LIGNITE. 



143 



The name Prairie Portage is derived from the existence 

 of a carrying place nine miles long, between this part of 

 the Assinniboine and Lake Manitobah. It is stated by 

 half-breeds at the settlement, that at seasons of extraor- 

 dinary high water, canoes can approach each other from 

 the Assinniboine and Lake Manitobah, so as to leave but 

 a very short distance for the portage ; and instances have 

 occurred of water, during periods of high floods, flowing 

 from the Assinniboine into Lake Manitobah by the valley 

 of Eat Kiver. 



B I had an opportunity of meeting, at this isolated settle- 

 ment, with one John Spence, a Cree half-breed of great 

 experience in Eupert's Land. He drew a small chart for 

 me, showing the position of what he called " coal " on the 

 Assinniboine. I saw and conversed with a half-breed 

 who had brought "a few bushels" of this coal to the 

 settlement, for the purpose of ascertaining its fitness for 

 the forge ; he stated that he was a blacksmith, had used 

 the coal and found it answer, but it required a strong 

 draft. I procured from another half-breed several speci- 

 mens, and ascertained that it was lignite, and not the true 

 coal of the coal measures. On the Little Souris, a tribu- 

 tary of the Assinniboine, the lignite was described as 

 cropping out in bands exceeding a foot in thickness, and 

 occupying a large area on its banks, a statement which 

 the exploration of the succeeding year did not verify, at 

 least in the locality pointed out to me. Dr. Hector, how- 

 ever, found lignite in the valley of the Souris, three 

 hundred miles west of Prairie Portage. I endeavoured 

 to induce John Spence to accompany me and point out 

 the locality where the lignite cropped out on the Assinni- 

 boine ; he expressed perfect willingness to do so, if I 

 could procure for the trip ten men in aU, so that watches 

 might be established by night, in consequence of the pre- 



