102 RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



off their arms and legs with a thin piece of wood, bent by 

 the fingers so as to act as a spring. In another chapter 

 it will be shown that this grasshopper is a true locust 

 (Acrydium femur-rubrum). The term grasshopper is 

 retained in the narrative because it is universally applied 

 by the half-breeds to this destructive insect. 



From Garden Island to the north-west corner of the 

 lake, in longitude 95° 15', is about twenty miles, but the 

 westerly limits of navigation are not yet found there. It 

 is possible to proceed without difficulty some miles in a 

 due west direction, through a narrow, shallow channel, 

 into a small lake called Shoal Lake. Although no facts 

 derived from personal observations can be here adduced 

 respecting the general features of Shoal Lake, yet the im- 

 portance which it derives from its position requires special 

 mention to be made of it. From our Indian guide, per- 

 mitted to take us to Eat Portage by the chief on Garden 

 Island, I learned that Shoal Lake is a reedy expanse of 

 water, eight or ten miles long, connected with the Lake 

 of the Woods. The north and west sides of Shoal Lake 

 were represented to be blended with a vast marsh or 

 muskeg, which stretches from near Eat Portage to far 

 south of the Lake of the Woods, and is the source of 

 numerous rivers which now from it both eastward and 

 westward. It is this great muskeg or marsh which 

 forms the barrier between the Lake of the Woods and 

 Eed Eiver valley. 



On part of the south shore of Shoal Lake, and all along 

 the west coast of the Lake of the Woods, there is a con- 

 siderable area of dry land timbered with spruce and small 

 pine. Shoal Lake is about eighty-seven miles in a direct 

 line from Fort Garry, but by the very dangerous and cir- 

 cuitous Winnipeg route, it is at least 320 miles. The South 

 shore of Shoal Lake is in latitude 49° 23', and the same 

 parallel cuts Eed Eiver at a spot twenty-five miles north of 



