THE WOODED REGION. 



245 



and maple appear to prevail in numbers corresponding 

 with the order in which they are enumerated ; but this 

 forest does not extend beyond the excavated valley of the 

 river or its tributaries. All the affluents of the Assinni- 

 boine now through deep ravines, which they have cut in 

 the great plain they drain ; these narrow valleys are 

 well clothed with timber, consisting chiefly of aspen and 

 balsam-poplar, but often varied with bottoms of oak, elm, 

 ash, and the ash-leaved maple. On the west side of the 

 main river, the valleys of the tributaries, such as the 

 Little Souris and the Qu'appelle Eiver, are timbered 

 continuously for a distance of thirty to seventy miles from 

 their outlets, and at intervals only, further up stream. 

 On the Qu'appelle Eiver good timber is found as far 

 as the mission ; but in progressing westward it is seen 

 gradually to diminish in size, and finally to disappear 

 altogether. 



The Touchwood Hill Eange, together with small parallel 

 ranges, such as the Pheasant Mountain and the File Hill, 

 averaging twenty miles in length by ten in breadth, are in 

 great part covered with aspen forests, but the trees are 

 generally small. At the Moose Woods, on the South 

 Branch of the Saskatchewan, forests of aspen begin to 

 appear ; they continue, with occasional admixtures of 

 birch and oak, more rarely of oak and elm, as far as the 

 Grand Forks ; here the spruce becomes common, and, 

 with aspens, occupies the excavated valley of the main 

 Saskatchewan for many miles. The hill-banks and the 

 plateau on the south side of the river, for a distance of 

 three or four miles south, sustain the Banksian pine, which 

 disappears as the soil changes from a light sand to a rich 

 and deep vegetable mould, supporting detached groves of 

 aspen and clumps of willows. 



On the Little Souris, especially in the neighbourhood 



B 3 



