THE VALLEY OF THE ASSINNIBOINE. 247 



thirty-nine miles, the country is level and often marshy, 

 with numerous ponds and small lakes, but where the soil 

 is dry the herbage is very luxuriant, and groves of aspen 

 thirty feet high vary the monotony of the plain. 



Between the trail and the Assinniboine the soil is light, 

 and almost invariably as the river is approached it par- 

 takes of a sandy and gravelly nature, with boulders 

 strewn over its surface. 



The flanks of the Biding Mountain are covered with a 

 dense growth of aspen and poplar, and cut by numerous 

 small rivulets. From Birdstail Eiver to the Little Sas- 

 katchewan, or Eapid Eiver, a distance of thirty-three 

 miles, the same kinds of soil, timber, and vegetation 

 prevail. About one hundred miles from its mouth the 

 Eapid Eiver issues from the densely wooded flanks of 

 the Biding Mountain through a narrow excavated valley 

 filled with balsam-poplar, and an undergrowth of cherry 

 and dogwood, with roses, convolvuli, vetches, and various 

 creepers. The slopes are covered with poplar eighteen 

 inches in diameter. Descending the river, groves of 

 poplar and spruce show themselves, with thick forests of 

 aspen and balsam-poplar covering the terrace on either 

 hand. The river is here forty feet wide, with a very 

 rapid current. Before it makes its easterly bend the 

 ash-leaved maple shows itself in groves, and on both 

 sides is an open undulating country, attractive and fertile, 

 with detached clumps of young trees springing up in 

 all directions. The region drained by the Eapid Eiver 

 continues beautiful and rich until within twenty-five 

 miles of the Assinniboine, so that it may with propriety 

 be stated, that for a distance of seventy-five miles this 

 river meanders through a country admirably adapted for 

 settlement. Ponds and lakes are numerous, wild fowl in 



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