94 



EED KIVEK EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



length, and the same in breadth. It is 400 miles 

 round by canoe route*, and is broken up into three dis- 

 tinct lakes by a long promontory, which in periods of 

 high water becomes an island. The southern part is 

 termed the Lake of the Sand Hills, the eastern portion 

 White Fish Lake, and the northern division the Lake of 

 the Woods. White Fish Lake and Lake of the Woods 

 are separated from Sand Hill Lake by the broad promon- 

 tory before referred to, respecting which little is known. 

 The name of the latter division is derived from vast 

 numbers of low sand hiUs, which occupy its south-western 

 coast. The distance of the Lake of the Woods from Lake 

 Superior, is north-west 325 miles by the Pigeon Eiver 

 route, and 381 by the route from Fort William, followed 

 by the expedition. The north-west corner of the lake is 

 only about ninety miles from Eed Eiver, in an air line. 

 Its elevation above Lake Superior is 377 feet, or 977 feet 

 above the sea. Major Long made it 1,040 feet above 

 the ocean level. • 



The scenery among the islands towards the north-west 

 corner of the lake is of the most lovely description, and 

 presents in constantly recurring succession every variety 

 of bare, precipitous rock, abrupt timbered hills, gentle 

 wooded slopes, and open grassy areas. Some of the 

 islands are large and well timbered, others show much 

 devastation by fire, and often a vigorous second growth 

 of a different kind of tree under the blackened trunks 

 of branchless pines. 



The ordinary course of the canoe route to Eed Eiver 

 lies in a north-easterly direction, following the trend of 

 the coast towards Turtle Portage, which leads from the 

 Lake of the Sand Hills to White Fish Lake. In pursu- 

 ance of our intention to endeavour to pass from the west 



* See vol. viii of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, for an 

 account of the Lake of the Woods, by Dr. Bigsby. 



