106 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



CHAR V. 



THE WINNIPEG RIVER, 



Character of the Winnipeg. — Eat Portage. — Thunder Storm. — Thunder 

 Storms in the North- West. — A View on the Winnipeg.— Islington Mis- 

 sion. — Cultivable Areas on the River. — Rev. Robert Macdonald. — Church 

 Service. — State of Islington Mission. — Indian Superstitions. — Farm at the 

 Mission. — The School-House the Hope of the Mission. — En route for Red 

 River. — James' Falls. — Animal Life. — Rice Grounds. — Mr. Clouston. — 

 Otter Falls. — The Pennawa River. — Scarcity of Food on the Winnipeg. — 

 Bonnet Lake. — Indian Cache. — The Silver Falls. — Fort Alexander. — 

 Lake Winnipeg. — Character of the Coast. — Camp in the Marshes. — 

 Mouth of Red River. — Indian Village. — Christian Indians. 



Issuing from the Lake of the Woods through several 

 gaps in the northern rim of the lake, the Eiver Winnipeg 

 flows through numerous tortuous channels for many miles 

 of its course in a north-easterly direction. Some of the 

 channels unite with the main stream ten to fifteen miles 

 below Eat Portage, and one pursues nearly a straight 

 course for a distance of sixty-five miles, and joins the 

 Winnipeg below the Barriere Falls. The windings of this 

 immense river are very abrupt and opposite, suddenly 

 changing from north-west to south-west, and from south- 

 west to north-west, for distances exceeding twenty 

 miles. 



In its course of 163 miles, it descends 349 feet by 

 a succession of magnificent cataracts. Some of the 

 falls and rapids present the wildest and most pictur- 

 esque scenery, displaying every variety of tumultuous 



