120 RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



of the range is bare, rounded, and apparently polished. 

 Camping on an island in the lake to escape an approach- 

 ing squall, I found an Indian cache elevated on a stage 

 in the centre of the island. The stage was about seven 

 feet above the ground, and nine feet long by four broad. 

 It was covered with birch bark, and the treasures it held 

 consisted of rabbit-skin robes, roUs of birch bark, a ragged 

 blanket, leather leggings, and other articles of winter 

 apparel, probably the greater part of the worldly wealth 

 of an Indian family. At the great Bonnet Portage there 

 are many acres of good farming land, and, indeed, from 

 this point to Lake Winnipeg, a strip on the river, widening 

 as we descend, possesses all the requirements as far as soil 

 and timber is concerned for a large settlement. The 

 Silver Falls, the last but one, are perhaps the most im- 

 posing and beautiful of all the cascades on the Winnipeg. 

 The volume of water precipitated here is immense ; all 

 the inosculating branches of the Winnipeg uniting some 

 distance above the magnificent Silver Falls. The vast tor- 

 rent descends a slope about 200 yards long with an 

 inclination of nearly sixteen feet, in the form of five or 

 six gigantic swells. The observer may stand close to the 

 huge heaving waves and watch them rush past him with 

 astonishing velocity and ever-changing form. Sometimes 

 they send a thin sheet of water over the smooth rock on 

 which he is standing at the edge of the torrent ; in another 

 minute there may be a gulf ten or fifteen feet deep, with 

 a terrible whirlpool raging below, between him and the 

 crested swell fifty feet from the shore ; suddenly the gulf 

 is filled, and the turbulent waters, dashing against the 

 rocks, send a shower of spray far and wide over the 

 polished gneiss which confines them. We reached Fort 

 Alexander at four in the afternoon, stayed half an hour to 



