156 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



prairie twenty miles wide, of light sandy soil, with clumps 

 of aspen and willows growing here and there ; it is inter- 

 sected by many small valleys, in all of which, with one 

 exception, the brooks that formed them are now dried up. 

 The valley of " La Eiviere Tabac " is seven chains wide and 

 twenty feet deep, with very little water in the fall of the 

 year, where in spring time there is a rapid flow. 



The prairie on the south and west is bounded by what 

 is generally called the " Pembina Mountain," which is ra- 

 ther a series of steps rising up from the prairie below to 

 one above. There are three steps, from twenty to twenty- 

 five feet high, together with a gradual ascent for two miles ; 

 the whole of it is thickly strewn with granitic boulders. 

 This " mountain," which consists of clay, gravel and sand, 

 runs in a south-easterly direction, from a little above Prairie 

 Portage to Pembina. Where we crossed it there is no 

 timber, but on both sides it is well covered, particularly 

 on the south, where the trees seemed large and good. 

 Here the forest is said to begin which reaches to the As- 

 sinniboine, but with the exception of some oak on the 

 mountain there is no good timber, nothing but young 

 aspen from twenty to thirty feet high, growing very close 

 together, and forming a dense thicket. 



Scratching Eiver joins the main stream thirty-seven 

 miles from Fort Garry. The postman who carries the 

 mail between Pembina and the settlements lives here, and 

 has .established an apology for a tavern and a ferry. 

 Scratching Eiver winds for many miles through a bound- 

 less prairie, without a tree or shrub on its banks. 



We arrived at Pembina Fort on the 24th, just in time to 

 partake of an excellent dinner with Mr. Murray, the gen- 

 tleman in charge. In the afternoon we crossed Eed Eiver, 

 passing through the miserable cluster of houses which 

 bears, a prominent position on maps of the north-western 



