CHARACTER OF THE ASSINNIBOINE. 



139 



prairie to the same depth as the river it feeds, or from 

 twenty-five to forty feet. Differences due to local varia- 

 tions in the height of the bank are often referable to very 

 slight undulations in the level of the prairie, and to the 

 occurrence of ancient lake beaches or ridges, the first of 

 which is cut by the river, near St. James' church. This 

 ridge continues in a direction nearly due north, until it 

 dies away in the general rise of the prairie. It is near 

 this spot that the rapids occur which, in the summer months, 

 when the water is low, offer the only impediment to the con- 

 tinuous boat navigation of the Assinniboine for many miles. 



Some short distance above the rapids the river widens ; 

 at its mouth it may be 130 feet in breadth, and four 

 miles from its mouth, 150 feet, a breadth which it pre- 

 serves with considerable uniformity for a distance of 130 

 miles. About six and a half miles from Fort Garry the 

 Assinniboine receives a small affluent called Sturgeon 

 Creek, coming from, the north-west. The general di- 

 rection of the river up to this point is nearly due west, 

 and its course comparatively straight. The south bank is 

 heavily timbered to a small depth, but the north bank is 

 chiefly taken up by farms, and devoid of timber. 



From Sturgeon Creek the course against the stream 

 continues still westerly, but with more decided meander- 

 ings, and the wooded points on both sides of the river 

 rarely penetrate a quarter of a mile into the vast prairie 

 on either side. The distance from Fort Garry to where 

 it makes its north-westerly bend is twenty-three miles by 

 the river's windings, but by the road through the prairies 

 and settlements only sixteen miles. The river banks are 

 here about eighteen feet high, and their height imper- 

 ceptibly diminishes until, at Prairie Portage, they were 

 found by measurement not to exceed sixteen feet, during 

 the stage of water, on the 7th of September, 1857. 



