DIMENSIONS OF THE ASSINNIBOINE VALLEY. 285 



willows and aspens, barked by these animals in the winter, 

 abont two feet six inches above the ground. The height 

 of the bank twenty-two miles from Prairie Portage is 

 about 80 feet above the river, denoting a rapid rise in 

 the general level of the country. 



On the morning of the 20th we entered the Bad Woods 

 and followed the road cut by the hunters in 1852. The 

 aspens were much disfigured by countless numbers of 

 caterpillars resembling those of the destructive Palmer 

 worm. In the afternoon we arrived at the Sandy Hills ; 

 they consist of rounded knolls covered with scrub oak and 

 aspens. Our latitude to-day at the Half Way Bank was 

 ascertained to be 49° 46' 19", the height of the prairie 150 

 feet above the river, the breadth of the valley in which the 

 river flowed 5,680 feet, and the variation of the compass 

 13° E. After passing the point where the foregoing obser- 

 vations were made, the trail again enters the Bad Woods and 

 continues through them until it strikes the Sandy Hills again. 

 These rounded eminences have all the appearance of sand 

 dunes covered with short grass and very stunted vegetation. 



As we emerged from the Bad Woods a noble elk trotted 

 to the top of a hillock and surveyed the surrounding 

 country ; a slight breath soon carried our wind as the 

 hunter was endeavouring to approach him, he raised his 

 head, snuffed the air and bounded off. Another terrible 

 thunderstorm came on at sunset, with heavy rain and 

 boisterous wind. The aspect of the country for many 

 miles is that of a plain sloping gently to the east, and 

 studded with innumerable mounds or hillocks of sand, 

 thinly covered with a poor and scanty growth of grass ; 

 here and there small lakes or ponds occur fringed with 

 rich verdure, but its general character is that of sterility. 

 Prom the summit of an imposing sand-hill, formerly 

 a drifting dune, which we ascended on the 21st, the 



