138 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



an open valley, is adequate to diminish the volume of 

 water in the Assinniboine very much in excess of the 

 supply which it receives from tributaries or springs during 

 its course to Eed Eiver. 



East of Prairie Portage the Assinniboine flows through 

 a flat, open, prairie country, not more than sixteen or 

 twenty feet above the general level of the stream, until 

 within a few miles of Fort Garry. The whole country 

 rising in steps west of Prairie Portage, the Assinniboine 

 has excavated a deep and broad valley through it, in 

 which it meanders with a rapid current. 



At the mouth of the Little Souris, or Mouse Eiver, this 

 valley is 880 yards across and eighty-three feet below the 

 general level of the prairie. At Fort Ellice the valley is one 

 mile and thirty chains broad, and 240 feet below the prairie. 



The Assinniboine receives numerous and important 

 affluents. On its eastern water-shed are the Two Creeks, 

 Pine Creek, Shell Eiver, Birdstail Eiver, and Eapid Eiver 

 or the Little Saskatchewan. The distances of the rivers 

 from Fort Pelly, which may be considered as lying at the 

 head of bateau navigation, will be noticed hereafter when 

 the country they drain is described. From its western 

 water-shed it receives the White Sand Eiver from the 

 Touchwood Hills ; the Qu'Appelle or Calling Eiver, in- 

 osculating with the south branch of the Saskatchewan ; 

 Beaver Creek, a small rivulet on which Fort Ellice is 

 situated ; and the Little Souris or Mouse Eiver, sweeping 

 round the flanks of the Grand Coteau de Missouri. The 

 Crees of the Sandy Hills on the south branch, state that 

 Elbow Bone Creek, an affluent of the Qu'Appelle Eiver, in- 

 osculates by a deep valley with the Mouse Eiver, or an arm 

 of it, and is connected continuously with the Assinniboine. 



For a distance of several miles above Fort Garry the 

 Assinniboine flows in a trench excavated through a level 



