Eiver eighty-five south- 

 east of the Lake of the Woods. It is fifty miles long by 

 thirty-eight and a half broad, and is 294 miles round by 

 canoe route. Its form is that of three equal troughs, with 

 deep lateral indents, the main one running in an east and 

 west direction, the other two northerly from it. It is 

 through the main trough that the canoe route lies from 

 the mouth of Nameaukan Eiver, in latitude 48° 30 / K, 

 longitude 92° 40' W. to the source of Eainy Eiver, 

 thirty-eight miles distant, in a direction a few degrees to 

 the north of west. 



The shores of Eainy Lake are generally low, and often 

 consist of naked shapeless masses of rock,, with marshy 

 intervals, or they rise in ridges which become hills 300 to 

 500 feet high, half a mile to four miles from the lake. 

 The timber seems to be very small and thin in the 

 marshes, and on the islands, which exceed 500 in 

 number, the largest growth was observed. Taken as a 

 whole, the general aspect of the shores is forbidding, 

 and furnishes on the ridges and hill flanks a picture of 

 hopeless sterility and desolate waste. Dr. Bigsby says 

 that there is but little loose debris about Eainy Lake, the 

 earth or gravel banks being scarce, and seldom exceeding 

 a few feet in thickness. Whenever the land rises, for the 

 most part bleached and naked rocks occur for many 

 square miles together. 



Colonel Lefroy made Eainy Lake 1,160 feet above the 

 sea, by barometrical measurement. Its height deduced 

 from the levels taken at the portages, and the estimated 

 rise and fall in the current of the rivers along the line 

 of route, was 1,035 feet. In this calculation the level of 

 Lake Superior is taken at 600 feet above the ocean. 



