288 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



We reached the mouth of the Little Souris Eiver on 

 the 24th, and made preparations to cross the Assinni- 

 boine at this point. The distance traveled through the 

 Sandy Hills was about forty-eight miles, their breadth does 

 not exceed ten miles. At the mouth of the Souris the grass- 

 hoppers were in countless numbers, and so voracious as to 

 attack and destroy every article of clothing left for a few 

 minutes on the grass. Saddles, girths, leather bags, and 

 clothing of every description were devoured without 

 distinction. Ten minutes sufficed them, as our half-breeds 

 found to their cost, to destroy three pairs of woollen 

 trowsers which had been carelessly thrown on the grass. 

 The only way to protect our property from the depre- 

 dators was to pile it on the waggon and carts out of reach. 

 There were two distinct broods of grasshoppers, one with 

 wings not yet formed, which had been hatched on the 

 spot, the other full-grown, invaders from the prairies 

 south of the Assinniboine. We saw here one of the vast 

 flights of these insects which afterwards were witnessed on 

 a scale of alarming magnitude, giving rise in their passage 

 through the air to optical phenomena of very rare and 

 beautiful descriptions. As we cautiously approached the 

 bank of the river opposite the mouth of the Little Souris, 

 on the look-out for Sioux Indians, some jumping deer 

 and a female elk were observed gamboling in the 

 river. A shot from a Minie rifle dispersed them and 

 started from their lair two wolves who were watching 

 the deer, patiently waiting for an opportunity to surprise 

 them. 



The volume of water in both rivers was carefully 

 measured at their point of junction. The Assinniboine 

 was found to be 230 feet broad, with a mean depth 

 of 6 feet, and a current of one mile and a quarter per 

 hour. The Little Souris was 121 feet broad, 2 feet 4 



