THE RIVERS OF THE WINNIPEG BASIN. 



239 



and 584 miles from its mouth, is 600 yards broad. The 

 rate of the current is here 2§ miles per hour, the greatest 

 depth 10 feet in the main channel, the mean depth across 

 being 4 -6 feet. There are channels on both sides of the 

 river, one being 6 and the other 10 feet deep. After 

 passing the Moose Woods, about ninety miles from the 

 Elbow, the river channel is much contracted, its current 

 is uniform and swift, varying from 2§ to 3^ miles per 

 hour : mud and sandbars disappear, and it flows between 

 high banks of drift clay, with a treeless, arid prairie or 

 plain on either hand. At the Moose Woods, where the 

 river is very broad and sandbars numerous, the paddles 

 of canoes have touched the bottom from one side to the 

 other with the ordinary stroke of the voyageurs ; this 

 occurred during a season of low water. In August 1858, 

 Indians were crossing on horseback from the right to the 

 left bank above the Elbow, the depth not exceeding four 

 feet. Before joining the North Branch the current be- 

 comes very strong, often from 3^ to 4 miles an hour. 

 The river winds between high precipitous banks, with 

 forests of oak, elm, ash, aspen and birch covering the low 

 points, the opposite hill banks being clothed chiefly with 

 birch and aspen. Groves of spruce show themselves on 

 approaching the North Branch, but the soil on the prairie 

 plateau maintains the most luxuriant growth of vetches, 

 roses, and berry-bearing bushes of different kinds wher- 

 ever the aspen forests have been burnt and open areas 

 formed. From the Elbow to the Grand Forks the dis- 

 tance is 250 miles, and generally throughout the last fifty 

 miles of its course the South Branch flows through a 

 thinly wooded country, but possessing a soil of great 

 depth and fertility. 



The main Saskatchewan, opposite Fort a la Corne, is 

 320 yards broad, 20 feet deep in the channel, and 



