RAINY RIVER. 



81 



Major Long estimated it to be 1,200 feet above the same 

 level. 



Eainy Lake freezes about the 1st December, and is 

 open about the 1st of May ; as is usually the case where 

 large rivers issue from spacious lakes, the discharging 

 stream is not frozen for a number of miles from its source. 

 The warm waters coming from beneath a shelter of ice in 

 their capacious feeding lake, retain their heat so as to 

 enable them to resist the cold of these regions for many 

 miles below the Chaudiere Falls. 



At the entrance of Eainy Eiver on the evening of August 

 19th, the delightful odour of the balsam poplar (Populus 

 balsamifera) loaded the air, and seemed to welcome our 

 arrival in a region differing altogether from those through 

 which we had lately passed. Where Eainy Eiver issues 

 from Eainy Lake, it is a broad and rapid stream, with low 

 alluvial banks, clothed with a rich second growth. The 

 fine forests with which they were once covered had long 

 since been stripped of their ornaments by the occupants 

 of the old North- West and the present Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany's Fort. 



The general course of Eainy Eiver is a few degrees to 

 the north of west for a distance of eighty miles by the 

 windings of the river, and in an air line sixty miles. The 

 rapids at its source offer no impediment to skilful naviga- 

 tion, nor do the whirlpools which usually accompany the 

 passage of such a large body of water, in consequence of 

 their being distributed over a wide area. Two miles 

 below the head of the river, Fort Frances is situated on 

 a high bank, just below the Chaudiere Falls. These 

 magnificent cascades let the river down 22*88 feet, and at 

 their foot is a famous fishing ground, from which the Lac 

 La Pluie Indians obtain an abundant supply of their staple 

 food. Three miles from Fort Frances, the river takes a 



VOL. I. G 



